Why? While manufacturers often tend to focus on the sustainability goals and objectives that they can achieve at the operations level – energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, etc. – there are real opportunities to cut costs, reduce environmental impact, and drive innovation – during the product design phase, according to Eppinger.
As noted in a recent article on the subject, Eppinger offers the following view:
“The way to think of environmental sustainability when it comes to design and product innovation is by framing it as a materials problem. It’s about the materials that we use in the products and the materials that are used to run the processes that make the products. The reason that product design has a big impact is that’s where the materials decisions are made.
If you want to have a product that uses only materials that can be recycled, you’ve got to rethink the product. You’ve got to change the design, which means new specifications and perhaps some difficult technical trade offs to deal with. If you want to use materials that are recycled in the first place instead of always using virgin materials, you’ve got to design the product differently so that can happen. If you want to reduce the use of packaging materials in operations, you’ve got to design the product differently so that it needs less packaging or no packaging; if you want to reduce the use of coatings and finishes, you’ve got to design the product so that it works properly and looks great without coatings and finishes. If you want to sell a product that your consumer can recycle, you’ve got to design the product to be easily disassembled and separated into available recycling streams.”
Ok. So it’s important to make smart design decisions with respect to materials during the product design phase in order to drive innovation and achieve sustainability goals – the question is, how can this be accomplished most easily? Are there capabilities built-in to today’s product design tools to help facilitate smart design decisions with respect to materials? Are there new tools on the horizon?
The short answer is a qualified, “yes.” The tools aren’t quite there yet, but they’re coming. Users can also expect to see a greater emphasis on not only sustainable materials selection but sustainable materials management in next-generation design tools. In fact, Autodesk's recently announced partnership with Granta Design, a organization which offers expertise in materials software, materials data, and materials databases, promises to take product design and development one step closer to this goal.
So, let’s review. As Eppinger summarizes it:
How can environmental concerns drive product design and innovation?
- Frame design and product innovation for environmental sustainability as a materials problem.
- How much material is used is less important than what material is used.
- Don’t try to eliminate environmental impacts all at once. Try to get a little better each time you design a product.
It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming research study, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”
Do you have what it takes to design sustainable products? Or wish you did? Tell us more. By taking this short survey, you’ll be helping to shed light on this very important – and often highly debated – topic. Whether you’re a sustainability expert or just beginning your journey – your feedback is invaluable.
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