At the same time, sustainable product design also requires manufacturers to be ever watchful of what may wind up in a product, from a supplier located millions of miles away. Indeed, understanding and addressing the challenges of managing sustainability across the supply chain, as well as across the product lifecycle, is no small feat.
But thanks to MIT’s Leonard Bonanni, the creator of SourceMap, the task of tracking, measuring and, in general, comprehending the environmental impact of a product across its supply chain, is getting easier. Originally conceived as a PhD project, SourceMap offers a user-generated visualization of a product’s supply chain and resultant carbon footprint.
It’s a compelling concept – one that, as a recent article describes it, “represents the future of environmentally friendly consumption, one based on transparency and accountability.” Based on its ability to provide a visual map of a product's supply chain, SourceMap just may accomplish this goal, and provide a guide for companies and consumers that are seeking more sustainable solutions.
As noted in an excerpt from the article, Bonnani’s original mission was to help consumers who wanted to be able to do so, make more sustainable choices:
To get the project off the ground, Bonanni and his advisers at MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, Hiroshi Ishii and Chris Csikszentmihalyi, first focused on breaking down select commodities’ trade routes, which can often be quite convoluted. Electronics, for example, can contain components from over ten countries. Thus, Bonanni and his team started by reverse engineering products to track their origins, often by simply calling companies to find a certain item’s origins. Then, with a trail mapped out, says Bonanni, “I needed to break the problem into environmental impact,” like how much carbon shipping and packing sends in the atmosphere.
Of course Bonanni knew we live in a digital world, and wanted to create a visual guide for an easily distracted public. To that end, he reached out to graphic designer David Zorg, who drew maps laying out a product’s trade route and emissions. Now customers can look at the guide for a Giant TCR ‘04 bicycle, and see its 21 components result in a carbon footprint of 82.01 kg, or Apple’s iPod, which has seven assembly spots, and emits 9.84 kg of carbon along the way.
Three years later, SourceMap, a forthcoming 501(c)3 still funded by MIT grants, has evolved into more than just a research product aimed at consumers. It’s a resource for companies, as well.
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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