Product Safety: What’s Hidden in Your Supply Chain?

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced that it would be establishing a permanent presence in China. The reason? "Fifty-one percent of all the recalls that we do at the CPSC come out of China," says CSPC chairperson Inez Tenenbaum.

In particular, as noted in a recent article on the subject, the United States has been hit by a series of product safety scares, many of which originated in China, such as children's jewelry found to contain excessive levels of cadmium or the counterfeiting of electrical product parts.

Nearly fifty percent of all consumer products sold in the U.S. come from China and Korea, including 90 percent of all toys sold in the U.S. according to the CPSC. Translated? U.S. consumers, especially children, are potentially being put at risk every day as a result of faulty Chinese-made products.

Perhaps what is most worth noting here, however, is the need to insure that ALL products, regardless of origin – are safe – and that the materials and processes used in the manufacture of these products are free from toxic or dangerous chemicals, materials, or chemical by-products.

By supporting a safer, more sustainable approach to product design and manufacturing, such goals can be realized. While it is extremely valuable to have product safety specialists from organizations like the CPSC working with organizations like China’s consumer safety organization, AQSIZ to insure that faulty products are identified prior to distribution, the real focus needs to be on preventing product recalls in the first place by establishing and enforcing stricter product design and development safety guidelines, globally.

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.

See also:

US product safety watchdog sets up shop in China

EPA Seeks to Identify Safer Chemical Alternatives, Promote Product Safety with New Assessment Tool

When it comes to safer, greener, more sustainable product design, one of the key challenges is how to effectively identify and reduce exposure to toxic chemicals – either contained within products, or released as by-products throughout the lifecycle of the product.

To address this challenge, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the availability of a new tool to help businesses and other entities identify and use safer chemicals as part of its Design for the Environment (DfE) program -- the Chemical Alternatives Assessment tool.

As noted in a related article on the subject, Chemical Alternatives Assessments, or CAAs provide a methodology for informed substitution. Such assessments are intended to enable businesses to make the move from chemicals of concern to safer chemicals, by providing an in-depth comparison of potential human health and environmental impacts. Information derived from the CAAs is then combined with industry data on performance and cost to guide the choice of safer alternatives.

Such a move represents an important step along the way to supporting safer, more sustainable product design and manufacturing.

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.

NOTE: For more information about alternatives assessments and choosing safer chemical substitutes, DfE recommends the following resources:

• Chemical Alternatives Assessments: Enabling Substitution to Safer Chemicals. Lavoie et al. Environmental Science and Technology Article ASAP. Nov. 9, 2010.
  
  This Feature article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, explains DfE's approach to alternatives assessment, the steps in the process and examples of application of this assessment method.

• Alternatives Assessment Framework from the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (PDF) (24 pp, 381K, About PDF)
  
  The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production created this Framework in 2006 as a first step in defining the methodology for identifying and evaluating safer alternatives.

• Alternatives Assessments conducted by states from Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute
  
  Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute created this database to enable the exchange of information and resources between state pollution prevention providers and regulatory agency representatives.

• DfE Criteria for Safer Chemical Ingredients and DfE Standard for Safer Cleaning Products
  
  These documents define by component class the characteristics and toxicity thresholds for ingredients that are acceptable in DfE-labeled products.

• CleanGredients®
  
  This database of safer chemicals supports DfE's Safer Product Labeling Program by providing a list of chemicals, arranged by component class, that meet the DfE Criteria.

• Green Screen for Safer Chemicals
  
  Developed by Clean Production Action, an environmental non-governmental organization, the Green Screen complements the DfE Alternatives Assessment methodology. The Green Screen is designed to aid in the selection of safer alternative chemicals.

See also:

Workplace Safety News

EPA website

Will Sustainability Usher In The Next “Golden Era of Design?”

Will sustainability usher in the next “Golden Era of Design?” It seems that industrial designer Yves Béhar believes it will. In a recent New York Times interview, Béhar offers this view:

"Sustainability calls for a complete overhaul of every sector of production. That means that in the next 10 to 20 years, every process, every factory, every logistics system, every product, every service is going to have to be completely rethought from a sustainability standpoint. It's an incredible opportunity. I don't think there has been a similar opportunity since the end of the Second World War and the transformation of industry from military to consumer."

Is Béhar’s thinking too radical? Is it too much to imagine that in the next decade, we can expect to see dramatic changes in the way that products are conceived and designed, manufactured and delivered? Will manufacturing, by design, be less wasteful and more environmentally-friendly? Will products increasingly be more energy-efficient, and be characterized by more responsible use/reuse of materials? In general – will products be designed with more than “faster, better, cheaper” metrics in mind? In the coming decade, will design decisions increasingly take into account environmental and social impacts, as well as profitability?

Perhaps the best way to respond to these questions is to point to a number of recent developments that promise to pave the way to more sustainable product design and manufacturing:

• At its very core, product design is undergoing a transformation. Conventional ways of viewing and analyzing product performance are being challenged. New approaches to product design and development are being introduced, and increasingly, sustainability – taking the path that quality did decades ago – will be viewed as a design requirement. Within the coming year, even classic textbooks such as Ulrich and Eppinger’s Product Design and Development textbook will begin to reflect this change and will include new chapters on materials selection, product lifecycle analysis and more.
  Engineering software and services are evolving to support sustainable product design. From digital prototyping/CAD (computer-aided design) to PDM (product data management) and PLM (product lifecycle management), engineering software is being updated to support sustainable design principles, or paired with third party applications that will. Sustainability is taking on a new and important role - new modules are being developed to simplify the sustainable design process, and new tools to aid in such tasks as materials selection, "up-front" lifecycle assessment, and carbon/water impact analysis are being introduced.
• Market demand for safer, greener, more sustainable products is growing – both at the consumer-level and by industry. Both consumers and industry are becoming more aware of the health and safety risks posed by such factors as chemical toxicity, and as a result, are increasingly opting for safer, more sustainable alternatives. Product recalls have also heightened awareness of the potential risks posed by the presence of "hidden" hazardous substances or toxic materials originating from a supplier, driving the need for supply chain transparency. At the same time, few are willing to pay a price premium for safer, less toxic, more eco-friendly products, making it necessary for manufacturers to be able to – as a given – develop greener, safer, more sustainable products, cost-effectively.

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.

See also:

Yves Behar on Sustainable Design, Predictions for 2011

Yves Béhar of Fuseproject on Design With Grand Ambitions