According to independent analyst firm, Verdantix – corporate spending on innovation to push product-level sustainability differentiation in 2012 will reach $12 billion in the U.S. U.K. Canada Australia
As noted in a related article, “The Five Growth Areas for Sustainability Spending in 2012,” Verdantix reports that spending in the following sustainability-focused areas will experience significant growth in 2012:
1) Strategic energy management
2) Product sustainability differentiation
3) Sustainability business consulting
4) Smart and sustainable city projects
5) Pyramid market innovation
In particular, Verdantix reports that as requirements for legislation such as REACH and RoHS become more stringent, and as stakeholders pay greater attention to the sustainability side of products, firms are going to spend more ensuring that their products and services are greener. For example, environmental labeling requirements set to be put in place by end of year 2012 in France
So, the question is – are you ready? Are your products designed with sustainability in mind? You may not even choose to market these products as green or sustainable – the real issue is whether you are incorporating sustainable practices in your product design and manufacturing efforts. Tools to assist you in such efforts are becoming increasingly accessible, making it much easier to embrace sustainability than in the past. For example, such tools allow you to identify and incorporate more sustainable materials in your products upfront during the design phase, can help guide you in the selection of sustainably-sourced materials or components throughout the supply chain, can help you to identify sustainability "hot spots" (or aspects of how your product is created, manufactured or used that score high in terms of having a negative environmental impact) throughout the lifecycle of your product, and more.
Ultimately, products that are designed and manufactured using less energy, less material and/or more sustainable materials, can be more easily disassembled for reuse or recycling, or that are made using less toxic chemicals or processes – will offer a competitive advantage. Think that’s a bit idealistic? Think again. Legislation changes everything – and it’s coming, whether we’re ready or not. If not, it means scrambling to keep up – when you could have taken the lead and put yourself out ahead of the crowd…
One way to get there? As a designer or engineer, you can begin to ask about and test out some of the new sustainable product design tools being offered by engineering software providers. We’ve mentioned them before – but for those of you “just joining” – to name a few, these include: Sustainable Minds LCA, PE International’s GaBi LCA software, Solidworks Sustainability/Sustainability Xpress, Trayak’s Eco-Designer, Autodesk’s Eco-Materials Advisor, and PTC’s Windchill LCA. Or better yet – just ask your engineering software provider to help you conduct a “sustainability audit.” That will give you an idea of just where your product development efforts might benefit most from a sustainability makeover.
It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our upcoming report, “Sustainability and the Product Lifecycle: A Report on the Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices for Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing.”
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