The Secret Formula for Success: It’s Not What Makes it Green, It’s What Makes it Great

Consumers want better products, not necessarily greener products, according to Method Co-Founder Adam Lowry.

Product performance is what counts. Not the fact that a product is green. That’s the view that even Method's founders (the creators of a popular brand of eco-friendly cleaning products) take – and it’s a smart one, based on the fact that the company’s revenues are on the rise, and it has been profitable since 2004. As noted in a recent article on the subject:

Begun in 2000, Method's annual revenue now exceeds $100 million and the company has been profitable since 2004, says Method co-founder, Adam Lowry. What's more, the company just had its best year ever and is growing "faster than anyone in this industry."

The secret to their success? As the article goes on to explain, Method’s “sleek, stylish bottles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic, and the contents are non-toxic, yet effective.” That’s the winning combination – the product is both green and effective.

Clearly, the most important aspect of any product is its performance. Even if its green credentials earn it a place at the table - it's the product's performance that will keep it there.

Simply put – performance is what counts. That’s why – at the end of the day – no matter how many LCAs (life cycle assessments) you’ve done, and no matter how many sustainable materials you’ve evaluated – the bottom line is that the product that results has to be able to deliver the kind of quality and performance that your customer needs, wants or is accustomed to.

Even sustainability advocates are often quick to point out that green is not a panacea.

Indeed, the fact that a product is “greener” may actually be of little interest, or of little consequence to many. The fact that the product actually costs less or is cost-competitive, performs better, or is less likely to fail – that’s what customers are often looking for – not whether the product has a green label.

Unfortunately, for all too many consumers – green has become synonymous with “won’t perform as well,” “won’t last,” or “costs too much.”

How to get past all these potentially negative impressions of green? Better products. Not just greener products.

How to get there? Product design tools that allow engineers and product designers to create great products -- that can also be made greener without sacrificing performance.

The good news is that engineering and design tools are evolving to make this possible.

Paired with early stage eco-impact assessment tools like Sustainable Minds’ LCA, SolidWorks Sustainability, PE International’s GaBi software, Trayak’s Eco-Designer or Autodesk’s Eco-Materials Advisor, today’s popular 3D modeling, analysis and simulation software programs can offer a comprehensive approach to sustainable product design – one that doesn’t require designers to sacrifice product performance to achieve environmental gains.

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our current research study, “Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing: What’s Happening Now… and What’s Ahead?” (Available Soon!)

See also:

Want To Sell A Green Product? Don’t Call It Green

“Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing: What’s Happening Now… and What’s Ahead?”

Green Power: Achieving Energy Independence, Protecting the Environment, and Saving Lives

Could Agave (the plant that’s used to make Tequila) be the key to energy independence? And what about wastewater as a source of electricity?

In a recent round-up of some of the most compelling advances made in the field of chemistry in the past year (See: Cutting Edge Chemistry in 2011), one particular area of research caught my attention. As it turns out, there is evidence to suggest that nature – and in particular, the leaf (artificial or otherwise), may have a great deal to teach us about how to effectively harness energy from water.

In fact, there are a number of approaches that chemists are presently exploring as a means of generating power from alternative energy sources, as noted in the article:

• At the Spring ACS meeting in Anaheim, US, Dan Nocera from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, presented his artificial leaf that splits water when exposed to UV light. Crucially, while Nocera's device produces less energy than other options, it costs less than $50 (£31) to manufacture compared with around $12,000 for current commercial devices, making it the 'fast food of energy production', he says.

• Nocera's leaf can apparently work with human waste water, but what about other approaches? A team led by Ioannis Ieropoulos and John Greenman at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK have developed microbial fuel cells that use bacteria to break down urine and produce electricity.

• The agave plant is well known as the plant that makes tequila, but David King's team at the University of Oxford's Low Carbon Mobility Centre, UK, has shown that it can also be used as a feedstock to make bioethanol23. Crucially, unlike other feedstock plants agave thrives in arid conditions and would not need arable farmland to be given over to its production.

What’s worth noting here, I think, is that as far-fetched as some of these ideas may seem, it is just such innovation that the alternative energy sector (and their colleagues among forward-thinking manufacturers) requires to produce a significant shift away from dependence on sources of energy that require the use of fossil fuels. And while many may still debate the value of exploring such alternative forms of energy, one very clear danger of not exploring safer, less environmentally-toxic, alternative energy options is the potential threat that a fossil-fuel driven lifestyle poses not only to our economic security, but to our environment and, ultimately, to our health.

Indeed, the link between cancer in humans and our growing level of exposure to environmental toxins, is becoming increasingly evident. One of the biggest culprits, according to ecologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, PhD (author of Living Downstream and Raising Elijah), is the release of toxic chemicals from the extraction and use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Most recently, Steingraber and her peers have been focused on raising awareness about the potentially tragic consequences of employing fracking techniques to extract natural gas, a practice which has proven especially dangerous and all too common in recent years. 

Translated? Green energy may not only help us to save the environment – it could well prove to save lives.

See also:

Living Downstream

Cutting Edge Chemistry in 2011

2012 Megatrend: Green Supply Chains Driving Global Economic Growth

In a recent article, Bill Roth – sustainability advocate, green business coach and author of “The Secret Green Sauce,” cites five megatrends that promise to contribute to a trillion dollar global sustainable economy in 2012.  One of the key mega-trends that he references is the greening of supply chains – and the impact that this will have on the global economy. 

As noted in the article, Roth explains:

Green supply chains are driving global economic growth.

• Corporations, not governments, are now driving the push toward sustainability as they harvest increasingly significant profit growth through design and process innovations that cut production, delivery, packaging and disposal costs while also reducing a company’s/product’s environmental footprint. This is a global trend led by international companies like Walmart, GE and Coca Cola. 
• Its commercial impact is now evident in the increasing scale of Request For Proposal bid questions on sustainability metrics and performance results documentation. This global mega-trend is creating new revenue growth opportunities for smaller businesses that can offer price competitive lower environmental footprint products and solutions. 
• It is also decentralizing decision-making as large corporations gain success using Green Teams to find and implement ideas that reduce costs and a company’s environmental footprint. 
• Where CFOs once questioned the ROI of producing a corporate CSR report, the importance of these documents is now clear. CSR reports have an increasingly important role as a source document used by third parties that communicate to consumers and equity investors on the sustainability of a company and its products, which has an implicit impact on the bottom line. The combined impacts of the greening of the supply chain have now made this process the economic engine of the global sustainable economy.

In my estimation, what is most noteworthy here – is that green supply chains are, by definition, driving support for sustainability not just at the corporate level but at the product level, as well. And this has significant implications for providers of sustainable product design tools and technologies. Such tools promise to grow in popularity as both downstream and upstream supply chain requirements increasingly demand that more sustainable products be produced and more sustainable materials be used in the production process.

Such sustainability strategies enable companies to reduce their environmental footprint AND achieve significant profit growth through design and process innovations that cut production, delivery, packaging and disposals costs, according to Roth -- an observation which I whole-heartedly agree with. 

Sustainability metrics are also increasingly becoming a required “line item” on RFPs, according to Roth, and the formation of Green Teams to find and implement ideas that reduce costs and improve environmental footprint ratings, are on the rise. This trend, too, is one that I have witnessed, and that I expect we will continue to see more of.

Moreover, investors are paying more attention to the sustainability of a company and its products, according to Roth. And that, ultimately, promises to be one of the greatest contributors to the adoption of sustainability practices among many companies – but especially among those that may not prove to be motivated by the need to “do good” unless such good is rewarded financially. 

Increasingly, it seems, doing the right thing is being paired with financial gain, as well. This is a topic that we will continue to explore further in the coming months.

See also:

Five Megatrends Creating 2012’s Trillion Dollar Global Sustainable Economy

What’s the Future of Sustainable Design?

“I believe sustainability will be part of what we define as "good design." Good design considers environmental impact. That's where design is going.” – Steve Bishop, IDEO

“Good design leads to market success and less impact on the environment.” – Vancouver-based product design firm, Form3

“The social and environmental aspects of design have become as important as the functional attributes of modern products.” – LUNAR Design

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, IDEO’s Steve Bishop offered his views on sustainable design. As global lead of environmental impact at the design and business innovation firm IDEO, Bishop helps companies build brands, develop new products, and design new innovation processes inspired by principles of sustainability.

As noted in the article, Bishop believes that sustainability will simply be a part of good design, and good design will take environmental impact into account.

IDEO’s Steve Bishop is not alone in his view of what constitutes “good design.”

Vancouver-based product design firm Form3 also embodies this view in its core values. Comprised of a group of “highly trained, dedicated, and experienced industrial designers,” product design firm Form3 was founded in 1997 with its mission simply to design better products. In this context, the creation of better products meant taking eco-design considerations into account, alongside cost, aesthetics and product performance.

The design firm believes that the ability to design a better product comes from 3 broad considerations of form:

How will the product be made? Better quality results in a longer life. We carefully choose materials and manufacturing processes that minimize cost and reduce the impact on the environment.

How will the product look? Aesthetic and formal considerations help to make a product stand out in the marketplace. We strive to give a product a beautiful form that is appropriate for a given cultural context and that people will respond to in an appropriate way.

How will the product work? There are technical challenges to overcome and functional reasons for the shape of a product. We design products that work well, are comfortable and easy to use, and have a form that provides cues for its function.

Form3’s fundamental design philosophy is simply that, “good design leads to market success and less impact on the environment.”

Palo Alto, CA-based LUNAR Design shares a similar passion for sustainability and good design. In fact, the company has targeted sustainability as one of its key practice areas – and has called this practice, LUNAR Elements. A brief description is included below: 

The social and environmental aspects of design have become as important as the functional attributes of modern products. Our sustainability practice, LUNAR Elements, pioneers principles in green design and implements them on programs today. From materials research to Life Cycle Analyses, LUNAR helps clients minimize their footprint to maximize their positive impact for their customers, their markets, and our world.

As a part of its sustainability practice, the firm developed “The Designer’s Field Guide to Sustainability” which provides an overview of sustainable product development and the product lifecycle. Encouraging input from others, this "open source" guide offers some useful recommendations for those seeking to design in a more sustainable manner. To learn more, see: http://www.lunar.com/fieldguide/tips.html.

In short, sustainable design is gaining favor as a critical foundation for simply good design. And that’s encouraging – because as one industrial designer recently confided to me, “The last thing I want to do is to design for the landfill.”

Bravo! May we actually be moving towards more durable (or more easily recycled) products – and may these products increasingly contain more recycled content, less toxic materials, and boast greater energy efficiency.

What do you think? Tell us. It’s not too late! We’re still seeking participants for the study. To learn more, see, “Participate in a New Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing Research Study and Be Eligible to Win an iPad 2!

It’s all part of next-generation product design, a topic that is explored in greater detail in our current research study, “Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing: What’s Happening Now… and What’s Ahead?”

See also:

Form3
Lunar Design
IDEO's Steve Bishop on the Future of Sustainable Design Thinking
“The Designer’s Field Guide to Sustainability”
Participate in a New Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing Research Study and Be Eligible to Win an iPad 2!

Coming in 2012: Are You Ready to Support a More Sustainable Approach to Product Design?

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.; $1.6 billion in the U.K.; $500 million in Canada and $400 million in 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 will drive product-level sustainability initiatives and reporting.

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.”

See also:

The Five Growth Areas for Sustainability Spending in 2012

Engineers Still Trying to Make Sense of Sustainability

When it comes to sustainability, engineers are skeptics. But is that such a bad thing?

In its third annual survey exploring how mechanical engineers view the world of sustainability, the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) found that engineers, true to their nature –are still trying to solve the sustainability puzzle. As reported in Mechanical Engineering’s November issue, prevailing attitudes among engineers are that they see the value of sustainability, show skepticism about the hype, and are searching for a better way to quantify what they are doing.

To which I say, “Bravo!” Kudos to the engineering community for being the skeptics that they are – for requiring that sustainability – and, in particular - sustainable design and manufacturing – deliver more than just promises.

As one ASME survey respondent points out:

“We do not subscribe to the politics behind the green/sustainable movement,” one engineer wrote. “We believe in using sound engineering judgment to deliver the most cost-effective means to lower our customer’s energy consumption to save them money. The CO2 savings, a meaningless metric, is simply a function of lower energy consumption.”

Engineers, by definition, are trained to question – which is why, I think, we see such a strong resistance among the engineering community to embrace sustainability simply because it is “the right thing to do.” The reality is that every day, engineers are tasked with addressing challenges like safety, reliability, and performance – and to the extent that sustainability issues have an impact on such design criteria – then sustainability matters.

It matters, for example, if counterfeit parts enter the supply chain and threaten to compromise the performance of a critical engine or electronic component. It matters if a product is dependent on the availability of a rare or scarce material, or if the cost of producing a part or product is at risk of skyrocketing due to rising energy costs. In short, the metrics that are important to engineers effectively remain unchanged – cost, performance, safety, reliability. What has changed is that there are an increasing number of external factors impacting engineering and design that lie outside the control of the engineer.

That said, what IS becoming more important to the engineering community is the ability to better predict how such external factors stand to impact their design decisions or threaten the safety or reliability of the products they make.

Which is why tools that, for example, enable engineers to more easily identify and specify sustainable or alternative materials in their design efforts, matter – and why tools that allow them to evaluate and understand the performance of these materials in context, matters. It’s why tools or processes that allow engineers to more easily develop products that either consume less energy during the use phase, or use less energy in the manufacturing or production phase, matter. It’s why if it becomes clear that “doing things the way it has always been done” is no longer sufficient, that we can expect to see our engineers come up with a new, more innovative approach to solving the problem, whether that problem relates to sustainability or something else.

So – a tool that allow us to reduce our carbon footprint may prove useful not necessarily because it shows us how to reduce our environmental impact – but because it shows us how to reduce our energy use. But is that a bad thing? Either way, whether companies are motivated to reduce their energy use to cut costs or to reduce their environmental impact, does it really matter? At the end of the day, what matters is that less energy is used, and there are quantifiable benefits. 

If embraced in this way, perhaps sustainability would have more followers among the engineering community. Perhaps we simply need to ask the question, “What are the engineering benefits of sustainable product design and manufacturing?” Or as Mechanical Engineering magazine’s recent article on this topic asks, “what could be more sustainable than improving efficiency and eliminating waste to lower the cost of new products and manufacturing processes?”

What do you think? Tell us. It’s not too late! We’re still seeking participants for our study,  “Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing: What’s Happening Now… and What’s Ahead?”

See also:

Sustainability (Mechanical Engineering magazine, November 2011 issue)

Participate in a New Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing Research Study and Be Eligible to Win an iPad 2! (survey)

The Sustainability Consortium Releases “High Impact” Profiles for 10 Product Categories

“The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) took a major step forward today when they announced the completion of 10 Category Sustainability Profiles as part of research on 50 product categories, with a commitment to develop 50 additional product categories by the end of 2011.” - source: The Sustainability Consortium

A bit of background
Several years ago, Walmart supported the creation of “The Sustainability Consortium” in an effort to drive product-level sustainability. (See earlier post on this subject.) Supplier scorecards for reporting sustainability across the supply chain were put in place – and efforts to move towards some mechanism for easily creating and comparing a product’s “sustainability score” against its competitors – was envisioned. To date, the Sustainability Consortium’s efforts have been embraced by some and criticized by others. But whether you’re a supporter or not, it’s worth paying attention to the Consortium’s latest developments because of the potential impact their work may ultimately have on the Walmart supplier community. In that light, noted below are some of the key points of their latest announcement. 

Which product categories are included?
The Sustainability Consortium announced that it has completed 10 category sustainability profiles. The categories that are a part of this initial launch include beef, coffee, cotton towels, yogurt, fashion dolls, laptops, laundry detergent, televisions, toilet tissues, and wheat cereal.

Why were these product categories selected?
TSC members chose these categories because of their business relevance, potential for improvement, and magnitude of impact.

According to the press release, “The Sustainability Consortium’s work on these profiles, which identify and prioritize the largest impacts in the life cycle of a product, is extremely valuable,” said Helen van Hoeven, director of market transformation at World Wildlife Fund and a recently appointed Consortium Board member. “This information allows retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers to focus their efforts on innovating and improving on products and their supply chains where it matters most.”

How are these profiles created? 

“The Consortium collects the best available knowledge by reviewing published life cycle assessments, scanning literature, interviewing subject matter experts, integrating life cycle models, and utilizing our large network of corporate, NGO, academic, and government partners. We turn over every rock for information to see what’s available,” said Joby Carlson, Knowledge Base manager for The Sustainability Consortium. “From that, we begin to understand the most well supported environmental and societal issues related to a product category. We also reveal relevant and actionable best practices or product attributes that organizations can implement to address these priority issues. 

What’s the objective?
TSC’s objective is to have this information serve as the basis for driving sustainable change in research and development, understanding supplier sustainability through scorecards or benchmarking, establishing sustainable sourcing policies, and guiding product designs. TSC believes that these deliverables represent a significant milestone for The Consortium’s Sustainability Measurement and Reporting System to inform retailers, buyers, manufacturers, and suppliers about the impacts various consumer goods and supply networks have on the climate, water, energy, biodiversity, toxicity, and society.

What’s the view from its membership community? Are these profiles valid?
“We are big believers in The Consortium’s approach,” said Dr. Len Sauers, vice president for global sustainability at Procter & Gamble and Consortium Board member. “Having these profiles will be immensely helpful to bring people around the table to make real progress towards product sustainability.”

What’s the key takeaway?
The impact of the efforts of the Sustainability Consortium to provide guidance around sustainability metrics for retail products like toys, electronics, and cleaning agents promises to be significant in the years ahead. While the foundation for the sustainability ratings and/or rankings to come may be questioned by some, the reality is that the groundwork is being laid to make product design more sustainable, in general – and to make more eco-friendly product options available to mainstream consumers. Ultimately, the key will be for a manufacturer to be able to provide some kind of verifiable qualifying data to back up its eco-design or sustainability claims. At the end of the day, this is a good thing – perhaps the system isn’t perfect, but it’s a start – and it’s better than what exists currently. So – we’ll be watching. And critics should be, too. If there’s something that seems totally amiss, then it is the job of the watchdogs among us to speak up.

See also:

Sustainable Product and Consumption Starts to Get Real in the Marketplace  The Sustainability Consortium Adopts PE International's GaBi Tool to Perform LCA