Larger Than Life
The lifecycle approach to new product design goes by a variety of different names: design for the environment, sustainable design, lifecycle management, industrial ecology, and the like. Whatever you call it, however, the practice can spur innovation, find new efficiencies, and make a positive impact on the environment.
BY MARY LAHR SCHIER
Some people say that the day we are born is the day we start to die. Not very comforting, but in the case of new products, all too true. Once a product is born—that is, designed and produced—its eventual demise is assured, as is everything about the wastes it will leave behind. The design determines what materials will be used; how much energy will be required in manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and use; what kinds of solid and liquid wastes will be produced; and even the inevitable cost of disposal of the product after it’s tossed in the trash.
While product death is inevitable, the environmental, health, and safety issues connected with the product rest in the hands of new product developers. Considering these factors during the design process can reduce the impact that products make on the environment—both while they’re in use and after they’re gone. And, companies which have adopted what’s called a lifecycle approach to new product design often find it can also spur innovation and save them millions of dollars. “It’s a new perspective,” says Fran Kurk, a business assistance specialist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “When you look at a product and consider its environmental impact up front, it’s really a starting point for innovation and cost savings.”
The big picture
The approach goes by several names: design for the environment, sustainable design, lifecycle management, industrial ecology, and product stewardship, among others. Whatever it is called, the core concept remains the same: Consider the product’s entire lifecycle during the idea and planning stage to minimize its negative impact on the environment. At that point, it’s still relatively easy to make adjustments in materials and processes, and tradeoffs can be considered across the entire lifecycle of the product.
“We need to look at products from cradle to grave,” says Georjean Adams, founder of Woodbury-based EHS Strategies Inc. Adams began her career at St. Paul-based 3M Co., which helped pioneer lifecycle management with pollution prevention efforts beginning in the 1970s. In 2005, she formed EHS Strategies to help other companies with lifecycle-management assessments and planning. “People had not been thinking about the death of the product — where do all the used-up and obsolete items go?” she notes. “That’s how we ended up with all those EPA Superfund sites that are holding waste products for companies which may not even be around anymore.”
In short, if companies consider environmental, health, and safety issues from the idea stage of product development, waste and safety issues can be minimized—allowing the businesses to focus on developing other new products rather than cleaning up after old ones. “The logic is that the product design sets up all of the issues you are going to have to deal with in the future,” says Adams, “so it makes sense to deal with them from the start. Product stewardship does not require that you sacrifice performance and profitability, but it will stimulate design creativity.”
Lifecycle management also requires that companies address broader issues, including understanding customer needs and developing strong partnerships with suppliers. This builds the reputation of a business and helps it grow and prosper, says MTI President and CEO (and longtime 3M veteran) Wayne Pletcher.
Wendy Jedlicka, principal of St. Paul-based Jedlicka Design, works with companies to create packaging and products that not only minimize damage to the environment, but often improve it. As Jedlicka notes, her work frequently sparks creativity and cost savings. She recalls working with a large manufacturer on a product manual. Previously, the manual had been a glossy, saddle-stapled, three-hole punched, letter-sized book that was included with the millions of products going out the door. While customers did not need the manual format to get the information they needed, “the sales force loved to put the things into binders,” she says. Instead, Jedlicka and her team created a small, accordion-fold booklet for customer use and developed downloadable PDF versions for the 100 or so sales managers. The result: The company saved $500,000 in a single stroke, the customers and sales force each got what they needed, and more than a few trees were spared. “The money savings were strictly calculated from printing costs,” she says. “No one calculated what they saved on fuel (packages were now much lighter), warehousing, or paying people to fold up those big books and stuff them into their tiny boxes—and then multiplied that over like a 1,000 SKUs. If they had, they’d have loved us even more.”
Inventory and assessment
A lifecycle assessment involves three stages, says Adams. First, an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases is made. The next step: an evaluation of the potential environmental, health, and safety effects of those materials and processes. Finally, the results are interpreted, which may result in changes in the product design, package design, or the manufacturing process. “Looking at environmental, health, and safety impacts can be done with common management tools such as Six Sigma or lean manufacturing,” says Adams.
Some companies use simple yes/no question formats to evaluate environmental concerns and options. The answers can be incorporated with product data management software and other systems. Kurk points to the experience of Minneapolis-based medical device manufacturer Medtronic Inc., which used a yes/no checklist on project it did in conjunction with Kurk’s office. As part of the project, Perfusion Systems, a segment of Medtronic’s Cardiac Surgery division, used environment-minded design in the development of a coating for an oxygenator, which is used in blood processing. With support from upper management, environmental staff members worked on the design team for the product. During design discussions, the company determined that the concentration of the coating could be reduced without losing effectiveness. As result, Medtronic reduced the wastewater concentration that was discharged during the process, saving approximately $2.1 million.
Packaging, product delivery and processes are often points at which companies can make design or supplier decisions to save money and reduce environmental impact. A few examples:
- 3M developed returnable, collapsible steel crates to deliver automotive parts to Germany. The crates replaced multipiece, single-use crates that were expensive and required disposal. This sort of “return trip” packaging is one of the simplest ways to reduce wastes and costs.
- Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia worked with the Minnesota Technical Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota to become a “sustainable hospital.” Among the changes it made was to switch from ready-to-use cleaners to hyperconcentrated versions dispensed via a closed-handling system. By doing so, it reduced the chance of spills and splashing, and decreased the amount of garbage that the hospital generated since 1 quart of concentrate disinfectant replaced 180 one-gallon containers.
- More companies are using pallets made of plasti-lumber, a wood-like material made out of recycled plastic. Unlike wooden pallets, the plasti-lumber pallets do not have to be treated with pesticides to prevent insect infestation, says Jedlicka.
- An increasing number of computers are being built so that, rather than being trashed when they are replaced, their parts can be easily disassembled and reused or recycled. Companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard also offer programs for computer users to return their machines for disassembly.
“The automotive and electronics industries have done a lot on their own,” says Kurk. “But there is no one way to design for the environment.”
In evaluating and developing new products, companies should such consider issues as:
- potential hazards associated with the materials in the product or exposures in the workplace either to employees or suppliers
- health and safety issues in the product’s use
- environmental issues related to manufacture or packaging
- the eventual disposal of the product.
These types of concerns can be mitigated in the development stage by selecting alternative or biodegradable materials, developing product take-back programs from customers, or developing waste recovery systems in the manufacturing processes, says Adams.
A marketing advantage
While lifecycle management is a defensive strategy—it helps companies avoid costly and distracting environmental, health, or safety concerns—it can also function as a marketing weapon. A survey by the TGI Global market research firm found that 35 percent of U.S. consumers would pay more for a product if it was better for the environment than a competing item. In Brazil, 69 percent would pay more. Larger companies have noticed the trend. Adams notes that General Electric announced last May that it would be pursuing an “Ecomagination Effort,” which involves investing about $1.5 billion in developing cleaner energy production technologies by 2010. “Suppliers are often looking at a whole new set of specs,” says Adams, “especially from high-profile companies.”
Businesses doing business in Europe and Asia may also find more stringent environmental regulations, says Jedlicka, which is one reason she believes sustainable design should be an essential part of many companies’ growth strategies. “With the Internet and global sales, every product is a global product,” she says. “Ignoring the sustainability issue is a sure way to get squeezed right out of the market.”