Sustainable Products
The biggest impact on sustainability comes from the actual design. The supply chain is important but the design, even more so. The German Environment Agency estimates that 80% of a product’s environmental impacts are determined during the design phase. Lighter products reduce the transportation burden and products with fewer materials in a simple design are easier to take apart for recycling. Designers can also cut out toxic substances, include features that cut energy use, and improve the durability of components to enhance a product’s lifespan.
Eco-designed goods are now appearing on the market. But they are still a minority. Two main things cause this
• The sheer number of product lines that need to be re-engineered
• And lack of regulation requiring producers to re-design.
The Aeron Chair from US furniture manufacturer Herman Miller is a good example of eco-design. Sixty-two per cent of the chair is made from recycled material and 94% of it can be recycled. Parts are easy to disassemble and components are clearly marked to help in the recycling stream.
Product packaging is another area of waste at present and this can be reduced with better design. Unilever has doubled the concentration of some liquid detergents to cut the bottle size in half, bringing a 40% reduction in packaging and a 60% reduction in water usage and Unilever can also now deliver 156% more products on every truck, which means 30% to 40% fewer trucks on the road every year and significant financial savings.
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