Issue 3: October 1997

ISSUE 3 : OCTOBER 1997
The Journal of
Sustainable Product Design
Re-THINK
Re-FINE
Re-DESIGN
Re-PAIR
ISSN 1367–6679
Re-THINK
Battery-powered lawn Increased creativity and
mower by Husqvarna innovation are critical
to sustainable solutions
Analysis, page 7
Analysis, page 18 and Interview, page 38
Re-FINE
Sketch for a table with a Detail of carpet sweeper, Table made

glass top using Metzzo legs designed by Agim Meta from Metzzo
Gallery, page 41 Analysis, page 28 Gallery, page 40
Re-DESIGN
Re-PAIR
The Journal of
5 Editorial
Martin Charter and Anne Chick, Editors, The Journal of Sustainable Product Design
Analysis
7 Learning from the introduction of green products: two case
studies from the gardening industry
Annica Bragd, Research Assistant, Gothenburg Research Institute,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
18 Sustainable design: re-thinking future business products
Colin Beard, Lecturer, School of Leisure Management, Sheffield Hallam University,
UK, and Rainer Hartmann, Consultant, HCS Consulting, Germany, and Visiting
Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
28 Sustainability by design: new targets and new tools for designers
Ursula Tischner, econcept, Ecology and Design Consultancy, Cologne, Germany
Interview
38 Professor William McDonough, Dean of School of Architecture,
University of Virginia, US
Martin Charter, Joint Coordinator, The Centre for Sustainable Design, UK
Gallery
40 Metzzo
Innovation
42 A design tool for eco-efficient products
Jonathan Williams, Director, Group for Environmental Manufacturing, UK
and Calum Morrison, Project Manager, The Planning Exchange, Scotland
47 Moving companies towards sustainability through eco-design:
conditions for success
Professor Dr Ir A L N Stevels, Senior Advisor Environmental Engineering,
Environmental Competence Centre, Philips Sound & Vision, the Netherlands
O2 news
56 Special feature: O2 Japan
Edited by Sytze Kalisvaart, Chair of O2 Global Network, Product designer,
© 1997 The Centre for Sustainable Design. TNO Industrial Technology, the Netherlands, Fumi Masunda, Liaison Officer,
All written material, unless otherwise
O2 Japan, Director of Open House, Japan, and Misato Yomosan, Product
stated, is the copyright of The Centre
for Sustainable Design, Surrey, UK. Planner, Japan
Views expressed in articles and letters
are those of the contributors, and not 60 Review
necessarily those of the publisher.
ISSN 1367–6679 64 Diary of events
GENERAL INFORMATION
Editors Editorial Board Dr Stefano Marzano

Africa Head of Corporate Design,
Martin Charter and Anne Chick,
Gary Owen Philips International (Netherlands)
Joint Coordinators,
The Centre for Sustainable, Design, UK CEO, ResponseAbility Alliance (Zimbabwe) Dr Diana Montgomery
Australasia Head of Environment, Automobile
Production: Anne Chick
Professor Chris Ryan Association (UK)
Marketing: Martin Charter
Director, Centre for Design, Royal Professor Jeremy Myerson
The Journal of Sustainable Product Design
Melbourne Institute for Technology Contemporary Design,
encourages response from its readers to
(Australia) De Montfort University (UK)
any of the issues raised in the journal.
Entries for the Diary of events and material Europe Jonathan Smales
to be considered for review should all be Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel CEO, The Earth Centre (UK)
sent to the Editors at the address below. Director, Industry and Environment, UNEP
Sam Towle
(France)
All articles published in the Analysis Head of Environmental Audit,
section are assessed by an external Hans Peter Becker The Body Shop International Plc (UK)
panel of business professionals, Managing Director, Wilkhahn (UK) Ltd. (UK)
Dr Hans van Weenen
consultants and academics. Professor Eric Billett Director, UNEP Working Group
Warden, Brunel University College (UK) on Sustainable Product Design,
Subscription rates Professor Dr Michael Braungart International Centre, University
Fachhochschule Nordostnierasachen, of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
is a quarterly journal appearing in the (Germany) Professor Jan-Olaf Willums
months of April, July, October and January Professor Han Brezet Norwegian School of Management,
each year. Subscription rates are £80.00 Director, Section of Environmental Product Oslo (Norway)
(paper-based) and £40.00 (online) for one Development, Faculty of Industrial Design Dr Jonathan Williams
year (four issues). Special subscription Engineering, Delft University of Technology Director, Group for Environmental
rates for developing countries and (Netherlands) Manufacturing (UK)
students are available on application. Ian Dumelow US
Cheques should be made payable to Dean, Faculty of Design, Dr Brad Allenby
The Surrey Institute in £ sterling Surrey Institute of Art & Design (UK) Director, Environmental,
and sent to: Health & Safety, AT&T (US)
Professor Dr Guenter Fleischer
The Journal of Sustainable Product Design Director, Instit fuer Technischen Professor Patricia Dillon
The Centre for Sustainable Design Umweltschutz, Technische Universitat The Gordon Institute, Tufts University, (US)
Faculty of Design Berlin (Germany)
Ralph Earle III
The Surrey Institute of Art & Design
Peter James Director, The Alliance for Environmental
Falkner Road
Director, Sustainable Business Innovation (US)
Farnham
Centre (UK)
Surrey GU9 7DS Professor John Ehrenfeld
UK Iris van de graaf de Keijser Director, Technology, Business and
tel +44 (0)1252 732229 Director, Kiva Product Ecology, Environment Program, Massachusetts
fax +44 (0)1252 732274 (Netherlands) Institute of Technology (US)
email: cfsd@surrart.ac.uk Professor Karl Lidgren Dr Joseph Fiksel
internet: http://www.cfsd.org.uk Director, The International Institute for Senior Director, Strategic Environmental,
Industrial Environmental Economics, Health & Safety Management, Battelle
Lund University (Sweden) Memorial Institute (US)
Dorothy MacKenzie James Hartzfeld
Director, Dragon (UK) Vice President, Interface Research
Professor Ezio Manzini Corporation (US)
Director, Facolta di Architettura, Professor William McDonough
Unita di ricerca Progetto, Prodotto, Dean, Faculty of Architecture,
Ambiente, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) University of Virginia (US)
4 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

EDITORIAL
Welcome to the second issue of

Martin Charter and Anne Chickn
Editors, The Journal of Sustainable Product Design
f we are to move towards ment and design? A key issue is we need it? Behind this is a key
I sustainability, we need to
imagine what a more sustainable
we must not forget customers.
Many companies have forgotten
question: what are needs?
Maslow developed a 'hierarchy
world will be. Most of us really to talk to customers and have of needs' which illustrated a
haven’t thought that through. focused inwardly on the techno- series of levels, that could only
Quite understandably, the logical and engineering improve- be attained when the previous
majority of people do not under- ments required for, primarily, level has been satisfied:
stand the academic concept of eco-design eg. using less energy, · physiological
sustainable development. Indeed, using less components, using less · safety
research for the Department of packaging, etc. The Kambrook
· belongingess
Environment in the UK, indi- kettle is a good example of an
· esteem
cated that ‘sustainable develop- attempt to create a dialogue with
· self-actualisation
ment’ was seen as a government customers and understand
construct to keep people out of customer behaviour. The market
>From a Northern perspective
environmental issues. However, research led to a new perspec-
much of the discussion over
if we re-phrase the question and tive, which led to the develop-
sustainable product development
ask people what sort of world ment of a greener solution (JSPD,
and design (SPPD) and eco-design
they would like to live in, we are Issue 2). Husqvarna AB’s solar-
relates to self-actualisation
likely to come up with some powered lawn mower is a differ-
(essentially, developing oneself
answers that are likely to be ent type of example (JSPD, Issue
to your fullest potential).
entirely consistent with ‘expert’ 3). From a sustainability view-
However, from a Southern
viewpoints of sustainability. point, it is not the answer, but it
perspective, SPDD relates to basic
Sustainability is not about re- demonstrates that new ideas can
needs eg. food to live and ‘design
arranging the eco-designed reach the marketplace if the
for necessity’, eg. shoes from car
deckchairs, it is about question- conditions are right. These
tyres. There are shifts happening
ing the purpose of the ship. It slightly ‘off the wall’ concepts
in the North where some are
will require re-thinking and new create discussion, and make at
asking themselves ‘do we really
thinking. As with the Zen master least some people think about
need it?’ This may mean that
and his pupils it may require a new solutions! People must have
green consumers in suburbs shift
whack on the back with a hard examples, that catch their imagi-
from using solar-powdered lawn
stick! A strong image, but a nation. If you cannot see it, you
mowers with no human inter-
provocative one! cannot do anything about it! The
vention to being rural or semi-
door must open…
How do we translate these issues rural sustainable consumers using
back into something applicable The lawn mower is an interesting mechanical lawn mowers that cut
to product and service develop- example. The first question is do the grass and keep you fit!
OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 5

EDITORIAL
Lawn mowers: power systems
· human-powered
environmental ethical
· battery
· solar
· clockwork? SPDD
economic social
The process of product creation
starts with an idea and develops
into a concept. Therefore if
people who generate ideas have
SPDD: e3s innovation
no concept of sustainability,
then we may only get random
advances.
mentally-driven sustainability, Rainer Hartmann highlight some
Allowing for constraints of 'time and particularly highlight design- new perspectives on sustainable
to market', costs, etc. there ing for eco-efficiency. Professor design, in which environmen-
should be wider stakeholder Stevels suggests that there are tally-positive (e+) design
input into the product develop- four sequential steps of eco- thinking will become a more
ment process, with sustainability design, with the fourth level creative and influential avenue
thinking injected as early as being longer-term design for a for designers.
possible into the process. sustainable society. Jonathan
Considering the issues at the O2 Global Network pages update
Williams provides an example
design stages is too late, as many readers on new eco-design
of a new tool that has been
decisions will have been made developments, including Philips
developed that analyses product-
and opportunities missed. decision to progress its 'end of
related eco-efficiency,
life' management strategies.
SPDD is a much broader agenda particularly amongst electronic
There is a focus on O2 Japan,
and requires innovation across products.
including a report on the Tennen
e3s issues (environmental, Annica Bragd analyses the lessons Design conference that high-
economic, ethical, social). learnt by a Swedish gardening lighted the need to consider
This means not just developing equipment manufacturer, when 'values' in eco-design thinking.
innovative new products, but developing, marketing and
The Journal continues to search
innovative and new ways of launching battery and solar-
for case studies and articles the
using and re-using products ie. powered lawn mowers. A key
explore both eco-design, and
shifting ‘products to services’. lesson learnt is that stakeholder
particularly new and ‘blue sky’
SPDD will mean developing new education is essential, particu-
thinking in the areas of sustain-
processes to deliver those prod- larly amongst customers and
able consumption and sustain-
ucts/services whilst working and distributors.
able product development and
cooperating with internal and The interview with Professor design. The aim is to build the
external partners much more William McDonough starts to Journal’s international focus as a
closely. broaden out the SPDD agenda to platform for debate and analysis.
In this issue, articles by Ursula include a more holistic concept
Feedback and comments are
Tischner and Professor Ab Stevels that includes social and ethical
always useful. •
focus on designing for environ- considerations. Colin Beard and

ANALYSIS
Learning from the

introduction of green
products: two case studies
from the gardening industry
Annica Bragdn
Research Assistant, Gothenburg Research Institute,
The development of environmentally Introduction

sound products or green products
hat are green products?
is being increasingly considered
as an important strategic issue
W In reality green products
do not exist: products are either
by Swedish companies. But so far
more or less green, or greener;
very few companies have detailed
all consumer or industrial prod-
practical experience of handling
ucts cause environmental harm.
these projects. This indicates that
Therefore it is easier to describe
there is a real need for systematic
Annica Bragd is a Research Assistant products as having green charac-
documentation of the experience
at Gothenburg Research Institute, teristics such as being non-
and knowledge generated in the
(GRI), a research institute at the polluting, energy efficient,
green product development and
Gothenburg School of Economics and recyclable, noiseless, etc. Over
marketing process. This article
Commercial Law at the University of the last decade there have been
presents a study of a Swedish
Gothenburg in Sweden. Annica Bragd’s a range of green products that
manufacturing company in the
studies link the fields of product develop- have been launched into a wide
gardening industry, with examples
ment and marketing to environmental variety of consumer and ‘busi-
of technologically innovative prod-
management practices. She is currently ness to business’ market sectors.
ucts and the problems and opportu-
working on her licentiate thesis on ‘The What experience have compa-
nities associated with the green
Organising of Environmentally Sound nies’ generated from developing
product development process. The
Products’, which deals with the organising green products? Of course, the
study highlights that the learning
of green products. Annica is pursuing a answer(s) to this question are
associated with green products
doctoral degree in Marketing and holds of considerable interest to
seems to be different in comparison
an MBA in Business Administration companies working with green
to conventional products. Therefore
from the University of Gothenburg. products today. During 1996 an
the article argues that there is a
empirical study (Bragd & Wolff,
more complex and multi-dimen-
1996) was carried out, where the
sional learning process taking
above question was the central
place in the introductory phase
theme. The aim was to obtain a
of green products.
general view of the management
of green products, in the context
of the corporate learning

ANALYSIS
process, based on the rationale forces can be very different, for

that continuous improvment, example they can be competi-
new technology and innovation tion-driven to obtain ‘first-
are essential prerequisites for the mover’ advantage, or consumer-
development of environmental driven, regulation-driven, or
activities. The empirical study media-driven eg. over environ-
comprised 70 interviews from mental risks. For example, at the
two manufacturing and one sales beginning of the 90s in Sweden,
company. The interviewees were there was intensive public debate
Solar Mower
product developers, marketing over high emission and noise
staff, environmental co-ordina- levels. Another key driving force
tors, purchasing staff, product is management’s belief in the
line managers, project members, strategic importance of environ-
retailers and customers. This mental issues and the commit-
article is based on the findings ment of the staff.
of this study and will focus on
A key aspect of the development
Environmental Husqvarna AB’s green product
experience resulting from the
of the green product market in
Sweden was the entrance and
considerations launch of two lawn mowers.
Following the case studies there
involvement of the municipali-
ties. In 1995, several municipali-
is a discussion regarding the
break down learning process resulting from
ties became involved in the
green product debate when they
these projects. Practical examples
traditional lines conclude this article, showing
produced environmental reports
on how to deal with environ-
where improvements can be
mental issues in their organisa-
of responsibility made in relation to the intro-
tions. The environmental reports
duction of green products.
declared that the municipalities
within the would buy greener products. This
Background was a very important step, and it
company and Environmental activities of
pushed forward the development
of new green products in
change the proactive Swedish companies
The complexity of environmental
Sweden.
Husqvarna AB
boundaries activities and the new
approaches taken by Swedish In the following section,
companies explains why Husqvarna AB’s experience in
in relation to academia and business are green product development will
interested in further exploration. be discussed using two of its
its external Environmental considerations technologically innovative prod-
break down traditional lines of ucts. The origin of Husqvarna
environment. responsibility within the AB’s environmental activities
derives from many years of
company and change the bound-
aries in relation to its external experience of improving ergo-
environment. Corporate environ- nomics and the work environ-
mental activities taken as a result ment. The company transferred
of green issues are as a result of its experience from the research
both externally regulated and development (R&D) of chain
processes and internally-driven saws to lawn mowers. From 1993
forces. Environmental driving the company developed several

ANALYSIS
applications of catalyst techn- marketing plans comes second customer’s need. However focus-
ology for small engines and to the development of the tech- ing on tight target marketing
became known in various nology. Research has highlighted does not guarantee the success
countries for its involvement many examples of limited inter- of every new product. It is more
in green products. Today the nal communication between likely to act as a risk reduction
green range includes innovations the marketing and the product exercise and contribute to an
from step-by-step improvements development departments, which earlier discovery of product
to new niche products. leads to an inefficient use of failures, if market research and
resources. In the long-term the information has been gathered
Husqvarna AB is taking part
technology is unlikely to be fully effectively. This was highlighted
in an internal as well as an
utilised or transformed into a by the author’s research which
external learning process in
competitive advantage, if there indicated that green products
relation to green product
is no understanding of the appeared to need a higher level
development. The learning
customer. The absence of of market differentiation. To
process has covered both prod-
marketing concepts, the lack of take advantage of opportunities,
uct development and marketing
long-term product strategies and organisations developing green
processes. One of the lessons
bad product cost estimations are products will need to be adapt-
learnt at a corporate level has
also evidence of a bias towards able to both technological
been that the company has had
strong technology-orientated change and market changes.
a focus on technology and a
strategies. The organisation must also learn
technology-oriented product
to understand green customer
strategy. The management has The second case study, the Solar
preferences and environmental
now recognised this and is now Mower is an example of weak
legislation in different markets.
going through a change process, market orientation. A key lesson
Also, the marketing and commu-
towards a market-orientated was that, in order to make the
nications activities associated
approach. This process of re- customer pay a higher price it is
with green products need
orienation has been triggered not enough to just present the
to be adapted to locally-based
primarily by the work on green raw technology. The presenta-
green consumer demand and
products. tion of the technology must be
to the level of environmental
supported by an appropraiate
From a ‘technology- awareness not only linguistically,
image ie. modern and environ-
orientated’ gardening but also conceptually.
mentally-sound. In addition, it
company to…
must be aimed at a specific target
The demand for shorter product
group. The experiences gained Case studies
development time, shorter intro-
from this product made the
duction processes and quicker The case studies present
company aware of the need to
‘time-to-market’ has put increas- two green products: a battery-
revise current marketing and
ing pressure on companies in the powered lawn mower and a
selling practices as well as
gardening industry, and more solar-driven lawn mower. The
explore different forms of
broadly on Swedish industry. To structure of the case studies is a
distribution.
increase their competitiveness short background followed by a
many companies are becoming ...a move towards a description of the driving forces,
increasingly technology- ‘market-orientated’ the product development process
orientated. These companies gardening company and the marketing activities.
strive to produce high quality One reason for re-focusing The experiences gained from
products and continuously on a more market-orientated the development of the products
improve products, as they believe approach was that the company conclude the studies.
their customers strive for quality. could not act on all market
Therefore the production of opportunities and satisfy every

ANALYSIS
Case study one: the This product is a business success

battery-powered lawn in that it corresponded to a
market need, but was priced high
mower
due to high production costs.
Background
The ‘second generation’ of
The battery-powered lawn
Husqvarna’s battery-driven
mower was the first so called
mowers was launched in 1996.
green lawn mower launched by
From a green point of view, the
Husqvarna AB. The positive expe-
product development work was
rience resulting from the launch
different compared to the ‘first
of the product was one reason
generation’. The product devel-
why the company started to
opment group decided to develop
further examine the eco-profile
a machine that used minimum
of a broader range of gardening
Battery-powered lawn mower energy without loss of perfor-
products. This product, an
mance, quite contrary to the
acquired patent in 1992, showed
‘first generation’ lawn mower,
that it was possible to mow grass
where ‘horse power’ was an
using a battery-driven engine.
important part of the selling
However, to be competitive
argument.
At the additional technological
improvements were needed such Driving forces
beginning of as weight loss, performance

improvements, power increase
At the beginning of the 90s,
fierce public debate took place
and considerable noise reduc- in Sweden in relation to lawn
the 90s, a tions. When the product was mowers as polluters. The core
launched in 1993, it was of the debate was that a lawn
fierce public presented as an outstanding mower pollutes more during
product compared to competitive one hour than a car travelling
debate took electronic lawn mowers, due to between the two biggest cities
its wireless rechargeable battery- in Sweden. Clearly this was a
place in driven engine with 1.5 hours of
running time. In addition, the
debate that Husqvarna AB had to
respond to, particularly as the
Sweden in product had no exhaust fumes

and low noise levels. At the time,
issue increased and triggered the
environmental consciousness of
relation to competitors had no alternative

products. This ‘first mover’
company employees, which led
to discussion over environmental
advantage has now been eroded aspects of the products.
lawn mowers due to several reasons:
Another driving force was the
· decreasing prices of lawn
as polluters. mowers
development of new battery-
driven tools, where producers of
· fierce competition electrical supplies and tools were
· the product is easy to mass pushing the development of the
distribute and does not need technology. A key issue was the
a maintenance service visionary leadership of the
· new mass market distributors managing director who strongly
have entered the market for believed in the development of
battery-driven tools and batteries and encouraged the
machines. staff to progress research and
development in this area.

ANALYSIS
In 1995, ‘Carb 95’, the Californian

state’s legislation on engine
‘…equipped with vibration
damping grip.’
The core
emissions eg. lawn mowers came
into force. It lead the company
‘…does not emit exhaust fumes.’
‘…has a low noise level.’
of the debate
to look for alternatives to
conventional lawn mower The technological experiences was that a
engines, as the US was an gained from the ‘first generation’
important export market and the were not passed onto the lawn mower
Californian market was an ‘second generation’ due to a
important ‘reference group’ for
future product success.
management decision to shift
product development and
pollutes
Product development
production from Sweden to
Norway. however, the manufac-
more during
Husqvarna AB had developed
a competence in mechanical
turing of the ‘second generation’
products used an approach that
one hour than
construction work and had
was completely different to that
many years of experience in the
used in the rest of the industry. a car travelling
engineering industry. The battery
The new idea was to produce a
mower was basically an electrical
construction and the technologi-
machine that minimised the use between the
of energy and power without
cal competence had to be bought
externally, which led to high
performance loss. This was a two biggest
different way of thinking in the
levels of initial investment.
The battery-powered mower is
gardening industry because
competition was usually based
cities in
a green product in the sense that
it is free from exhaust fumes and
on products with lots of horse-
power. The product development
Sweden.
it is noiseless, and the chassis
group was particularly concerned
material is made of recyclable
about how to minimise the use
plastic. What is interesting is that
of natural resources and how to
initially there were no green
extend the battery’s life cycle eg.
product development strategies,
by automatically turning the
as the product development
battery off before it ran out. The
group did not consider the above
new new product development
mentioned as environmental
group displayed a clearer under-
characteristics but as product
standing of environmental issues
features. This was partly to do
and looked to implement this in
with the batteries, which were
new eco-designed products.
not perceived to be green or
even as greener forms of power. Experiences of the
The product developers argued battery-powered mower
that the mower should not be The following seven points
marketed as an environmental present implicit and explicit
product. experiences from the intro-
duction of the battery-powered
The selling arguments used were:
mower. These experiences have
‘…a rechargeable battery-driven
emerged from the interviews
mower, which does not disturb
and are an interpretation of
the neighbours.’
the material.
‘…light weight.’

ANALYSIS
7 8 1
Cost estimations of green Identification of a new target Re-education of customers
products are misleading group – professional users used to conventional engines
6 2
Re-learning of marketing Experiences from the Market differentiation
experiences and knowledge battery-powered mower between city and country
5 4 3
‘Time-to-market’ is The battery-powered mower Overcome scepticism
both resource- and is a substitute product not a of distributors
quality-demanding complementary product
Figure 1: Experiences resulting from the launch of the battery-powered mower
· ‘Re-education of customers marketed using environmental from a strategic point of view

used to conventional engine- arguments – how would the this experience may be the
technology’ – the traditional countryside’s demand have most important. Because of
‘engine-using’ customers had developed? This aspect had not satisfactory sales and faith in
to be convinced about the been considered in the original the development of battery
benefits of the new way of marketing activities. technology the company chose
mowing grass using battery · ‘Overcome scepticism of to continue with the battery-
power. The customers said: ‘it distributors’ – it is important driven mowers, which
doesn’t smell or sound like a to overcome the distributor’s contributed to the discontinua-
lawn mower’. The selling scepticism concerning new tion of electric mower
efforts at ‘point-of-sale’ were green products. In this case the development.
also more extensive then distributors did not approve of · ‘“Time-to-market” is both
expected. the product because they would resource and quality demand-
· ‘Market differentiation between lose maintenance business. The ing’ – in this case the product
city and country’ – issues of battery-driven mowers did not was resource intensive. The
market differentiation and a require a great deal of main- ‘ºtime-to-market’ issue was an
demand patterns appeared after tenance in a traditional sense, essential consideration due to
launch. The product appeared due to an electric ignition the seasonality of the gardening
to fit customers’ requirements system and no need for oil market. The industry is fragile
in well-populated areas. changes, etc. To overcome the because if the product is not in
However, the company claimed distributors’ resistance, more outlets by the Spring, there is a
the countryside was two to time and resources should have risk of missing a season of
three years behind more popu- been invested in education. sales, which clearly can
lated areas regarding interests · ‘The battery-powered mower jeopardise the success of the
and demand. Thus the question is a substitute product not a product. The balance between
is, if the product had been complementary product’ – increased ‘time-to-market’ and

ANALYSIS
quality aspects for the launch of an incremental step towards that ‘we were waiting for some-
new products is a difficult task. environmentally sound products, thing to happen’. The company
· ‘Re-learning of marketing as it does not use fossil fuels or had been looking for future
experience and knowledge’ – electricity in generating power. alternatives for a long time and
this includes the distribution Therefore it does not emit the concept of a solar-driven
network and the development exhaust fumes or other pollu- mower embodied the modernity
of new learning and re-learning tants in generating power either and vision that management was
processes within Husqvarna in the garden or at the power looking for. When the product’s
AB’s organisation. This includes plant. The product is a robot, inventor presented the prototype
the learning of new selling which mows at random and at a trade fair in 1991 the whole
practices and the revision of looks after itself without human industry laughed and said ‘there
past practices. There was a gap intervention. The product starts is not a market for that yet’,
between past selling practices automatically in the morning ‘that looks like a toy, can it
and the requirement for the when there is enough sunlight. mow?’ However Husqvarna AB
selling of green products. At On cloudy or rainy days it takes expressed the opposite opinion
‘point-of-sale’, there was a things a little easier, depending ‘this looks very interesting, let’s
need for product information, on the available light. The work- do something about it, let’s meet
especially on environmental ing zone of the mower is bound the inventor’. The project group
aspects. The benefits of eco- by a hidden, low voltage wire saw the product’s potential as an
designed products need to be loop, which is powered by a ‘image maker’, ie. as a product
fully communicated if business discrete solar panel. that would help create an image
success is to be achieved. of an innovative company
Course of events
Appropriate education, developing innovative products.
The original product patent
training and information Another key issue was that the
was acquired in 1993 and was
programmes are essential company had rationalised exten-
introduced in the same year as
if green products are to sively at the end of the 80s and
a prototype to the distributors.
win market share. had entered the 90s as a slim
This generated enormous interest
· ‘Cost estimations of green organisation. The fact that the
from the public and media.
products are misleading’ – cost company was solid and could
However, production did not
estimations and pay-back are invest was an important factor
start until 1995 due to production
inaccurate measures of the in the decision to move the
adjustments, with sales to the
overall impact of the product. project forward.
final customer starting later that
The problem is related to the Product development
year. The product is a business
lack of predictability of future
success because it has increased The new solar technology shifted
revenues of green products.
brand awareness but due to high the focus from horsepower to
There is also a need to develop
pricing the product has not been watts as an energy source (with
new accounting practices that
a sales success. the product using the same
‘factor-in’ externalities eg. use
power as an electric bulb). A
of natural resources. Driving forces
micro computer is programmed
In the beginning of the 90s the
to mow randomly with small
gardening business started to
Case study two: razor knives instead of a
become a mature market with
traditional rotating knife. The
The Solar Mower falling margins, with new product
solar technology required new
The product: The Solar Mower introductions incorporating
competence and attracted
minor product modifications.
This case study describes the several external consultants and
In the research survey, intervie-
launch of a solar-driven mower. distributors who wanted to take
wees stated that the gardening
The technology of using daylight part in the generation of the
industry was ‘standing still’ and
as fuel to drive a lawn mower is technology.

ANALYSIS
5 1
The product is Bridge the scepticism of
an image-maker distributors and customers
4
The product is a Experiences from the
concept product solar-driven mower
3 2
Identification of target Form of distribution –
groups and markets key factor
Figure 2: Experiences resulting from the launch of the Solar Mower
The product Marketing customers had no experience

of solar-driven mowers.
The lessons were extensive. The
is a new Solar Mower is a niche product
and required specific marketing.
Experiences
The following five points present
concept, The product is a new concept,
which requires customers to
implicit and explicit experiences
from the introduction of the
change their perceptions of how
which requires to mow grass. The marketing had
Solar Mower. The experiences
have emerged from the inter-
to be based on symbolic aspects,
customers to which had to be visible to the
views and they are an interpreta-
tion of the material.
customer ie. modern and futuris-
change their tic. The product had to perform,
· ‘Bridge the scepticism of
distributors and customers’ –
but it had to give the perception
the project presented evidence
perceptions of functionality and usefulness.
The Solar Mower reflected its
of the need for product
demonstration to generate
of how to consumers, and communicated
that they are modern and/or
sales. The distributors learnt
this before Husqvarna AB, stat-
mow grass. environmentally conscious. To
help the customer appreciate the
ing that the selling, negoiation
and demonstration took valu-
product, it was not enough to
able time away from the selling
present the raw technology, it
of other products. Initially,
had to create an image that
there where doubts expressed
related to the target market. The
by some distributors of the
product required demonstration
ability to sell the product at all.
and demanded more information
A perception of customers was
compared to conventional
‘nice product but can it really
products, simply because
mow?’

ANALYSIS
· ‘Form of distribution is a key at the ‘easy’ end are products amongst customers, in different
factor’ – the form of distribu- such as the lawn mower with organisational departments
tion in Sweden as well as in a catalytic converter. The and within distributors.
other markets did not corre- company’s brand awareness
Where can we find new
spond to the demand in has increased because of the
experience in the company?
well-populated areas. product. The product signals to
Project groups, environmental
· ‘Identification of target the customer the vision of the
coordiantors and distributors
groups and markets’ – the company, as one which devel-
have generated new experience
profile of the target market ops new innovative products.
and knowledge as a result of the
for the product was unknown In addition, the customers
green product launches, but the
before launch. The process of are now also aware that the
knowledge is limited to each
launching helped uncover the company also works in the
person. Members of project
customers, their needs and how gardening product industry,
groups have acted as ‘intra-
much they were willing to pay. and is not exclusively a manu-
preneurs’ and have searched
The marketing department tried facturer of chain saws and
for information and knowledge
to cover too many markets and forestry products.
in different parts of the organisa-
launched the product at the
tion. The ‘individual search
same time with the same
Discussion – what, where, process’ takes time and
concept. In retrospect, the
product should have been
and how to understand resources, and has not lead to
green products? the diffusion of knowledge. So,
tested on a ‘reference market’
the company faces the task of
and market research should What can we learn from trying to facilitate the knowledge
also have been conducted. The the case studies? transfer processes, especially the
distributors should have been
Husqvarna AB started to generate transformation from ‘individual
involved on a larger scale to
experience regarding environ- knowledge’ to ‘organisational
‘check the market’ before
ment-related issues at the begin- knowledge’. This will be the first
launching. The launch was an
ning of the 90s. The two case step towards improving the
educational process for the
studies are partially a result of organisational learning structure
company in which valuable
the company’s efforts to under- in relation to green product
information and knowledge
stand the complexity and the development.
was discovered. Today it is
new learning required to develop
possible to detect target groups How can a company increase
green products. Lessons learnt
for the product such as profes- its organisational learning?
include:
sionals and ‘business to busi- The main element of organisa-
· there are different driving
ness’ markets such as, industrial tional learning is the ability of
forces for green products
areas, holiday camps, hotels the entire company to create
compared to conventional
and recreational areas. knowledge, and to diffuse and
products
· ‘The product is a niche product’ use it in products, services and
· green products require a
– the marketing of the Solar systems. When organisations
different form of communica-
Mower should have been learn, they learn from individuals
tion and information profile
treated differently from main- in other departments,
· there is a degree of insecurity
stream products, especially the subsidiaries, or from other
over the marketing of environ-
communication and selling organisational arrangements
mental messages
practices. (Kim, 1993). Procedures are
· it is important to find forms of needed to collect and diffuse
· ‘The product is an “image
distribution that fit the require- experience and knowledge so
maker”’ – the company were
ments of the product’s that it becomes organisational
able to position the Solar
characteristics knowledge. Husqvarna AB has
Mower at the innovative end of
its green product portfolio ie. · new knowledge can be found realised that in order to learn

ANALYSIS
The study more in relation to green prod-

ucts, ‘follow-up projects’ and
learning. However, before new
learning can take place, unlearn-
indicates documentation must be

completed as a way of making
ing has to happen. Unlearning
becomes increasingly difficult the
knowledge more explicit. more established and integrated
that learning Experience shows it is cross- the cognitive structures are
functional and cross-hierachy (Hedberg & Wolff 1997). Green
processes group discussions coupled with products are more information-
documentation, which are and education-intensive than
resulting from important elements in the conventional products in the
knowledge diffusion process. introduction phase.
green product The study indicates that learning
There are our key actors in this
processes resulting from green
process:
development product development seem to be
different in comparison to the
· customers
· company staff
seem to be learning resulting from conven-
tional products. The organisa- · the marketing department
tional approach has to be built · distributors.
different in to respond to, not only techno-
The following examples show
logical change, but also market
comparison to changes. It must also learn to
the lack of information and
education in the introductory
understand green customer pref-
the learning erences, local environmental
phase of green products.
awareness and environmental The customers hold certain

resulting from legislation in different markets.
This illustrates that there appears
beliefs and myths about the
performance, capacity, quality
conventional to be a multi-dimensional learn-

ing process taking place in the
and the price sensitivity of green
products. These beliefs should be
products introduction phase. The company

needs to focus on the internal
dealt with at ‘point-of-sale’, as
customers want answers to their
learning ie. learning within the environmental questions such as
company (individual and intra- ‘what is a catalytic converter’,
functional), as well as external ‘what kind of environmental
learning (customers and the certification does this product
competition) in order to increase have’, ‘how much does the
the understanding of the issues product effect the environment’,
surrounding green product devel- etc. These questions take time
opment. for the distributor to answer,
and they need training and
Practical examples of ‘missing
information.
links’ in the organisational
learning process of green Company staff appear to have great
products personal interest in environmen-
The examples from the case tal issues. There were requests
studies illustrate the necessity for product-related environmen-
to ‘organise new knowledge’, tal information concerning the
an area where there is inertia. It effects of products during
takes time for an organisation to production and use phases, as
learn and establish a programme well as the content of the
to encourage organisational products. The existing product

ANALYSIS
specification was not sufficient; Conclusion

it needed to be complemented References
Many Swedish companies are
with relevant environmental Bragd, A. and R. Wolff, ‘From
incorporating environmentally-
information. Many of the inter- product concept to market
related activities into their prod-
viewees wanted to be presented concept’. A pilot study concern-
uct ranges. These companies are
with ‘credible’ hard facts ing environmental sound prod-
experiencing a learning process,
concerning the green products. It ucts. GRI, Gothenburg Research
which is highlighting the need to
was felt by employees that sales Institute, (1996).
communicate collective environ-
arguments should not be based
mental knowledge within the Bragd, A, ‘The organising of
on arguments such as ‘saving the
organisation. The findings from environmentally sound prod-
Earth’.
the case studies indicate the need ucts’. A forthcoming licentiate
The distributor is a linchpin in the for different approaches to devel- thesis. GRI, Gothenburg
sale and promotion of green oping and implementing market- Research Institute, (1997).
products. Therefore, the training ing and product development
Kim, D. H. ‘The link between
of this group is crucial to the strategies, when launching green Individual and Organizational
success of green products. This products. This paper argues that learning’, in Management
group was not fully informed of there is a more complex and Review, (Fall 1993) pp1-24, 37-50.
the issues before market intro- multi-dimensional learning
duction, which had a negative process taking place in the Hedberg, B. and R. Wolff,
effect on sales. The localisation ‘Organizing, learning and
introductory phase of green
of the distributor and the devel- strategizing – From construction
products compared to conven-
to discovery.’ Contribution to
opment of the competence of tional products. Green products
the Ladenburg Kolleg on
the distributor are areas of key require a higher degree of market
Organizational Learning, (1997).
importance. differentiation. Therefore green
The marketing department built up marketing will need to address
its own base of environmental the issue of local adjustments,
knowledge from scratch. In rela- with greater efforts to educating
tion to certain aspects it had to and training those involved in
the product development
Acknowledgement
unlearn certain marketing prac-
tices. The launch strategy was a process, particularly those in The author would like to
kind of ‘green’ training for the distribution networks. Product gratefully thank the company
marketing staff, as they gained development strategies need Husqvarna AB for the opportu-
an important insight into how to be formulated to correspond nity to study and take part in the
to market such products. The to local green consumer company’s learning process and
marketing department also demands. To build on the share its green product develop-
found that the experiences of experiences of green product ment experiences. Husqvarna AB
distributors were essential in development effective knowledge is helping to spread important
order to adjust activities. collection and then diffusion information through its insights
mechanisms must be established, into green product activities via
particularly in complex its collaborations within the
organisational structures. • academic community.

ANALYSIS
Sustainable design:
re-thinking future business
products
Colin Beard and Rainer Hartmannn
Lecturer, School of Leisure Management, Sheffield Hallam
University, UK
Consultant, HCS Consulting, Germany and Visiting Lecturer,
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Environmental impact reduction is Introduction

starting to influence product design.
his article seeks to cultivate
But ‘sustainable design’ will need
to move on, to find innovative
T a ‘sustainable design’ culture
that moves on from the prevail-
solutions to overcome the threats
ing tendency to focus on the
to global natural capital for future
environmental impact reduction
Colin Beard (left) is a lecturer, writer generations. Design, if freed from
of a product. Beyond design for
and trainer specialising in environmental a compliance mentality, the over-
recycling, repair, re-usability,
issues. He has been a training advisor powering dominance of science
and recovery (Fiksel, 1996, Burall,
to the Countryside Commission UK and and other barriers to creativity
1991, Fussler et al., 1996) lies
was instrumental in creating the UK’s and innovation, may well start to
exciting opportunities to
first Dti-funded computerised environ- develop different patterns of think-
re-think design, not only to
mental awareness training package ing. Their products may actually
produce more with lower levels
called Earthwise. He has designed and revitalise earth systems by produc-
of natural resource consumption,
delivered environmental awareness ing ‘e-plus’ effects, as well as
but to design products which
programmes to organisations in the UK, saving vast sums of money. Nature
can create an environmental
Europe and Asia. He has a particular itself, with billions of years of
contribution or payback.
interest in the use of creativity, design experience, can offer many
risk and innovation in learning. solutions. The campaigning envi- Weizsaecker et al., in ‘Factor
ronmental movement is pushing for Four’, a new Report to the Club
Rainer Hartmann (right) is a consultant of Rome, commented that
a new solutions agenda, and form-
on European economy and ecology and ‘changing the direction of
ing partnerships with business to
visiting lecturer at the School of Leisure progress is not something a book
develop new products that do more
Management of Sheffield Hallam can do. It has to be done by
with less earth resources. This
University. Following studies in biology, people… motivation needs to be
article gives practical examples
chemistry, European economy and experienced as compelling and
from clothes to washing machines,
international business administration urgent by a critical mass of
from cars to toothbrushes, from
and 8 years in environmental and people otherwise there won’t be
countries where resources are
genotoxicology research he specialised enough momentum to change
abundant to those where resources
in European Union R&D policies and the course of our civilisation.’
are scarce. Ideas and checklists
economy, comparative international (Weizsaecker et al, 1997, p xix).
are offered to help design re-think
approaches to environmental
and to move to resource reduction Sustainable design requires a
management and conservation,
and ‘e+’ products. greater critical mass of people
as well as environmental toxicology.

ANALYSIS
with the confidence to overcome worldwide total gross national to be seduced by complex data
the notion that: ‘the develop- product at £11 trillion p.a. (The that appears as infallible as ‘fact’.
ment of environmentally respon- Independent, 1997). Extrapola- BT have tried to overcome such
sible new products was regarded tions by Weizsaecker et al problems by including represen-
as a very difficult and compli- suggest that global waste is tatives from many sectors of
cated task which went beyond currently in the order of £6 tril- society, including school chil-
the expertise and experience lion p.a. (Weizsaecker et al., dren who represent the concerns
of the majority of personnel… 1997). Thus we ‘waste’ more than of the next generation, on their
(except) …the scientists and half of the world’s GNP at liaison panel within their envi-
environmental experts.’ present – much of this is from ronmental management system
(Dermody et al, 1996, p 377). inefficiency in design: ‘Business (Tuppen, 1993). Many people
Business’ entrepreneurial spirit should sack the unproductive around the globe could be given
can be re-directed to promote Kilowatt-hrs, tonnes and litres the opportunity to contribute to
creative thinking patterns for rather than their workforce’ the sustainable design process.
the effective use of natural (Weizsaecker et al., 1997).
Scientists, particularly engineers
assets and, as de Bono suggests,
and chemists, head up many of
to achieve this there needs to be
The sustainable designer – the environmental units to be
‘provocative operations’ that
found in Fortune 500 compa-
defy logic. a chimera of scientist,
nies; their thinking patterns are
artist, and economist
more likely to be associated with
The scientific ‘mindset’ currently environmental damage limitation
Driving design
dominates our environmental rather than eco-design. Products
A recent Harvard Business agenda and design programmes; and services are often concen-
review article commented that driven by compliance, legal and trated on life cycle assessment
‘Businesses spend too many of technical requirements and envi- (LCA) with limited connection
their environmental dollars on ronmental management systems to life style change (LSC). The
fighting regulation and not (EMS) rather than innovation discourse of the latter is not that
enough on finding real solutions’ and opportunity. Some commen- of scientists but of the green
(Porter, M.E., van der Linde, C., tators have argued that sociolo- lobby and to some extent the
1995). Finding ‘solutions’ to the gists have not entered the debate public [Redclift & Benton, op
environmental problems is going because of the technocratic cit.] Scientists may thus be
to be increasingly difficult. But managerialism which dominates spending time re-designing the
what are real solutions and to environmental policy and prac- wrong products – efficiency and
what extent could new thinking tice. They note that the ‘gap impact reduction dominating
benefit sustainable design? If between ‘lay’ perceptions of over effectiveness and true
sustainable design involves environmental crisis and official sustainable design. B&Q, the
designing products that meet the scientific, technical and policy British ‘do-it-yourself’ retailer
needs of the present generation discourse, is of course, one area that has made great strides in
without compromising the abil- for sociological explanation’ environmental management, has
ity of future generations to meet (Redclift & Benton, 1994, p.1). In recently completed a detailed
their own needs, then the utili- the post Brent Spar analysis of evaluation of the global warming
sation and condition of the the battle between Greenpeace effect per item of hammers
remaining Natural Capital should and Shell senior managers at shipped from Taiwan into the
be a fundamental concern to Shell commented that as scien- UK. (B&Q, 1995, and personal
designers. Current estimates by tists they were trained to look at discussions with Dr Alan
the Centre for Ecological ‘fact’ not emotion – this cost the Knight/B&Q). Whilst acknowl-
Analysis at the University of company dearly. Researchers are edging that the social science
California label nature as worth familiar with the limitations of data is less convincing, LCA
£20 trillion p.a. That is twice the such positivist barriers: it is easy involves detailed and expensive

ANALYSIS
Impact
A B C
Quantity
x Ax Bx Cx
high impact medium impact low impact
+ high quality + high quality + high quality
y Ay By Cy
high impact + medium impact low impact +
medium quality + medium quality medium quality
z Az Bz Cz
high impact medium impact low impact
+ low quality + low quality + low quality
Figure 1: The simple IQ test
scientific analysis and is not upper left in the diagram. The

always possible for many compa- diagram shows if a high impact
nies because of the sheer volume is combined with very low
of their products. B&Q have over quantities it might be much more
44,000 products from 500 effective to focus attention on
suppliers (B&Q, 1995). It is virtu- lower impact items that have
ally impossible to identify accu- their impact multiplied by large
rately the specific environmental amounts.
impact of every product. Some of
Science on its own can create
the energy directed to the meticu-
design paralysis. This can be
lous and detailed analysis of
illustrated by the comparative
impact reduction could be redi-
LCA for phosphates in washing
rected into innovative design.
powders conducted by the
Sustainable design requires a
Oeko-Institut, Freiburg,
multi-disciplinary approach;
Germany. The study took four
using the best bits of the right
years at an estimated 4 million
brain creativity and left brain
DM. By the completion of the
logic.
study phosphate containing
The environmental impact judge- powders had been generally
ment process can be simple and phased out! (Hartmann, 1997).
effective. Such a simple system is
the ABC-XYZ-approach, adopted
from financial controlling
Social science and design;
(Vollmuth, H., 1994). While the lifestyle change, leisure
environmental impact is valued and work
by the figures A, B, C the quanti- Boundaries of work, leisure and
tative importance is valued by charitable work are beginning
the figures x, y, and z (see to fade. Portfolio lifestyles and
Figure 1). ‘downshifting’ are already
The importance of action happening. New forms of
increases from lower right to consumer liberation are

ANALYSIS
Myths and legends: innovation or ideas?

‘Parties are a time to drink and create fertiliser’ as was the case with
the organic gardener who asked the men to urinate in a swing bin to
the rear of the house. Strange behaviour maybe, but the opportunity
to collect free fertiliser was one the gardener couldn’t afford to miss.
Now translate the idea to motorway stations and urine could be seen
as an opportunity, to sell it rather than pay to dispose of it. A Swedish
company (Servator AB) entered this market recently and now offers
composting toilets promoted through the internet [Internet 1996.]
A new breed of scrap merchants are also emerging, opportunist

recycling in the wake of telecommunications growth. Deutsche
Telekom for example report that they produce about 1.5 million tons
of electronic scrap per year. What is interesting is that just one ton
of electronic scrap has the potential to yield:
· 200 kg copper
· 80 kg iron
· 1 kg silver
· 0.5 kg gold!
One major recycling company in Germany is said to turnover DM 2

million/day of gold per day [DTAG (1995)].
‘Saving paper doesn’t save trees’. That will be the case in the future.
If paper isn’t made solely from trees then the old well known saying
doesn’t hold true. Body Shop for example supported a community
initiative in India to make paper out of the Water Hyacinth, an
abundant river weed.
Reprinted from an article by Beard & Hartmann in European

Business Review (vol. 97, no. 5) 1997. Figure 2: Myths and legends –
innovation or ideas?
happening too, recognising the done. Many thousands of people creation of ‘e-plus’ or ‘environ-
need to shift the existing power- each year pay to work: work paid mental positive [e+] could be an
ful ‘retail therapy effect’ of for twice and enjoyed as leisure! important idea for designers.
leisure shopping and spending Providers of Management Current thinking often starts with
into new directions. Such trends Development programmes that the notion that everything has a
will significantly influence prod- use the outdoors are now realis- negative impact on the environ-
uct design. The main product of ing that the environment is both ment; this is a design barrier.
one of Britain’s largest conserva- a location and a new product: by
tion charities, the British Trust doing conservation projects such
for Conservation Volunteers, as rebuilding dry-stone walls or
Patterns of thinking –
involves turning environmental replanting forests rather than barriers and opportunities
work into a leisure activity. This climbing and abseiling – as the What do these short examples in
is their most profitable and popu- basis of their process skills devel- Figure 2 tell us? The ideas were
lar green service product develop- opment – they actually simply offered to inspire some
ment: people pay to work and contribute positively to the creative thought. Innovation
landowners pay to get the work natural environment. This needs to move up a gear to

ANALYSIS
overcome the ‘can’t do’ barriers. patterns of East and West

The Trabant Germany. Figure 4 offers the
Innovation and creativity was the
Car production in the German notion that different patterns of
theme of a recent 1997 Institute
Democratic Republic provides environmental design may
of Personnel and Development
us with an interesting example emerge under conditions of
(IPD) conference in Harrogate
of creative thought. With wealth as opposed to poverty or
and one speaker, Clifford
waiting periods of about 20 frugality; shown on the horizon-
Pinchot, described the struggle
years for an ordered car, and tal axis. ‘Elegant frugality’ is a
that many of the world’s creative
with car life cycles running key design principle of Lee Eng
people have faced to get their
at 8–10 years, a whole new Lock, the Singaporean designer
products to be developed fully
business emerged rebuilding of the world’s most efficient
(see JSPD Issue 1, p. 53–56).
the ‘Trabant’ [the ‘mini’ of the air-conditioning system
East], buying and selling all ‘Creativity and innovation’,
(Weizsaecker et al., 1997, p. 53).
parts for this car and rebuild- he comments, ‘are often
Industry also sees competition as
ing the cars after accidents or suppressed’. In ‘People
threatened by environmental
after 20 years on the road. Management’, the Journal of the
legislation rather than the view
Special refashioned body IPD, the comment is made that
that it could drive creativity and
panels were being sold to ‘Innovation is experiencing a
enterprise. Dominant thinking
make a 20 or 30 years old car renaissance’: the Department of
patterns are thus embedded in
look new and fashionable. The Trade and Industry (Dti) actually
‘Trabant’, because of a short- the top left hand quadrant; here
has an Innovation Unit and there
age of sheet metal, had a car it is thought, lies opportunity
are now MBAs in Innovation,
body made from a steel frame and the competitive position.
and two thirds of secondary
with screwed on panels that This thinking is erroneously
schools in Singapore teach inno-
were made of pressed cotton driving sustainable design
vative thinking and in New
soaked with synthetic resin whereas the bottom quadrant is
Zealand children as young as two
(Beard and Hartmann, seen as the position of low
are being taught to think
European Business Review, design opportunity and a less
creatively. The article also asks
1997). This so-called cotton in competitive position.
how much potential invention is
fact was often second hand
locked up inside ‘ordinary The car industry should be awash
clothes felted and pressed to
employees’ (Pickard, J., 1996). with creativity (Weizsaecker et
car body shape panels.
al). However, some of the design
Different forms of design inno-
ideas have been a survival
vation flourish in times of war or
response to increasing regulatory
when resources are very scarce.
Figure 3: The Trabant pressures to reduce the transport
Frugality produces innovative
impact on the environment.
patterns of thought, as constraint
Whereas ’German and Japanese
drives a ‘design for necessity’.
car makers captured early-mover
Innovation lethargy is a major advantages, …US car makers
barrier towards the product chose to fight regulations’
greening process. Just as we have (Porter, M.E., van der Linde, C.,
learnt that the North has often 1995). Environmental regulation,
attempted to design and export rather than voluntary change,
inappropriate technology to the can either be perceived as a
South, failing to adjust and adapt threat to business or in practice
to a different kind of creativity a positive driving force creating
requirement, so we must learn opportunities for innovation and
from the emerging creativity sustainable design.

ANALYSIS
Voluntary change
perceived as low threat to survival and enterprise
Wealth & design Frugality & design

High technology Traditional/proven
Wants Re-invention
New gadgets Needs
Novel-innovation Adaptive-innovation
Environmental regulation
perceived as high threat to survival and enterprise
Above
Solutions campaigning Figure 4: Barriers to sustainable
Greenpeace showed industry that any car produced today can be built design; the square and the circle
with a 50% fuel reduction for about the same price with no compromise
on safety. The average car fuel efficiency for new cars is still under Left
40 mpg. There were lots of declarations of interest by industry and Figure 5: Solutions campaigning
other institutions but little action. Greenpeace eventually gave a loan of
£1.1 million to the engineering company in Switzerland who developed
the Twingo SMILE car [Small Intelligent Light and Efficient] (Brent
Spar Conference, 1996). Cars are denounced as a major source of
pollution, yet with some basic changes they could become the street
air cleaners, hoovering and filtering the polluted air and possibly
cleaning the streets. The shift from unwelcome to welcome is not too
far away; another ‘e+’ example in the making (see JSPD Issue 1, p.44).
A growing number of select campaigning’ to lead the way central band of the earth where,
business’ are emerging as a in some areas of eco-design unlike Europe, the sketch pad
potentially powerful positive (see Figure 5). was not wiped clean by an ice-
social force, doing more with its age 15,000 years ago. Many of
purchasing power and innovative the new emerging markets are
energy. At the same time
Natural ideas and design related either to genetic and
campaigning organisations are But, eco-innovation is rarely plant/animal stock, species
now re-focusing some of their driving patterns of thought on patenting, biotechnology or to
energy on what has become design boards; we often fail to general development in areas
known as the ‘solutions agenda’ effectively learn from evolution. where tropical natural resources
moving from detective work The earth systems have had some are traded for infrastructure
and the ‘politics of blame’ to the 4.6 billion years on the drawing development. For example, Eli
support of innovative problem- board. The stock markets actually Lilly is one of the world’s largest
solving. Greenpeace for example confirm that much of the earth’s drug manufacturer and has made
are investing large sums of clever design and current large profits out of plants such as
money through their ‘solutions resource wealth still exists in the the Madagascar Periwinkle. The

ANALYSIS
company currently trades at an urgently seeking waste for

astonishing £45 a share, one of processing. A waste war has
the most expensive on the stock commenced and disposal fees
market. could drop significantly (Der
Spiegel, 1996). Resource exchange
Then there is the case of the
agencies will in the future offer
outdoor clothing industry which
four parties a profit:
has for many years struggled to
produce the ideal material that · those who get rid of their waste
keeps us warm and dry – but · those who buy in their
Disposable toothbrush heads doesn’t ‘sweat’. Plants came to recycled material
the rescue. Gore-tex, Sympatex, · the recycling stock agent
Supplex and Pertex have all who charges a commission
attempted to solve the problem. · and the environment.
We have for But in 1996 a new product was
designed (partly funded by the
years used UK Dti) called Stomatex which Seeing it differently
warms and breathes by following We have for years used razors
razors with the natural design of plant stom- with disposable ‘heads’ but many
ata; sadly the copyright fee to people continue to use tooth-
disposable nature will not be paid. Patagonia
on the other hand, have recently
brushes that are totally dispos-
able. The photograph shows the
‘heads’ but been able to make their outdoor

fleece jackets out of recycled
development of simple re-design
principles – yet disposable tooth-
plastic bottles – producing fibres
many people that are small enough to feel soft
brush heads still haven’t reached
retail shelves, eg. UK. The
to the touch. Here we see econ- simplest ideas are still to be
continue to use omy (rules) meeting ecology discovered. Why do washing
(natural logic) head on as busi- machines not filter out deter-
toothbrushes ness communities increasingly gents rather than releasing chem-
seek to understand natural icals directly into water systems.
that are totally systems; as waste markets
develop alongside stock markets,
Filter systems to collect house-
hold water from baths and sinks
disposable. as linear economic product
development models are replaced
– and potentially from washing
machines and dishwashers were
by cyclical ecologically focused recently reported (Stansell, 1997).
models. Waste stock exchanges Products that produce cleaner
for example have recently output water than the input
emerged on the internet. source are possible; such a wash-
Following strict German ing machine would be a good
legislation for waste handling and example of an ‘e+’ product. For
recycling, incineration facilities example, Hoechst AG claim that
have mushroomed within the the cooling water from the river
last few years. This has created Main which they have to clean
change and opportunities for the prior to use is returned cleaner
waste industry. Only a few years than it was.
ago waste was transported Water is certainly precious; for
around Germany, exported, or Europe as a whole 53% of water
illegally dumped to dispose of abstracted is for industry, 26%
it; the operators nowadays are for agriculture and 19% for

ANALYSIS
household use… and one-third

Living buildings of European countries have
Many very exciting and innovative rooftop ideas have already been relatively low availability of
generated such as solar power, rainwater collection, living/growing water ie. less than 500m3/
roofs and so on. But the roof is the least interesting aspect of the high person/year (Industrial
rise concrete forests currently growing at an alarming pace in the Environmental Management,
Asian Pacific. Perhaps new construction ideas could contribute yet 1997). So as water prices rise we
more if we focus on the most significant surface areas; not on the roof will re-examine this environ-
but on the sides or walls. The Twin Towers in Malaysia completed in mental resource ‘product’ and
1996 reach up to the sky with 88 floors and 451.9m from street level. This
the purpose of the household
means that the walls are now the largest surface area. Here lies the
or factory roof may change (see
creative opportunity!
Figure 6). People are not really
The primary energy on earth is produced by green tissues in plants. If sure what water costs but at
such photosynthesis systems could be incorporated within construction £0.60-0.70 per m2 compared
materials, it could be possible to produce energy and bio-mass just to £2600 for the same amount
from sunlight, water and the carbon dioxide (CO2) of the air? Scientists
of beer it seems good value!
have recently developed a chlorophyll like substance, that if closed
between two sheets of glass produces roughly the same amount of
electric power that silicon based photovoltaic cells do when exposed to Conclusions
sunlight. This new system is at the early developmental stage but can
Two useful charts are shown
possibly produce much cheaper electricity than silicon photovoltaic
below giving simple steps to
cells (The Open University 1996). Blue-green algae are also bred in
huge glass tubes or plastic bags producing high amounts of bio-mass. improve creative thinking (see
A constant flow system could be incorporated within the panels of a Figures 7 and 8). It is important
skyscraper which could provide a considerable amount of bio-mass to see the product first – by
being used for either nutrition, bio-fuels or sugars (the raw material taking a closer look – and
of future plastics) and fix CO2 in our cities at the same time. Air born then break it down into its
pollutants could be filtered through the air conditioning systems constituent parts. We use wash-
supplemented with suitable filters. Living coatings could also be ing machines that dispose of
introduced onto concrete surfaces to produce an ‘e+’ effect. water and detergents into the
drainage system and into the
water supply but we could filter
this out and dispose of it sepa-
Figure 6: Living buildings
rately. We could design cars to
clean the polluted city air, and
we can design buildings that can
contribute to pollution control
and clean air. Design is getting
Shifting design principles: interesting and we have many
examples of design for dis-
E-reduction (e-) E-zero (eØ) E-plus (e+) assembly, design for recycling,
for repairing, for reducing
pollution and so on. But
Figure 7: Shifting the ‘E‘ design for ‘e+’ is new.
In the near future sustainable
design will start to focus on new
markets and products; shifting
from simple environmental
impact reduction through zero

ANALYSIS
Check it, challenge it and change it!
Metaphor Product People Barriers
1 CHECK the · What does it look like now? · Audit · No time to look
product – · What is it made up of? · Product analysis · Activity trap
just look! · Is it each component · Deconstruct · Environment as a threat
‘e+’ or ‘e-’? · Observe to competition
· How environmentally · Collect information · Can’t see
unfriendly is it? · Watch people
· Use the ABC/XYZ analysis
2 REVIEW – · Does it have to be like this? · Challenging public · Resistance to change

challenge · Can it be different? and private beliefs · Environment as soft
its design · What do we think about this? and values · Environment is not my
· What are our ‘E’ values at · Preferences worry
home with the family and · Seeing it differently · It’s not in my interest
our children? Transport · Visioning, fantasising, · Yes but…
these to work. brainstorming · Pessimism
· Challenging existing
thinking
· Creating new thought
patterns. Take a risk –
use imagination and
humour
3 CHANGE its · New products · New lifestyles · Innovation lethargy

design… or · Natural designs · Downshifters
the product · Natural ingredients · Teleworkers
· Natural payback · Job sharers
· Reducing ‘e-’ · Local social
· Moving to ‘e+’ responsibilities
· Your business as
a social force
Reproduced from an article by Beard and Hartmann in European Business Review (Vol. 97, no. 5); 1997.
Figure 8: Check it, thinking (zero emissions) to tions. Sustainable design barriers
challenge it and change it environmental contribution and exist in the form of mindsets,
‘e+’ products. The whole basis of minimalist anti-legislation think-
product design will be challenged ing, impact reduction thinking,
as we look to new ways to new needs and consumer gadgets
contribute, in any way, towards and science as the ‘solution’.
undoing and repairing environ- However, new green product
mental damage. Business is drivers are coming into play:
producing little ∑· nature as a designing force
‘environmental profit’ from the ∑· solutions campaigning
earth’s natural capital resulting
∑· the legitimacy of creativity,
in a bank account that leaves
innovation and emotion as
little to sustain future genera-
well as science and logic

ANALYSIS
∑· the possible contribution of

References the social sciences now
entering the environmental
B&Q, ‘How Green is My Front Internet,
debate
Door?’ B&Q’s Second http://www.icbl.hw..../~cjs/trabinfo.
∑· the re-focusing entrepreneurial
Environmental Report, Eastleigh, html, p. 1, (17.10.1996)
(1995), p. 66
spirit with business as a new
Local Authorities of Alsbach- social force as we shift from
Bural, P, ‘Green Design’, (New Haehnlein, Germany, LCA to lifestyle change (LSC).
York, Mcgraw-Hill, 1991) Abwassersatzung der Gemeinde
Alsbach-Hähnlein, (1992) Filtering out the negative envi-
de Bono, E. and J. Pickard, ‘A
ronmental impact (e-) will occur
fertile grounding’ in People Pickard, J., ‘A fertile grounding’, in
in product creation and what
Management, Vol.2, No 21, People Management, Vol. 2, No 21,
(24 Oct. 1996), p. 34 (24 Oct. 1996), pp. 28–37
leaves the factories of the future
will generate environmental
Der Spiegel, ‘Sie reißen sich um Porter, M.E., C. van der Linde, benefit (e+). Industry will re-
jede Tonne’, no. 39/96, 1996, ‘Green and Competitive’, Harvard focus on merging economic prin-
pp. 40–48, 23.9. Business Review, (Sept.- Oct. ciples to ecological ideas, and
1995), pp. 120-134
Dermody, J. and S. Hammer-Lloyd, challenge environment as an
‘Greening New Product Redclift and Benton ‘Social Theory economic eternality.
Development: The Pathway to and the Global Environment’, Greener businesses and greener
Corporate Environmental (London, Routledge, 1994)
designers will need to think
Excellence’, in: McDonagh, P.,
Schoon, N., ‘What price nature? differently and talk differently ie.
Prothero, A. (eds.), ‘Green
At £20 trillion a year it is truly our transport not cars, cleaners not
Management’, (London, Dryden
most precious asset’, in The polluters, dirt/detergent filters in
press, 1996), pp. 367-387
Independent, (15 May 1997), p.9 washing machines, insulation as
DTAG (Deutsche Telekom AG, walls, living walls, work as
Stansell, J., ‘Filter system recycles
Environmental Affairs Office), leisure, waste markets as stock
water in the home’, in The Sunday
‘Deutsche Telekom’s markets. The momentum will
Times, (1 June 1997), p. 3.12
Environmental Management gather pace as business re-focuses
System’, (Darmstadt, 1995), The Open University, ‘Renewable itself as a social force linked up
pp 24–25 Energy’, BBC2, (27.11.1996, 00:30) to natural ecological systems
Fiksel, J., ‘Design for Environment’, Tuppen, C., ‘An Environmental through an industrial ecology
(New York, McGraw-Hill, 1996) Policy for British telecommunica- mindset. We will think ‘natural
tions’, in Long Range Planning, Vol value design’ rather than ‘volume
Fussler, C. and P. James, ‘Driving
26, No 5., (1993), pp 24-26. design’ in the future. •
Eco Innovation’ (London, Pitman
Publishing, 1996) Vollmuth, H., ‘Controlling-
Instrumente von A-Z’, 2. ed.,
Hartmann, R., ‘Environmental
(Planegg/München, 1994)
Management and Controlling in
European Telecommunication Weizsaecker, E. von, Lovins, A.B
Enterprises’, Diplomarbeit (Masters and L.H. Lovins, ‘Factor Four-
Thesis), Fachhochschule Fulda, doubling wealth halving resources,
(Germany, 1997) The new Report to the Club of
Rome’, (London, Earthscan, 1997)
Industrial Environmental
Management, ‘Water stress in
Europe’, (March 1997), p.8

ANALYSIS
Sustainability by design:
new targets and new
tools for designers
Ursula Tischnern
econcept, Ecology and Design Consultancy, Cologne, Germany
This article discusses the new Introduction

targets for design resulting from
ollowing the Earth Summit
the ‘Sustainable Development’ para-
digm . Solutions will have to be
F in 1992 over 100 countries
committed themselves to the
created that ‘meet the needs of the
present without compromising the concept of ‘Sustainable
ability of future generations to meet Development’. The World
their own needs’. Besides consider- Commission on Environment
ation of economic, social and and Development defined this
Ursula Tischner studied architecture
ethical issues, this concept will new paradigm as ‘development
and industrial design in Aachen and
demand greater limitations on the that meets the needs of the
the Wuppertal Institute, Germany and
process of technology by the state present without compromising
specialised in eco-design. From 1992 to
and will require designers to the ability of future generations
1996 she worked at the Wuppertal
upgrade their environmental to meet their own needs’
Institute for Climate, Environment and knowledge and abilities. A practical (WCED, 1987).
Energy in the field of ecology and requirement for designers therefore
design. There she was engaged in This paradigm leads us towards a
is that product improvements must
theoretical and practical projects and new dimension in product policy
lead to a life-cycle-wide lowering
wrote a guide for environmentally and design. It is no longer
of material inputs (including the
conscious product design on behalf of materials consumed for the provi- sufficient just to environmentally
the Austrian Ministry for Science and sion of all energy inputs), reduction optimise certain aspects of a
Research. In 1996 she established of waste and emissions, as well as product. To be really ecological,
‘econcept’, a consultancy for ecology the elimination of toxins. This prac- in the sense of sustainable devel-
and design in Cologne. Now she tice is called ‘Design for opment, improvements must lead
advises small- and medium-sized Environment’, ‘ecological design’ or to a life-cycle-wide lowering of
companies (SMEs) on eco-design and ‘eco-design’. material inputs (including the
helps to implement environmental materials consumed for the
Besides the eco-design of products
improvements. She is engaged in the process of sustainable design provision of all energy inputs).
research projects, gives lectures in the should also deal with eco-efficient Otherwise, if considerable mater-
field of ecology and design and service concepts, such as product ial additions are necessary to
develops environmentally sound sharing – ‘environmental leasing’ achieve better performance of an
products and service-concepts. and joint use ie. substituting for isolated parameter, for instance,
the production of new products, fuel consumption in cars, such
thus revising approaches of product ‘improvements’ may become
‘use’. Tools that help to attain these ecologically counter-productive.
targets are being introduced, some
of which are discussed in this
paper.

ANALYSIS
Under this new paradigm we service with a fifth, tenth or even

have to deal with the concept of less energy and materials. The Seven Golden Rules
‘needs’ and social aspects. A goal is in all cases to reap as · The assessment of the
sustainable product policy should many units of service as possible environmental impacts
create products that are able to from each ‘service delivery of goods has to integrate
meet the needs of people, espe- machine,’ with as little material the whole life cycle (from
cially the essential needs of the (and low material intensive ‘cradle to grave’)
world’s poor. And we have to energy) inputs as necessary.
· The service intensity of
realise the limitations imposed This holds equally for tableware,
processes and goods has
by the state of technology and cars, and railroad infrastructures,
to be increased drastically
social structures on the environ- during their manufacturing
ment’s ability to meet present phase, through ‘use’ cycles · The material intensity of
and future needs. These limita- (maintenance, operation, processes and goods has
tions must be reduced to a cleaning, repair, collection, to be reduced drastically
minimum. sorting, re-manufacturing, · The energy intensity of
recycling etc.) to the environ- processes and goods
To meet these demands we need
mentally acceptable disposal has to be reduced
‘dematerialised goods’, an eco-
(legally prescribed). In all phases,
efficient service-oriented econ- · The land-use through
transportation and packaging
omy and the revision of product processes and goods
intensities need to be
use, thus – we need new scenar- has to be reduced
considered.
ios of ‘Efficiency and Sufficiency’.
In order to assess the resource · The emission and use
of toxins have to be
intensity of goods and services
What are sustainable in a consistent manner, and thus
eliminated
products and how to to accomplish a first comparison · The ecologically sound
design them? of the respective environmental use of renewables has
With respect to the above impacts, ‘MIPS’ has been devel- to be maximized.
definition of sustainable develop- oped at the Wuppertal Institute.
ment a sustainable product could ‘MIPS’ stands for ‘Material Inputs
be described as ‘a product that Per units of Service’ and must be
Figure 1: Seven golden
meets a definite need by using computed from ‘cradle to grave’.
rules for eco-efficient goods
the smallest amount of materials It counts all material and energy-
Source: Schmidt-Bleek/Tischner, 1995
and energy and creates the small- inputs needed to provide a
est amount of waste and toxins defined service unit. The MIPS
in its whole life cycle’. At the concept allows for, for example,
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, the monitoring of progress
Environment and Energy the toward sustainability on the
‘Seven golden rules for eco- product or process level, or for
efficient goods’ were formulated companies, regions, or countries.
(Figure 1). MIPS does not account for toxic
materials or noise pollution, but
leads to time and cost-efficient
The eco-efficiency revolution estimations (see Footnote).
A technical eco-efficiency There are two ways for designers
revolution is required. With to reach a low-MIPS product or
eco-efficient design it is possible service, each with a different
to provide the same high quality validity:

ANALYSIS
· By re-designing existing
products and inventing new
ones which meet eco-efficiency · Define the problem
demands. This requires the The bundle of services which the product or service should
designer to consider the origi- offer must be defined as clearly as possible.
nal purpose of the product, and
· Search for dematerialised solutions
how this service could be
Is it possible to fulfil the requirements without producing a
fulfilled with the minimum of
new product? If not, then search for new solutions which
harmful environmental effects
provide an appropriate service.
during the product’s entire
‘cradle to grave’ life cycle. · Select the best ideas
· By adopting a more systematic Eliminate obviously unrealistic options and choose the most
approach, to reflect the promising solutions, with the purpose of preserving the
reorganisation of production environment.
and consumption systems,
· Detail the solutions selected
but not necessarily resulting in
Environmentally relevant product properties and the package
a new product, but in a new
of services defined in step 1 must be considered.
service. Such systematic solu-
tions are usually more effective · Evaluation
than changes to the product. The solutions in Step 4 should be compared, as well as current
Nevertheless, they require solutions, to find which will be the most effective. Ensure that all
behavioural changes on the existing optimisations have been taken into account. Use MIPS
part of producers and to estimate the environmental impact potential.
consumers, thus they may be
· Implementation (or return to Step 2)
more difficult to implement.
If a new solution appears advantageous, then it should be
Rather than designing, producing implemented, otherwise return to step 2 and try again. If it seems
and consuming more and more to be impossible to find a better and more environmentally sound
new products we need to create design, the research should be terminated and directed towards
both, new dematerialised goods another problem which could be solved more efficiently.
and alternative ways of selling
services to the user. Concepts
like product sharing, joint use,
Figure 2: A new planning method for eco-efficient design
multiple purpose, and ‘environ-
Source: Schmidt-Bleek/Tischner, 1995
mental leasing’ are possible
steps in that direction.
sound solutions that reduce the services will prevent our eco-
Steps toward sustainable ‘cradle to grave’ consumption logical collapse in the future,
design of matter and energy to a making all other considerations
minimum, as well as waste and less basic (Figure 3).
The first question in a new
harmful substances (Figure 2).
design process should be: The most important decision in
precisely, what kind of service In designing eco-efficient goods an ecologically-oriented product
must the new good or service and services, ecological parame- policy process is, what kind of
fulfil? and what are the problems ters should be considered before customer demands and needs
that need to be solved? With those for health, ergonomics, the company should deal with.
this in mind, the designer should safety, and beauty. This is · Does it have to produce and
search for environmentally because only the availability of sell a product to meet this
ecologically sensible goods and demand?

ANALYSIS
· Is it possible to offer a service? efficient eco-design without

Manufacturing phase: · Is it possible to offer product telling the company that this is
· material intensity leasing? the design process you
· energy intensity · How long should the lifespan are undertaking. Another is to
· renewable resource inputs of the product be extended? find business benefits for the
· useful material outputs company such as marketing
· waste intensity These are questions that must opportunities or ecological
· wastage in production be answered to find the best aspects as part of an unique sell-
· transport and packaging solutions in terms of ecology and ing proposition (USP). Thinking
intensity economy. These basic strategic longer term is an essential part
· hazardous materials decisions influence the whole of these strategies. Experience
· efficient use of land area
production, distribution and shows that eco-designers can
· water consumption
consumption system that is produce improved solutions the
Use phase connected with a good or a earlier they are integrated into
· material throughput service offered by a company. the planning process, provided
· energy inputs and outputs that they are able and willing to
There are three main reasons
· water consumption deal with issues relating to the
why companies are interested
· weight strategic decisions of the
in ecologically sustainable or
· size and area coverage company.
environmentally conscious
· auto-control, auto-
optimisation design: Ultimately, eco-design is only
· multifunctionality · they have problems with as effective as the people who
· potential for subsequent environmental laws or other utilise it, because apart from the
uses conditions and are forced to best available eco-efficient tech-
· potential for joint use improve their products or nologies, we also need a change
(eg. by several households) production processes in terms in people’s behaviour. Efficiency
· longevity of ecology in technologies alone cannot
· surface properties · they expect sales advantages solve the ecological problems if
· anti-corrosivity by integrating environmental we continue to buy and discard
· reparability and social aspects into product as many products as we do today.
· structure and ease of development and their market- Consumers also should realise
disassembly that it is not always necessary
ing activities
· robustness, reliability to own a product, to be able to
· strong personalities lead the
· likelihood of material fatigue
company and integrate social use it. With a little organisation,
· adaptability to technical
and environmental responsibil- a system of sharing should be
progress
ity into business activities (and feasible and relatively effortless
After first use phase their whole life). for such products as cars, lawn
· material composition mowers, washing machines, elec-
and complexity For other companies, which are tric drills, etc. Furthermore, the
· collecting and sorting not concerned about environ- goods we own should have their
opportunities mental and/or social issues, useful life extended as long as
· recycling potential of designers need to have sound possible through effective repair-
parts and materials business arguments to convince ing and then through selling
· incineration potential management that eco-design is them into an efficient second-
· potential for composting the right thing to do. That is hand market. This means a
· impact on environment
always easy where ecology and change in our patterns of use,
after disposal.
economy go together and eco- as well as increasing product
efficient design leads to cost- responsibility on the part of
Figure 3: Checklist for environmentally effective solutions. In other cases consumers and producers alike.
relevant product properties one possibility is to undertake
Source: Tischner/Schmidt-Bleek, 1993
ANALYSIS
FRIA – an example for width, the FRIA has a large inte-

sustainable design rior volume and a small surface-
to-volume ratio. This means that
The FRIA (Figure 4) is a hybrid
less of the low temperature is
between a traditional larder and
lost through its housing, as is the
a modern refrigerator. Once
case with a normal fridge, which
installed, the FRIA, unlike other
can lose up to 80 percent of its
kitchen furniture, remains in
energy in this way.
place. Built into a wall near the
kitchen. The FRIA remains there The FRIA’s cooling system could
until the building is demolished. be a standard compressor unit,
During its entire life span the but almost any new technology
FRIA needs no material input is possible. This is because the
apart from a small amount for cooling system is installed inde-
energy and minimal spare parts. pendently from the cooling
chamber, which makes it easy to
When the FRIA is installed near
exchange. In this way technical
Figure 4: FRIA, designed an exterior wall it can utilise the
improvements could be installed
by Ursula Tischner outside air for cooling in winter.
at convenient intervals. Through
Cold air is conducted into the
its installation into a wall recess
cooling chamber if the tempera-
the product can be insulated with
ture is low enough. This method
alternative chloroflurocarbon-
saves a great deal of energy.
free (CFC) materials, such as
The FRIA is designed to use blown concrete, cork or recycled
circulating air for cooling. There paper. The blow-moulded doors
are three cooling compartments. can be filled with aerogel,
The two uncooled compartments which has improved insulating
are for storing canned goods and properties compared to CFC-
other non-perishable items. The containing polyurethane foams
cooled compartments are located and is environmentally harmless.
in the most ergonomically suit- With this insulation material, the
able position, the freezer is at FRIA has even better insulating
the top, the cooling chamber in properties than today’s best ‘eco-
the centre, and at the bottom a refrigerators’. This, combined
drawer at ‘cellar temperature’ for with the cold outside air being
storing items such as fruits and conducted into the cooling
vegetables. The temperature can chamber in winter and the possi-
be controlled from outside the bility of decreasing the cooling
appliance and the cooling areas individually, reduces the
volume can be adjusted from 100 FRIA’s energy consumption to at
to 220 litres. This makes the FRIA least 50 percent less than that of
Figure 5: The carpet sweeper,
adaptable to a user’s personal a conventional fridge.
designed by Agim Meta
needs.
The FRIA even considers the
The FRIA’s doors are convex, user’s taste, as it offers the
which is not just an aesthetic option of matching the front of
design feature, but a functional the doors and the handles to
element. Despite its narrow existing kitchen furniture.

ANALYSIS
Figure 6: Example of
a Kambium kitchen
The eco-efficient carpet saved by using the carpet and a fairly horizontal organisa-
sweeper sweeper instead of a material tional structure, typical for a
and energy-intensive vacuum company of this size. The
Using a fly-wheel as a mechanical
cleaner. Furthermore, this new managing directors decided very
energy accumulator, the eco-
cleaning tool is designed for early to commit themselves to
efficient carpet sweeper cleans
durability. It is easy to repair and environmental principles. This
very effectively by brushing the
has a steel box, which can easily environmental optimisation
floor without consuming any
be recycled. All its retail parts are started with the choice of the
electricity. The brushes rotate
replaceable, which means that company’s location in an area
even when the user stops moving
it could have a life span of an excellent for wind farming. This
the appliance, making it possible
estimated forty years. That is at was followed by the architecture
to sweep into corners and under
least four times longer than of the factory which incorpo-
furniture. This is helped by the
conventioanl vacuum cleaners rated amongst other concepts
fact that the brushes protrude
generally last (Figure 5). that of building-biology. Next
beyond the dust box. Details
came the distribution philoso-
such as the low height of the
phy: all sales within a 100 km
box, the ergonomically-shaped Kambium kitchens: radius are delivered with no
handgrip and an adjustable individual, ecological outer non-reusable transporta-
handle make for ease of use. and long lasting tion packaging.
The carpet sweeper is able to The Kambium Furniture Kambium kitchens (Figure 6) are
replace the conventional vacuum Workshop, Inc. is a small- to situated at the high end of the
cleaner in most cleaning situa- medium-sized German company market in every respect. The
tions. This would mean a lot of with approximately 35 employees average price is 40,000 DM, as
energy and material could be

ANALYSIS
the quality and durability of the organisational improvements

product is extremely high. The were suggested to the company, References
use of modern computer tech- some of which are to be imple-
Friends of the Earth (Ed.),
nologies (CAD/CAM) facilitates mented. ‘Towards Sustainable Europe’,
the production of very individual (Wuppertal Institut, Germany,
kitchens, tailored to the 1995)
customer’s specifications. Unlike
Conclusions
other kitchen manufacturers, Product designers should accept Schmidt-Bleek, F., ‘MIPS
re-visited’, in Fresenius
Kambium uses no pre-processed the ‘Sustainable Development’
Environmental Bulletin, Vol. 2,
mass-panels, all the kitchens are paradigm as a challenge and try
No. 8 (August 1993) pp. 407 – 412.
entirely handmade. They are to:
made primarily from wood · design useful environmentally Schmidt-Bleek, F., ‘How to
originating from European benign products (eco-design); reach a Sustainable Economy?’,
sustainably managed forests and in Wuppertal Papers, No. 24,
(short transportation distances). Wuppertal Institut, Germany,
· suggest eco-efficient service-
The kitchen’s surfaces are (August, 1994).
concepts and dematerialised
impregnated with natural oils solutions. Schmidt-Bleek, F., and U.
thereby avoiding the need for Tischner, Produktentwicklung.
toxic varnishes. One will never Thus a technical eco-efficiency ‘Nutzen gestalten – Natur
find a model that is no longer revolution and new environmen- schonen’, Wien: Wirtschafts-
produced or out of stock. It is tally sound consumption patterns kammer (Dosterreich, 1995)
always possible to obtain spare could be facilitated. MIPS as a
Tischner, U., and F. Schmidt-
parts, and have repairs under- time- and cost-efficient measure
Bleek, ‘Designing Goods with
taken. All these aspects together of the environmental impact
MIPS’, in Fresenius Environmental
ensure that Kambium kitchens potential of goods and processes
Bulletin, Vol. 2, No. 8 (August
are extremely long-lasting. When could be used for estimations
1993) pp. 479 – 484
however, the client no longer within the design process.
has a need for the kitchen it can Planning methods should World Commission on
be easily recycled or disposed of integrate environmental and Environment and Development,
since it does not contain harmful social questions right from the ‘Our Common Future’, (Oxford,
substances. beginning. For that purpose a Oxford University Press, UK,
checklist of the environmentally 1987).
A research project was under-
relevant product properties
taken by the Wuppertal Institute
regarding the whole life cycle
for Climate, Environment and
of goods was developed by the
Energy together with Kambium,
author together with the
which analysed the kitchen
Wuppertal Institute. By using
designs and service. The checklist
tools like the above mentioned,
of environmentally relevant
asking the right questions and
product properties (Figure 3) as Footnote
reflecting also on social aspects,
well as MIPS were used in the
designers could become part of 1. For further information
strength and weakness analysis of
the solution, instead of being concerning MIPS contact the
the kitchen designs. As a result
part of the problem, like most Wuppertal Institute, Döppersberg
of the analysis technical and
of them are today! • 19, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany.

INTERVIEW
Professor William
McDonough, Dean of
School of Architecture,
Martin Chartern
Joint Coordinator, The Centre for Sustainable Design, UK
Background Interdependence.
n preparation for the World’s Mr McDonough’s design work

I Fair in the year 2000, the City
of Hannover, Germany commis-
ranges from products to buildings
to cities to regions. He has
sioned Mr. McDonough to author worked with the City of
‘The Hannover Principles: Design Chattanooga, initiating their
for Sustainability’, a document Zero Emissions Zoning Concept
providing design principles for all and leading the design of the
participating architects. A found- City’s South Side Plan. For the
ing member of the American City of Atlanta he articulated the
William McDonough is an architect Institute of Architects (AIA) ‘Solar City’ concept, and for the
and industrial designer. He is Committee on the Environment, City of Pittsburgh he worked
principal of William McDonough & Mr McDonough represented the with the Heinz Family
Partners, Architects and Planners AIA as well as the International Foundation to craft a year-long
as well as co-founder of the Union of Architects at the Earth colloquium on the subject of
product design and consulting Summit in Brazil in June 1992. Pittsburgh as the ‘Environmental
firm McDonough Braungart Design He served as advisor to the City’. He designed a furniture
Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia. President’s Council on factory for Herman Miller that
In September 1994, he was Sustainable Development and has won Business Week’s design
appointed Dean of the School of was the lead designer for the of the year award for 1997, and
Architecture at the University of ‘Greening of the White House’. for DesignTex, a subsidiary of
Virginia, where he is the Elson Steelcase, he recently designed
In February of 1993, Mr
Professor of Architecture. He a line of environmentally safe
McDonough delivered the
received his Bachelor of Arts fabrics working with Michael
Centennial Sermon, entitled
from Dartmouth College and his Braungart and the EPEA in
‘Design, Ecology, Ethics and the
Master of Architecture from Yale Germany, and the Rohner
Making of Things’, at The
University. In 1996, he received the Company and Ciba Geigy in
Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Presidential Award for Sustainable Switzerland. The fabrics, made
He has initiated a new approach
Development from President Clinton. with biodegradable fibers and re-
to ecologically considered design
engineered chemical manufactur-
and manufacturing as a step
ing processes, were awarded a
towards the Next Industrial
Gold Medal at NeoCon 1995, the
Revolution, and advocates the
annual showcase of the contract
formulation of Declarations of

INTERVIEW
furniture and fabric industry, and For example, from Michael rendering both the goals and
have been invited into the Braungart’s and my perspective, the processes visible. Unless you
permanent design collection of business has been mistaking eco- have something visible against
the Chicago Athenaeum. efficiency for sustainable design. which you can chart your course,
That is a fundamental problem, it is very difficult to take these
Mr McDonough advises major
because eco-efficiency is an discussions much further. My
corporations such as Interface
impoverished agenda in terms colleague Michael Braungart and
Corporation and Monsanto on
of the real creative possibilities. I are working on an indexing
sustainable industrial protocols
With eco-efficiency you’re process where a consensus-build-
and environmental ethics, and is
inhabiting a world where you ing exercise helps individuals
active in the conception and
wake up in the morning and feel and groups imagine what going
development of new products
guilty, then spend your day beyond ‘sustainable’ might look
with chemist Michael Braungart.
figuring out how to feel less like in each specific arena of
What do you consider to be guilty. A sustainable design interest, whatever it is you
the key issues that will affect agenda, on the other hand, says are working on, at all scales,
business arising from the you wake up in the morning and from the region down to the
sustainable development feel hope. You measure your molecule.
agenda in the next 3 to 5 progress against locally-consid-
Once people come together
years? ered ideal conditions which hold
around a common question, it is
sustainability as only the lowest
I think the most exciting issue astonishing how consistent the
maintenance aspiration. One
will be the prosperity and understanding of sustainability
must begin to humbly imagine
creativity considerations that can be among people with
what an ideal might look like in
sustainability will foster. I have diverse interests. They can actu-
order to measure progress toward
worked with chairpersons and ally identify and agree on posi-
it. Then it becomes a positive,
CEOs of major companies, and tive characteristics and find a
creative event, not one that
they are realising that one of the common aspiration very quickly.
simply measures a negative
biggest issues they must address
progress relative to the status During this process you hear two
is what the concept ‘sustainable
quo. So considerations beyond kinds of questions. One might
development’ means for their
sustainability lead to a positive be, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if we
organisation. Because when they
rather than a negative agenda. used less of a persistent toxin?’
take their leadership position and
That would be an eco-efficiency
say, ‘I want to see this sustain- It is important that business does
question. Another would be,
ability issue get addressed’, they not just look at the ‘eco’ part
‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could
quickly realise they don’t know of any equation – saying that
drive this whole system from our
what it is they are actually asking part is primary, or even that it's
current solar income instead of
for, and that their people don’t the focus of an agenda – because
with fossil fuels?’ This is a funda-
know how to respond. Every- it’s really just one element of a
mental design question and
thing gets very confusing very complex set of interdependen-
reflects the real excitement,
quickly, because it’s all relatively cies that we are only beginning
along with the tremendous
new. Sustainable development to understand. The agenda is
opportunities, of the process.
has many different definitions; it much richer than the ‘eco’
can really only be understood as element. We all know the Because we are interested in a
a local phenomenon with univer- complete search is for propitious design discussion, a rich agenda
sal implications (there are no balances across social, ethical, of choices starts to unfold. But
‘universal solutions’). We have economic and environmental first, and principally, we must
to make it up as we go along – issues. understand what the nature of
forever. It’s going to take the decision-making framework
>From my perspective, business
everyone. will be, so everyone has a
has the important task of

INTERVIEW
common understanding of the The traditional criteria are: shouldn’t give it the same value
issues. · cost (can I afford it?) as something benign.
The first thing we must do, as · performance (does it work?) Jaime Lerner, Governor of Parana
designers in the material world, · aesthetics (do I like it?) State and the former mayor of
is to recognise the world as Curitiba, Brazil, says, ‘When you
having two metabolisms: a Our additional criteria, which project a tragedy, unless you do
biological metabolism and a enrich the design agenda, are: something, you have the tragedy’.
technical metabolism. Then we · is it ecologically intelligent? For example, if we look at a city
can begin to frame the discussion (do its materials comply with which has 600,000 people and
that builds up the concepts of our principles?) will have over one million in 20
‘products of consumption’ · is it just? (is everything years, we can get very nervous
consumed in the biological equitably considered?) when we consider it in light of
metabolism, or ‘products of · is it fun? (do I get up in the what has happened in Sao Paulo
service’ circulating in the techni- morning wanting to do it?) or Rio. The pundits say, ‘Look
cal metabolism (we have trade- what’s going to happen. It’s going
This is something Michael
marked these terms for use in to be terrible. We’re going to
Braungart and I are developing
our work). In that way, as we have crime and destitution, and
together with our colleagues.
move into the design discussions, we’re going to lose our children.’
we can frame the conditions in We have created a company Then guess what happens? They
advance on the materials side. called ‘McDonough Braungart get proved right. Ironically, they
The discussion must be driven Design Chemistry’ to work with have a vested interest in being
by the opportunities of these these principles and criteria. On right about their projection. So,
two metabolisms. Once people the one hand, we look at the as Jaime says, the strategy cannot
understand the concepts, then specific effects of the assemblies be one of tragedy. It has to be a
you have a framework in which of the molecules, which is what ‘strategy of change’, because
you can have a conversation. Michael can do in a highly effec- what’s happening now will not
You test yourself against them tive way, while also developing work to avoid the tragedy. As you
and then fine-tune your design benign alternatives with the same adopt a ‘strategy of change’, you
process. The hardest part of this end result. On the other hand, then find yourself operating on
for people to understand is that we look at design and ask a new set of principles, which is
it’s not just about eco-efficiency: ourselves, ‘How do we make this why I’ve been trying to develop-
it is actually about re-design. attractive and prosperous? How new design principles, leading
Almost every modern product does this fit within our cultural to prosperous change.
can benefit from this exercise. enjoyment? How does this spark
Business needs to enjoy the
the imagination and become
What do you consider to sudden bursts of energy that
something we want to do?’ Not
be the key principles of create incredible new opportuni-
something less delightful that we
Sustainable Product Design ties for products that we didn't
feel like we must do for some
for business? even know we could want
‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ reason. We
because they didn’t exist! We
I have articulated three principles all know the design side really
didn’t realise some of these
and six criteria. The principles has to balance equity, economy,
new design concepts themselves
are: and ecology. Because it won’t
existed, and that’s what’s so
· waste equals food matter if you have the most
exciting. So for business people,
· use current solar income secure, integral and robust
this is the real hot one, this is
· respect diversity. ecological product; if it’s un-
the entrepreneurial front-line,
attractive, people won’t value it.
and it is the place where the next
We’ve added new criteria to the If it’s destroying some cultural
round of magnificent industrial
traditional industrial revolution situation somewhere else, or
prosperity will occur. It is imper-
criteria. causing people to suffer, people
ative that we re-design every-

INTERVIEW
thing. So imagine getting it right. are in some cases so much more attractive. That’s why designers
How about that strategy! The efficient in terms of their deliv- have to be so involved. Our re-
only way to pursue the ‘strategy ery and material flows that there design of textiles did not just
of change’ is to start changing. is no question they will allow create a safe material (see JSPD,
You have to begin immediately. the company to out-compete Issue 1, 1997, p.57), it created a
Even if it’s just a faltering step, any competitor. This is simply more efficient, safer production
you have to start moving. You because of their effectiveness, system, more profits for all
can’t sit back and say, ‘I’ll wait and all of this grew out of our concerned, less regulatory need,
until I see what else is going on’, design process. Modelling design and a factory that might never
because then you’re already in on nature makes you realise need to release water again.
the tragedy, and that is the nature is, by its own nature, Because if the water coming out
tragedy. inherently efficient and effective. of your factory is cleaner than
Once you start to adopt these the water going in, you’d rather
There’s an interesting story
ideas, your whole company and use your effluent than your
about Confucius.
its products can become more influent. You can ‘close the
Essentially, a master of ceremonies effective. We are now looking loop’. This is not eco-efficiency.
comes in and says, ‘Confucius, there’s at, from a design perspective, a This is re-design. It eliminates
a problem. You put this person in point where the designers and regulations – regulations which,
charge of the ritual and he’s constantly the people working on these in many cases, can be seen as
questioning the ritual. Why put him new products will be getting signals of design failure.
in charge of the ritual?’ Confucius royalties on billions of dollars
I want to envision the big oppor-
answers, ‘That is the ritual!’ of production. This should catch
tunities. We’re a bit unimpressed
everyone’s interest.
It doesn’t matter how conserva- by the need to design something
tive you are, the most conserva- There are hundreds and thou- so that everyone understands its
tive position you can have is sands of things ready to be re- ecological or social dimensions.
to question the ritual, because designed, but we must be very We think people should actually
that’s what strengthens it. careful to avoid what Michael be able to throw something away
Infusing all of this is the need Braungart calls ‘ecologism’. If and enjoy that act without feel-
for change and the need all we're going to do is insist on ing like they’re some sort of
to stimulate creativity. The fact recycling a package that wasn't criminal. Right now, there is
that this process is delightful, designed to be recycled in guilt coupled with bad design:
and that it has to be, is what will the first place, we’re going back- ‘Oh yes, we will recycle, but
make it happen. It is intensely wards. That’s very bad design. we’ll drive 10 miles to recycle!’
profitable for those who partici- It will create infrastructures that This doesn’t make sense in the
pate – significantly profitable! we don’t want, and we’ll have big picture. Our challenge is to
invested in interests that are change the design, because
Could you give a couple of
actually counter-productive; people are confused by systems
examples from the work
instead of recycling, for instance, of ‘re-cycling’ that are not effec-
you’ve done on textiles and
we will actually be ‘down- tive in the long run.
are looking to do with
cycling’, a term Michael and I
carpets? There is also a challenge for
use to describe most recycling
these products and services to
We’re looking at re-designing today, where products lose
play a role in educating people
whole sectors of the industry, quality and are used to make less
about the positive aspects of
and these principles are being sophisticated products on their
sustainable product design. They
adopted by large companies in way to their eventual ‘grave’, a
should be full of ‘embodied’
design and industry. The carpet landfill or an incinerator. This re-
information. But in the end
and fabric designs, which I design issue is something very
these things will happen because
won’t talk about specifically, important, and it has to be very
they are simply smarter, and

INTERVIEW
people like to be smart. In a We say re-design instead. It’s · can I afford it?
wonderful way this re-design has much more powerful and · does it work?
what you might call a spiritual productive! · do I like it?
dimension, because it leads to
What do you think are the
the ‘dematerialisation’ of design. That’s been as much as we've
key characteristics of a more
If you imagine the safely been dealing with. What we're
sustainable firm?
designed ‘product of consump- saying now is to add three more:
tion’ that grew out of our work, Adaptability. I think Darwin had
· is it ecologically intelligent?
you have something that goes it. The whole idea of ‘survival of
· is it just?
back to the soil safely. Or, if it is the fittest’ has been misinter-
· is it fun?
a technical ‘product of service’, preted, especially in business. It’s
it goes back to a high quality really ‘survival of the ‘fitting-est’; Because we’re not having fun
industrial cycle. Neither product it’s about niches, about under- anymore! Everybody feels like
needs to end up in a landfill- that standing a place where you are they are working all the time.
would mean you’ve failed in safe, where you get nourish- There’s this whole idea of a
your design. Once you actualise ment, where you don’t have leisure class, a leisure society,
these concepts, what happens is as much deadly competition. but the reality is that everyone
truly fascinating: things literally Looking for nourishment feels like they are working two
dematerialise. You have much without competition is a very jobs. It doesn’t make any sense.
less stuff and much higher legitimate attitude, one that is A lot of that has to do with the
‘design intelligence’. As human fair and not abusive. We need fact that we’re not enjoying an
beings get better and better at to think in terms of areas of effective structure. We’re not
things, instead of using more potential surplus where we can designing well. We’ve built a
stuff, they use less stuff, with a find pleasant forms of non- system that makes us think we
higher ‘embodied intelligence’ to competitive nutrition. That have to be active all the time,
replace it! Buckminster Fuller, should and can apply to working that we have to work for lots of
the inventor and creative processes as well. We’re actually stuff we don’t really need.
thinker, said something like, designing buildings where the
Jefferson had it right: it’s ‘life,
‘The better technology gets, the chairman of the board might
liberty and the pursuit of happi-
more it disappears’. I think that’s give up the corner suite to share
ness, free from remote tyranny’.
the key to the whole product the joy of working next to her
This time, it’s inter-generational
business, because it gets every- assistant sitting near a logistics
remote tyranny we have to free
body going in a creative way, manager, for example.
ourselves and future generations
respecting and optimising We know linear hierarchies from – the tyranny that is us and
material and human resources. don’t matter any more. Every- our bad design. •
Some companies begin to realise one has their role to play, and
new design principles in the everyone should revel in it. It's This is an updated and edited version
process of instituting eco- a much more thrilling prospect, of an interview conducted by Martin
efficiency. But when they begin and it’s creative and fun. As I Charter, originally published in
to articulate the desire to be mentioned earlier, the decision- ‘The Green Management Letter',
better than what they have been, making frame has always Euromanagement bv, The Netherlands.
we ask them to do more than included the three components
just try to be more efficient; that of cost, performance, and
may just prolong their agony. aesthetics.

GALLERY
Metzzo
In a partnership between a UK specialist recycling

company, Sheffield Hallam University and designer
Andrew Hewitt, a range of products are now available
which are manufactured from a composite composing
of 20% cement and 80% recycled glass cullet. This
research project was made possible through funding
from the UK’s Department for Trade and Industry and
British Glass.
The composite utilises crushed bottle glass as an

aggregate in a cement binder, producing a material
which is both functional and aesthetically attractive.
The material is increasingly being used in a wide range
of applications within the architectural, commercial
and domestic markets.
‘Metzzo’ has been vigorously tested and successfully

submitted for several British Standard tests. Its
performance compares favourably with that of its
competitors in the architectural flooring and cladding
materials market.
Top: Café table

Above: Sketch for exterior public seating
Right: Portal
Illustrations used include designs by Paul Chamberlain,

Andrew Hewitt, Melanie Jordan and James Roddis.

GALLERY
Production methods follow proven a panel. This has been further developed
concrete technology where the material to include the use of glass rods, produc-
is cast into moulds prior to curing and ing solid panels with a startling light
surface polishing. Colour balance is transmission potential.
achieved through initial selection of
glass materials and by the use of The material is very versatile and there
specialised colouring agents. Unlike are tremendous product opportunities.
conventional materials, the casting Initially, production is being limited to
process permits the incorporation of four main product areas: tables, seating,
design elements, designated by shape lighting and a selection of vessels.
and colour, within the final product. Products can also be specially designed
Additional effects can be achieved by and manufactured to fit a customer’s
encapsulating precast sections within requirements, incorporating any of the
features outlined above or by developing
new concepts to meet their needs.
While the illustrations shown represent

such domestic factory produced items,
Metzzo will eventually be used
in products such as internal and external
flooring and road/motorway curb stones.
The research team are at present
working with some Finnish universities
to develop potential mass produced
products for the material and a more
Above: Sketch for a table with a glass top using Metzzo legs streamlined manufacturing process.
Below: Pillar vessels

INNOVATION
A design tool for

eco-efficient products
Jonathan Williams & Calum Morrisonn
Director, Group for Environmental Manufacturing, UK
Project Manager, The Planning Exchange, Scotland
Dr Jonathan Williams is currently Producer responsibility is a untenable.

Managing Director of Contech Design growing issue in various markets.
Product stewardship is also
Ltd, holding company for the Group for Operationalisation of this concept
requiring firms to examine the
Environmental Manufacturing (GEM). is starting through the application
resource efficiency of their prod-
Here he is responsible for launching of eco-efficiency. The article high-
ucts: how to extract the maxi-
and promoting a variety of innovative lights a tool that has been devel-
mum customer value from the
projects, with emphasis on exploiting oped to improve the quality of eco-
minimum resource consump-
environmental market opportunities, design decision-making throughout
tion. Wasteful resource utilisa-
technology development and training the life-cycle of the product.
tion implies unnecessary mater-
products. He is also Managing
ial expenditure and also
Director of the technology transfer
Introduction liabilities for materials not
and research management
appearing in the final product.
company Marinetech South Ltd. any sectors of industry are
Previously he managed the
environmental team at the Centre for
M facing up to the challenge
of producer responsibility. This
Already there are commercially
driven examples of firms adding
high-value services alongside
Exploitation of Science and Technology stewardship of products through
their traditional commodity
(CEST) where he created the ACORD all stages of the life cycle is
products – more customer value
consortium and was responsible for demanding a radical reappraisal
for no extra (and sometimes
projects exploring new synergies of product distribution, use and
less) resource consumption.
between commercial advantage and ‘end of life’ processing within
environmental improvement. He has the context of conventional These changes in the business
extensive industrial experience within design and concurrent engineer- environment are challenging
the energy sector, ranging from ing. traditional approaches to new
international petroleum development product development and
Some ‘priority waste stream’
projects to renewable energy production management.
sectors face specific, regulatory
technologies. He has engineering Existing design tools, focusing
responsibilities for their prod-
degrees from Cambridge University on functionality, production
ucts at ‘end of life’. But in addi-
and Imperial College, with a cost and attractiveness at point
tion all manufacturers are having
Masters in Information System of sale, are insufficient. What is
to cope with increasing costs of
Design from Cranfield University. needed in addition is assistance
waste disposal: direct costs of
with management of whole-life
disposing of production waste,
value, and its integration within
and a less direct loss of competi-
the design process. The Regional
tiveness arising from significant
Eco-Efficiency Demonstrator
‘end of life’ disposal costs.
Initiative (REDI) project was
‘Business as usual’ strategies are
conceived as a timely response
rapidly becoming increasingly
to that need.

INNOVATION
The REDI Project

The Regional Eco-efficiency
1 Component
Demonstrator Initiative (REDI) manufacture
was launched in late 1995 to
➧
show how eco-efficiency and
2 Sub-system
commercial viability could be manufacture
aligned within new product
➧
designs. A wide range of compa- 3 Product
nies has been involved, reflecting assembly
➧
the supply-chain and whole-life
raw 4 Product
orientations of the project. materials retailing
Funding has been received from
➧
the Esme Fairburn Charitable
5 Product
Trust and the European use
Commission, as well as from
➧
companies and business support 6 ‘End of life’
organisations. collection
A major deliverable from REDI

is a software tool which aims to ➧
7 ‘End of life’
valorisation
8 Waste
processing
assist the designer to minimise
‘end of life’ liabilities and Landfill
maximise whole-life value in
a number of ways. Firstly, by
entering the product specifi-
cations into the software tool,
the designer is warned of any Figure 1: Representation of product life cycle within REDI
potentially hazardous materials
model the scrap and waste rates central to the REDI design tool.
included, wherever they may be
of the various process flows that Eco-efficiency is a measure of
located within the product. This
the product undergoes and also how much customer value is
allows at the very least, for the
to estimate overall material offered by the product compared
designer to be aware of the
recovery percentages. with the resources needed to
liabilities in the product and to
create that value. By modelling
quantify them for further refer- This whole-life orientation of
value-adding and value-reducing
ence. This information can then the REDI model is illustrated in
processes throughout the prod-
be used within scenarios, to Figure 1. Each stage of the life-
uct’s life, its overall eco-
identify vulnerability of particu- cycle, from component manufac-
efficiency can be derived, in the
lar designs to future regulatory ture to waste processing, is
form of an eco-efficiency index.
developments. modelled; each draws on mater-
Designers can use this index to
ial/energy resources, and each
Secondly, by tracking the value explore the optimisation of eco-
creates waste. These fluxes of
throughout product life, REDI efficiency at an early stage of
material flows are modelled so
gives the user a snapshot of the product design. This is a novel
that resource and waste burdens
‘value-adding’ and ‘value-reduc- aspect of design tools, and an
can be calculated for each unit
ing’ processes throughout the important function of the REDI
of output from the production
product’s life, tracking material project is to appraise how useful
process.
fluxes from raw resources to this eco-efficiency approach
finished products and waste The design tool could be in a commercial design
streams. A key element of this The concept of eco-efficiency is context.
functionality is the ability to

INNOVATION
One of the major It is recognised that small firms

have an important role in achiev-
only by tracking all such packag-
ing throughout the life-cycle that
ing a more eco-efficient indus- it is possible to quantify the cost,
uses of the REDI trial base. Yet many recent initia- and thereby to focus manage-
tives (eg waste minimisation) ment attention on reducing cost.
tool will be the have encountered difficulties in
In addition, it is important to
attacting small firms. Therefore
ensure that designers are aware
management, REDI has been constructed to
of all hazardous materials used
allow an easy entry route for
in the product, particularly if
and ‘designing small firms.
these end up being shipped in
The design tool has initially the product where they can
out’, of liabilities focused on the electronic equip- contaminate otherwise recover-
ment sector, working closely able resources at ‘end of life’.
resulting from with a range of leading compa-
nies including Hewlett-Packard,
This is presently extremely
difficult, for two reasons:
the product’s Rank Xerox, NCR, Telecom

Sciences and the Scottish
· product designers do not
usually possess information
Electronics Forum. It is intended
‘end of life’ and to extend the application of the
on material composition of
bought-in components
tool to other sectors once the
manufacturing approach has been validated
∑· nor are they usually fully
aware of regulatory constraints
for electronic equipment. affecting the use and disposal
phases. of different materials.
Whole-life liability The REDI tool addresses these
management needs, making information avail-
One of the major uses of the able in a form which is valuable
REDI tool will be the manage- to small and large firms. It
ment, and ‘designing out’, of achieves that by incorporating
liabilities resulting from the within the tool two databases.
product’s ‘end of life’ and manu- One is a component database
facturing phases. Many of these which contains information on
liabilities are hidden costs falling common components used in
outside the conventional design electronic equipment. Initially a
brief (eg. the cost of complying demonstration component data-
with Control of Substances base has been created, covering
Hazardous to Health (COSHH) a limited range of components,
regulations due to the use of to allow the tool to be used
particular solvents during manu- and evaluated.
facture). The second database contains
Of particular significance is the information on materials and
cost of producing, handling and regulations pertaining to those
disposing of packaging used to materials. This data resource
ship components and assemblies allows REDI to flag up potential
from supplier to manufacturer. hazards, without getting bogged
These costs are rarely considered down in details of environmental
in product engineering, but they regulations. However it will be
can end up being substantial. It is possible to link REDI to one of

INNOVATION
poorly designed product, where

£
the ‘end of life’ processing costs
are high, it may not be possible
A A
to achieve a positive ‘value-
added’ by any ‘end of life’
process. In such a case, the fate
of the product will be governed
by regulatory constraints rather
B B
than by commercial judgement.
C C
0 time Eco-efficiency index
The index is computed as the
ratio between maximum product
C’ C’
value (in the above case £A)
and the net whole-life material
raw materials ex-factory retail end of useful life end of life
value consumed in achieving
that product value (£B less £C).
A = retail price
That is: heco = A/(B–C)
B = raw material value
C = ‘end of life’ value if optimally recycled The index is a convenient way of
C ’= alternative ‘end of life’ if landfilled summarising the eco-efficiency
performance of a design. It
assumes that the value at point
of sale (A) can be taken as the
Figure 2: Value profile of a typical product price a consumer is prepared to
pay to acquire the product, ie its
the proprietary environmental finishes up in, say, a municipal retail price. Material values B &
databases to access more detailed waste site. Here it has a negative C can be computed by the REDI
information. value since it requires some model: clearly, designs which
waste processing and its materi- improve the net value of
als are not yet available for re- resources extracted from product
Whole-life value use. (C), and/or which reduce the
management
At this stage, the product can resources consumed in manufac-
As already mentioned, the ability either by treated by a recovery ture (B), will attract an improved
to optimise ‘value-added’ against system which releases its intrin- eco-efficiency index.
resource utilisation is essential sic value, and brings the net
to develop eco-efficient prod- value back up (£C); or it can be
ucts. REDI achieves this by Maximising impact
disposed of without recovery of
calculating the embedded value its intrinsic resources, incuring The next stage in the project
in a product at every stage in its a further loss of value (£C’). will address the evaluation of
life. A typical profile of product the REDI tool. Participating
Based on information from re-
value is illustrated in Figure 2. companies will be given an
cycling plants, the designer can
This shows a modest raw materi- opportunity to experiment with
input recovery rates and costs
als value (£B) rising through the the tool, to apply it to product
for the product and its
manufacturing processes to a design situations relevant to
constituents. This allows REDI
maximum value at the point of their own businesses.
to create the value profile,
sale (£A). As the product is used,
whereupon the designer can It is important to get feedback
it steadily loses value (ignoring
explore how design decisions from smaller firms at this stage,
some discontinuities due to
affect the profile. In the case of a so the project is working with
maintenance and repair) until it
organisations which serve the

INNOVATION
The tool is
structured
on economic
factors, since
these will drive
moves towards
eco-efficient
products in the Figure 3: REDI product information screen
commercial
world.
interests of small and medium this stage, it has been focused The tool differs from conven-
enterprises. on electronic equipment, but tional life cycle analysis models,
this applicability can be in that it does not attempt to
Using the design tool
expanded once the use of the quantify every emission and
In order to maximise the value
tool has been validated. resource utilisation. Instead, it
of REDI, considerable effort has
quantifies whole-life material
gone into the user interface. The The design tool is structured
utilisation and recovery, and
tool is coded in Microsoft Access around a whole-life representa-
presents this information in a
with Visual Basic controls, offer- tion of material flows required to
form directly useful to the
ing an efficient development manufacture, use and dispose of
design process. The tool is also
environment and flexibility to products. Economic values of
unashamedly structured on
customise the user interface. An material flows are built into the
economic factors, since these
example of a screen, showing a tool, since ‘end of life’ process-
will drive moves towards
product information summary, is ing is dependent upon the
eco-efficient products in the
illustrated in Figure 3. intrinsic value of resources
commercial world.
embedded within products.
The next stage in the work seeks
An eco-efficiency index has been
Conclusions to generate feedback on the tool
proposed, and is built into the
The REDI project has successfully from designers and engineers,
tool. The formulation of this
developed a design tool which in the context of both large and
index needs to be appraised
allows designers to optimise the small company environments. •
by designers and engineers.
eco-efficiency of products. At

INNOVATION
Moving companies towards

sustainability through
eco-design: conditions
for success
Professor Dr Ir A L N Stevelsn
Senior Advisor Environmental Engineering, Environmental
Competence Centre, Philips Sound & Vision, the Netherlands
Experiences in moving companies an increase in the eco-efficiency

towards more sustainability of consumption by a ‘factor 4’. In
through eco-design are highlighted order to realise this a number of
in this paper. Incremental improve- techno-economical, social and
ment of environmental product ethical issues will have to be
attributes is well underway tackled. This paper highlights the
Ab Stevels studied Chemistry at the especially in those areas where role of companies in achieving
Eindhoven University of Technology eco-design can be linked to cost the societal goal of sustainability
and, after being employed at Philips reductions. More radical re-design through eco-design. Basically this
Electronics Eindhoven in 1966, of products is currently still is a technical issue; however, this
he received his PhD in Physics hampered by lack of appropriate paper will show that mindset and
and Chemistry at the Groningen validation methods. Finding product corporate culture are important
University, the Netherlands. alternatives and introducing them conditions for success.
to the market will require intensive
In 1969 he joined the Philips Research The Brundtland Commission
stakeholder dialogue. The formula-
Laboratories and worked on various report (The Brundtland
tion of common goals will be
subjects in solid state chemistry and Commission, 1997) brought the
crucial to move society towards
materials science. After changing to concept of sustainability to the
sustainability.
the Glass division in 1981, he worked attention of a wide audience.
in various capacities: glass technolo- However, in the subsequent years
gist, laboratory manager, head of Introduction various actors have became more
development and general manager of and more involved in the debate.
he need to achieve sustain-
the Optics business. In 1989 he was
transferred to the Consumer
T able development poses an
enormous challenge for society.
This is illustrated in Figure 1. In
business the increasing eco-
Electronics division (his assignments efficiency of production processes
It is estimated that in order to
included the management of the laser has been progressing for several
make this happen, the burden
optics business and projects in Asia). decades; with, the oil price
on the environment in industri-
From January, 1993 he has been senior shocks of the early seventies and
alised countries will have to be
advisor on environmental engineering eighties greatly accelerating
reduced by at least a ‘factor 10’
of Philips Consumer Electronics and efforts. Nowadays the concept of
in fifty years time (Weterings &
from December 1995 he was appointed eco-efficiency is well accepted in
Opschoor, 1992). Over a shorter
part-time professor in Environmental smart industrial practice; but
time scale Von Weizsacker,
Design at the Faculty of Industrial attention to eco-efficiency of
Lovins and Lovins (Weizsacker,
Design Engineering, the Delft Univer- products has evolved only
Lovins & Lovins, 1995) advocate
sity of Technology, the Netherlands recently.

INNOVATION
Figure 1. Involvement
in sustainability issues
1994 onwards All actors involved in sustainability issues
society:
1993–1996 sustainability
companies:
1992–1995 eco-design
eco-efficiency
consumer tests:
1991–1994 criteria
authorities:
1990–1993 (draft) legislation
trailblazers:
1989–1992 awareness
When This figure shows that after the

initial awareness phase, national
critical success factors and
support tools used or needed.
developing governments in various countries

stepped in with (draft) legisla-
Levels in eco-design
eco-design tion and regulation. Between
1991–1994 the first environmental The eco-design process has
criteria appeared in consumer been described by Brezet,
projects it is product tests and in eco-labels; Cramer and Stevels (Brezet,
shortly after this leading Cramer & Stevels, 1995) as a
important to companies started to implement staircase with four steps.
product-related eco-design and First step: incremental
know exactly eco-efficiency considerations. improvement of products
More recently it has been Second step: (complete)
what level realised that product-based eco-
efficiency as such is not good
re-design of existing product
concepts
of eco-design enough to realise breakthrough
gains. The systems/infrastructure
Third step: alternative fulfilment
of functionality, new concepts
in which the product functions
the company or has to be considered as well.
Fourth step: functionality
concepts completely fitting into
Business Unit This paper suggests that eco-
design has several levels of
the sustainable society.
When developing eco-design

should be sophistication. For each of the
first three levels, ie. improve- projects or implementing
ment of current design, radical eco-design in a wider sense in
aiming for re-design based on existing organisations, it is important to
product concepts and product know exactly what level of eco-
alternatives, experience from design the company or Business
Philips Sound & Vision (S&V) is Unit should be aiming for.
described, both in terms of

INNOVATION
Level Purpose Type of institution Environmental Investment Change of Infrastructure

department validation consumer change
involved lifestyle needed
4 Functionality Technical Complete life +++++ +++++ ++++
completely universities cycle analysis?
fitting into Complete life
sustainability cycle cashflow?
society
3 Alternative Industrial Life cycle +++ +++ ++++

fulfilment of research analysis?
functionality (technical cycle cashflow?
universities)
2 Complete Pre-development Environmental + + –

redesign of departments weight
existing (technical Eco-indicator
concepts universities) Life cycle cost
1 Incremental Development Common sense – – –

improvement departments Checklists
(technical
universities)
Figure 2: Levels in design for environment
Figure 2 illustrates that the choice plays an important part in these

of the level has far-reaching type of activities. Essentially it is Bringing
consequences for the type of bringing together the following
information required, type of type of information: together
institution/department involved,
By counting, eg.
the environmental validation (the
· how many parts are in the information
‘greeness’ of the result), financial
products?
aspects, consumer life style and
infrastructure.
· how many types of material almost
have been used?
It can also be concluded from
· how many screws or other automatically
Figure 2 that activities on level 1
fixtures are in place?
and level 2 are well within the
span of control of individual By measuring, eg.
leads to the
· energy consumption
companies. For success at level 3
and 4, consumer life style and · weight
generation
infrastructure changes in society
play a major role.
· presence of environmentally
relevant substances
of ‘green’
· disassembly time of the
Level 1: eco-design activities,
incremental improvement main parts?
improvements
Level 1 eco-design actions can By calculating, eg.
be carried out by all companies · what is the cost of
launching products into the environmental improvements?
market and every employee can · what are the yields of
contribute to it. Commonsense environmental improvements?

INNOVATION
Experience has shown that the

process of bringing together
Philips Environmental Policy Statement
information, as described above,
Environmental care is an integral part of the industrial almost automatically leads to the
and product policy of Philips. generation of ‘green’ improve-
ments (and also leads to improve-
The four basic principles are:
ments outside the strict environ-
· sustainable development
mental area). The reason for this
· prevention is better than cure is due to the complexity of
· the total effect on the environment counts today’s products and because
· open contact with the authorities. most companies are still organ-
ised into specialised departments
These principles lead to the following policy statement:
focusing on particular parts of
· Philips is committed to environmental care in all its operations.
the total product concept (ie.
All parts of the organisation will incorporate this into the
mechanical, electrical, electronic,
management of their activities.
manufacturing planning, etc).
· Philips encourages the assessment of the total environmental Eco-design is essentially a cross-
impact when introducing new processes, products and packaging. functional activity!
· Philips recognises the importance of an on-going involvement
In order to successfully integrate
and commitment of management and of all employees.
level 1 eco-design activities,
· Philips will strive to conduct its industrial and commercial activities
basically four types of action
in such a way that the quality of the environment now and in the
are needed:
future preserved. Philips supports the Business Charter for
· formulation of the
Sustainable Development of the International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC), dated March 1991. environmental vision,
policy and overall targets
· Philips is committed to complying with all applicable environmental
by management
laws and regulations and emphasises the necessity of international
harmonization of environmental regulations. · incorporation of an
· Philips will cooperate with governments, regulatory bodies, environmental section into the
industries and consumer organisations and will take the initiative, individual product specification
where necessary, to promote workable and improved codes of · eco-design training and the
practice and effective laws and regulations. publication of an environ-
· Philips encourages the collection and qualified recycling of products mental design manual with
at the end of their useful life by third parties. In this respect, Philips mandatory design rules,
will provide the necessary information concerning its products. directives and recommenda-
· Philips will strive to inform the customer in such a way that he will tions, background knowledge
be able to take the respective environmental consequences into on how to successfully execute
account in his decision to buy, provided an assessment of the total eco-design
environmental impact of its products has been made. · follow-up both at management
level (‘review’) and in the prod-
Source: Philips Electronic N.V
uct creation process
(environmental release).
In order for an organisation to
start operating in this way, a
business rationale must be devel-
oped, technical matters should be
addressed and environmental
awareness should be generated.

INNOVATION
Environmental Design Manual ©

Philips Electronics N.V. 1996
Part 1: Sound & Vision (S&V), Part 2: Business group specific Part 4: Annexes
Business Electronics (BE) and environmental standards · environmental release
Communication Systems (CS) status of:
environmental requirements Part 3: Environmental policy: – passive components
· how to use the manual S&V, BE and CS environmental – active components
· summary of mandatory organisation environmental – electromechanical
design rules recommendations and information components
· environmental weight · chemical content – key components
and calculation method · power consumption – laminates (for PWBs)
· end-of-life costs & design – plastics
· marking and labelling
recommendations – metals
of mechanical parts
– chemicals
· packaging · environmental management
systems · Philips CE list of environ-
· customer information
mentally relevant substances
· purchasing directives · LCA/Eco-indicator
· summary of legislation
· banned Substances · eco labels
and regulations
· batteries · ICC Charter
· ozone depleting chemicals · related documents.
The business rationale for level 1 simply expect that quality 14001 of all operations by the
eco-design activities is primarily companies continuously intro- year 2000
based on compliance with legis- duce environmental improve- · 25% reduction in energy
lation/regulation and to changes ments in their new product consumption in all operations
where eco-design and cost generations. Moreover, level 1 by the year 2000
reduction are directly linked, eco-design improvements are · 15% packaging reduction in all
such as product weight and pack- straightforward and easy for operations by the year 2000.
aging weight reduction, reduc- competitors to follow, so
tion of (dis)assembly time, commercial advantages will be Each Business Unit has to
reduction of wiring/cabling and short-lived. establish a programme
the application of recycled mate- addressing:
Philips Sound & Vision (S&V) has
rial. · eco-design
approached eco-design activities
Experience indicates that both through a ‘top-down’ and – energy consumption
successful eco-design generates a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The of products
environmental improvements ‘top-down’ approach was – materials application
and cost reduction, which launched through the formula- – ‘end of life’/durability
contradicts the well-established tion of a vision/policy statement · supplier requirements
prejudice that ‘ the environment’ in 1991. This was followed by the · environmental communication
only costs money. implementation of an environ- · environmental know-how
mental programme called ‘The network.
It is more difficult to derive
Environmental Opportunity’.
market advantages from level 1
On a company-wide basis the Key instruments for the
eco-design activities; as, both
following three goals are set: ‘bottom-up’ approach are the
private and original equipment
· certification according to ISO Environmental Design Manual
manufacturers (OEM) customers

INNOVATION
The need to and training programmes. The

Environmental Design Manual
through a ‘Plan-Do-Check-
Action’ approach. Therefore
drastically gives the mandatory design rules

(to be checked at product
level 2 eco-design projects are
being organised in pre-develop-
improve the release), design directives and

design recommendations. The
ment or research laboratories.
Going for the limits for energy
supporting text and information
eco-efficiency tables are organised in such a
consumption, materials applica-
tion and ‘end of life’/durability
way that they not only invite the
of products designers/developers to fulfil the
of a single product always
implies compromises and ‘trade-
requirements, but also to surpass
offs’ as to what is the best or the
and services this minimum as much as
better environmental option.
possible (see JSPD, Issue 1, p. 7).
Drastically improving one item
through level 3 Training programmes include (eg. energy consumption) can
the following items: have negative implications for
eco-design · introduction other items, such as materials or
– what is eco-design ‘end of life’. Therefore level 2
also calls for – environmental product activities require environmental
validation; Life Cycle Assessment
analysis
an intense – environmental validation (eco-indicator calculations) and
Life Cycle Cost calculations are
· how to environmentally
stakeholder improve
– energy consumption
needed to track down the best
options, with commonsense and
the checklist-based activities of
dialogue. – materials application
– chemical content level 1 – no longer applicable to
– packaging a higher level of sophisication.
– ‘end of life’ properties In order to find out what the
· ISO 14001 best approach for radical re-
· business and environment design in an industrial setting
– eco-design as business issue would be, the S&V Business Unit
– environmental business has organised a ‘Green TV’
analysis/roadmaps project. In this project attention
– green consumer behaviour has been focussed on both the
– environmental product technical issues, and corporate
strategy culture issues, like how to over-
· legal and political issues come barriers and prejudice and
how to simulate green creativity.
· implementation of eco-design
The experience in this project
· ‘end of life’/recycling specials.
has shown that it is very
beneficial to allow ‘open think-
Level 2: eco-design activities, ing’ in the first stage of the
radical re-design based on project. This means that the
existing concepts. normal boundary conditions of
In level 2 eco-design activities an industrial project, quality,
existing product concepts are cost price and throughput time,
environmentally improved up are set aside for a certain period
to the limits which physics, of time. Later on these are
chemistry and electronics will brought in again. Practice with
allow. This is difficult to achieve the Philip’s ‘Green TV’ project

INNOVATION
showed that solutions were · product alternatives might

found in avenues which other- require huge investments
STRETCH: checklist of
wise would have been eliminated with unsure returns
environmental opportunities
beforehand. · product alternatives might
Minimisation of production This has resulted in a product of invalidate current investments
impact where the environmental load is and might force a supplier base
· minimisation of waste, approximately 30% lower than in to change significantly
emissions and energy use the comparable current products. · the customer may not be
· respect for biodiversity The advantages break down in prepared to buy the new prod-
the following way: ucts/service; if ‘environmental
Minimisation of product impact
· reduction of energy gains’ do not go hand in hand
· reduction of toxic substances
· minimisation of materials consumption: 30% with other customer benefits,
consumption (eg. through many people will not buy the
· plastic weight reduction: 32%
miniaturisation, weight product (however, ‘environ-
· reduction of hazardous
reduction, systems mental gains’ are unlikely to be
substances: 100%
integration) key purchasing criterion for the
· use of recycled materials:
· minimisation of use of majority of people)
69% of total weight
non-renewable resources · the infrastructure to fully
· minimisation of fossil energy · recycling potential: 93%
exploit the environmental
consumption (eg. through gain is not (yet) available.
The cost price of this product
energy efficiency and durable
is approximately the same as
energy use) Companies wanting to start
current products. The main road-
level 3 eco-design activities have
Efficient distribution & logistics block for ‘massive introduction’
therefore to approach their envi-
· produce where you consume (the production of large quanti-
ronmental product strategy from
· direct distribution to ties for market introduction) is
a much wider perspective.
consumer the investment which has to be
made to transform the present The best way to do this is to link
Intensity of use
production facilities into that it to existing corporate and busi-
· lease versus sell
suitable for the ‘Green TV’. This ness strategy development. S&V
· collective use
transformation would also have has developed a tool to address
Durability of products ‘level 3’ type issues. The first two
consequences for suppliers, as
· reuse steps of STRETCH (Selection of
they would have to change their
· technical upgrading sTRategic EnvironmenTal
parts geometries and moulds and
· longer lifetime Challenges) therefore consist of:
would have to learn to work with
· repairability
new (mostly recycled) materials. · identification of the crucial
· refurbishing
driving forces in the business
· ageing with quality The above mentioned reasons
over a timescale of 3–10 years.
suggest that the results of the
Recyclability of materials · making of a limited number of
· reduction of materials ‘Green TV’ project can only be
plausible scenarios leading to a
diversity implemented ‘step by step’ over
shortlist of potential product/
· materials cascading a longer period of time.
market strategies.
· design for disassembly Level 3: eco-design activities,
· selected, safe disposal product alternatives This identifies potential environ-
As is shown in Figure 2 the mental opportunities and threats
implications of level 3 eco-design in relation to the identified
Figure 3: STRETCH methodology scenarios. These are then applied
activities go beyond individual
companies. The risks can be to individual products and with
enormous: the help of a checklist (see Figure

INNOVATION
3) the opportunities are scored physical and societal structures.

Current LCA on different scales: In order to make ‘level 3’
· environmental scale improvements in a market
methodology (eg. eco-indicator/LCA) economy all stakeholders should
· customer benefit (financial, be prepared to adapt themselves
will have ease of use, emotional) and contribute accordingly.
Development of clearly
· business benefit (cost reduction,
to develop expected increase in sales)
communicated and agreed
societal objectives and terms
· feasibility.
further to of reference is essential.
In order to be selected for imple- Rather than starting from the
enable mentation, the option must lead
to a substanial decrease in envi-
existing situation it is
recommended to use the ‘back-
consideration ronmental load. The last step is to
communicate the STRETCH
casting’ technique: first define the
goals to be realised in eg. the year
results to the organisation and to
of emissions develop the implementation plan.
2010 and go back in time in order
to define what needs to be done.
within well At S&V brainstorm sessions have The benefits of such an

approach are:
been held at a Business Unit level
defined following the STRETCH method-
ology. The outcome of these
· focus on relevant items
· clear roadmaps for the
systems sessions has indicated the

substantial business and environ-
various actors
· definition of conditions for
boundaries, mental potential for considerably

enhancing the durability and eco-
success both in material and
immaterial respect.
efficiency of products.
and also to Eco-efficiency is defined here as:
This methodology has been elab-
orated in a paper by the author
include the Utility (units of service) (Stevels, 1997). The ‘backcasting’
Life Cycle Impact (milliPoints) technique has been applied to
depletion of As a result several advanced
‘take back’ of consumer elec-
tronic products. In this case the
resources research and development (R&D)

projects have been started.
environmental validation of issues
to be addressed are simple, ie.
The need to drastically improve reuse/recycling quotes and cost
the eco-efficiency of products and (Stevels, 1997).
services through ‘level 3’ eco- In cases where several parts of
design also calls for an intense the life cycle have to be
stakeholder dialogue. The purpose addressed detailed environmental
of such a dialogue should be to validation of various ‘level 3’
test the results of the STRETCH avenues is a major problem.
brainstorms in a societal context. Current Life Cycle Assessment
The reason for this is that to (LCA) methodology will have to
realise ‘level 3’ improvements develop further to enable consid-
involves big changes in compa- eration of emissions within well
nies, as a result of the risks asso- defined systems boundaries, and
ciated with consumer acceptance also to include the depletion of
and the uncertain fit into existing resources, embedded toxicity and

INNOVATION
reuse/recycling in (half) open

product systems. In addition LCA References
will need to address the issue of
R.A.P.M. Weterings and J.B. Opschoor. ‘Environmental space as a
the industrial and infrastructure challenge for technological development’. (RMNO publication no. 74,
transformation leading to better Rijswijk, the Netherlands, 1992)
environmental performance of
individual products. E.U., van Weiszecker, A.B., Lovins and L.H. Lovins, ‘Factor four, twice
the affluence, half the use of natural resources’ (Droemer Knaur,
Level 4: eco-design activities, Mnnchen, Germany 1995)
sustainable product concepts
The Brundtland Commission, ‘Our common future. Report of the World
As yet, there appears to be no
Commission on Environment and Development’, (Oxford University Press,
experience at ‘level 4’, with the
Oxford, United Kingdom 1987)
lessons from ‘level 3’ changes
still being learnt by leading J.C. Brezet, J.M. Cramer and A.L.N. Stevels, ‘From Waste management
companies. to Environmental Innovation’, (Rathenau Institute, The Hague, the
Netherlands, 1995)
A.L.N. Stevels, ‘Design for Environment’ (UNEP, Asia Pacific Technical

Conclusion
Monitor 1997, p. 27–33)
In this paper the experience of
J.M. Cramer and A.L.N. Stevels, ‘Experiences with Strategic Environmental
a division of a Philips has been
Product Planning within Philips Sound & Vision’ (Proceedings Of the
described. It is shown that
Greening of Industry Network conference, Heidelberg, Germany,
eco-design can be successfully
Nov. 1996)
integrated into current business
operations. Critical success A.L.N. Stevels, ‘A Roadmap for eco-efficient take-back of Consumer
factors for this process are Electronics Products’ (Proceedings Globec 1996/Recycle 1996, Davos
indicated. (Czechoslovakia, March 1996)
It also highlights that in order

to achieve breakthroughs in
reducing the environmental load
of products, stakeholder dialogue
must be intensified. Moreover,
environmental validation
methodologies such as LCA need
to be extended to draw meaning-
ful conclusions about what
avenues are likely to lead to
sustainability. •

O2 NEWS
Special feature: O2 Japan

Edited by Sytze Kalisvaart, Fumi Masunda, Misato Yomosan
Chair of O2 Global Network, Product designer,
TNO Industrial Technology, the Netherlands
Liaison Officer, O2 Japan, Director of Open House, Japan
Product Planner, Japan
The Journal of Sustainable Product Eco-design update: Japanese Eco-Indicator

Design has developed a partnership news on eco-design In Japan, Pré Consultancy has
with the O2 Global Network to further started to translate the Eco-
projects worldwide
disseminate information and ideas on Indicator ’95 system from the
eco-design and sustainable product ‘Take back’ at Philips Dutch to the Japanese situation.
design. O2 Global Network is an Philips have decided to set up a The initial work has recently
international network of ecological product ‘take back’ system in the been completed and presented
designers. The O2 Global Network is Netherlands, thus forcing the to the JLCA (Japanese Life Cycle
organised into national O2 groups Dutch trade organisations cover- Analysis) association. Presently,
which work together to provide various ing consumer electronics a heated debate about the type
services such as: O2 Broadcasts, which manufacturers and importers to of weighting of environmental
report live from O2 events using email become involved in the system. effects is going on in Japan. In
and the Worldwide Web (WWW); O2 This means that product ‘take contrast to the US, there has
Text meetings, a meeting place on the back’ for consumer electronics been no discussion about the
Web; the O2 WWW pages, which will be a reality starting January necessity of such an indicator
provides an overview of activities; O2 1999. The companies will be for designers.
Gallery, an exhibition of eco-products responsible for those ‘end of life’
Green consumer guidelines
on the Web; and, an O2 mailing list. products which are not collected
by shops and local communities. SC Johnson Wax Inc. has
For further information on the above developed a set of ‘Environ-
Shops will be required to accept
activities and the O2 Global Network mental Education Materials
‘end of life’ products when
contact: O2 Global Network Guidelines for Excellence’ to
selling a new one.
Tourslaan 39 be used in schools. This is based
5627 KW Eindhoven Mitsibushi joins the on a Roper Study in 1995, which
The Netherlands Future 500 round table found that customers are willing
email: O2global@knoware.nl Mitsibushi has become one of to take environmental issues into
tel/fax: +31 40 2428 483 the founding members of the account, but do not have a basic
internet: http:www.wmin.ac.uk/ Future 500 CEO round table. understanding of environmental
media/O2/O2_Home.html ‘Future 500’ was set up in issues. SC Johnson Wax
contrast to the Fortune 500. The concluded that environmental
‘O2 News’ will update readers of
companies in Future 500 will be education may help restore
the Journal on the latest eco-design
the leading companies involved customers’ trust in industry.
issues from around the world and
in green technologies and prod- Furthermore, it will enable
on O2’s national activities. In this
ucts and will aim to significantly consumers to make more
issue O2’s activities in the
increase resource productivity. educated choices in purchasing
Netherlands are highlighted.
56 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997 OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 56
O2 NEWS
products, so that they can distin- Buying recycled O2 news

guish an ‘environmentally In a new book by Joel Makower,
New O2 contacts
considered’ product from a ‘10 Easy ways to buy recycled’
generic product. Up to now a O2 liaison officers were
there are various examples of
company could produce a green appointed recently in the
products made out of waste or
product without the consumer Philippines, Mexico and India
recycled materials. Makower
recognising it – unless it was and will now inform designers
states that ‘If you’re not buying
highlighted. In the long term, SC in their country about O2.
recycled products, you’re not
Johnson Wax expects that Liaison officers have already
really recycling’. Examples
environmental education will been appointed in Japan,
include a doll made out of
help generate new professionals Germany and USA.
recycled soda bottles and organic
that can deal with the complexi- cotton; key chains, clipboards The Netherlands Design
ties of combining industrial and and magnets made out of used Institute to coorperate
environmental computer circuit boards; wallets, with O2
interests. backpacks and book covers out The Netherlands Design Institute
Source: Puget Sound Business of recycled plastic bottle fibres (NDI) will cooperate with the O2
Journal 1997, http://www.amcity.com: and coffee tables from bicycle Global Network and other organ-
80/Seattle/ stories/092297/focus5.html inner tubes, chains and gears. isations interested in creating the
Joel Makower is the author of O2 Website. Any suggestions,
Green consumer survey
‘The Green Consumer’ and editor comments and contributions are
The percentage of US customers
of the ‘Green Business Letter’. welcome. In 1998, O2 will have
who do not care about the
Source: Earth Action Network, 1997, its tenth anniversary and O2
environment (‘Basic Browns’)
http://www.emagazine.com:80/0997gl_ Netherlands its fifth.
has risen from 28% in 1990 to
consumer.html
37% in 1996, according to the
Green Gauge Report conducted Green glass
by Roper Starch Worldwide, US. The German company Seiler’s O2 Focus: Japann
The percentage of ‘Greenback patented ‘high temperature O2 Japan was launched in 1992
Greens’, who are willing to pay vitrification technique’ – a with an O2 exhibition in Seibu.
20% more for environmentally process which makes ceramic This was followed by the Tennen
sound products has declined glass products out of steel mill (‘Nature’) Design conference in
from 11% to 5%. Environmental dust, garnet blast media residue 1995.
factors are not as important as and industrial wastewater treat-
product issues such as quality, ment sludge was accepted by the
price, brand and convenience of California Environmental Agency ‘Tennen Design’ ecological
purchase, etc. However, the US as a recycling technique. Since design conference
government is increasingly the process is no longer consid-
Tennen Design, the Japanese
purchasing in an environmentally ered a waste treatment process,
ecological design conference,
sound manner, incorporating Seiler can start marketing the
highlighted that the Western
‘green’ criteria in procurement. products for abrasives, roofing
problem solving approach was
Finally, nearly 75% of Americans tile granules and architectural
insufficient for developing eco-
think that they should take more materials.
design solutions if not balanced
positive action towards the envi- Source: Business Wire news with an approach that recognises
ronment (the ‘guilt gap’) with
‘values’. Eco-designers try to find
recycling the only green activity
fixes for product-related environ-
that has increased.
mental problems, but in most
Sources: The Hartman report, cases this is an incremental
the Hartman Group, Bellevue, WA; approach allowing for budget,
American Demographics
57 OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 57

O2 NEWS
time and constraints. A theme the concept of a vertical bath tub uct planning, marketing and
that arose was ‘are we producing which the user enters. Gestures engineering groups and are
sustainable solutions or are we in the fluid are transmitted to the usually specialists in particular
just going nowhere fast’: doing other people by movements in product areas like computers,
good things, but possibly in the the fluid. The computer as an en- office furniture and so on.
wrong direction? A suggestion vironment itself, in which you
Q: Are they technically-
from the conference was that it can swim.
oriented or aesthetically-
is equally important to consider
Conclusion oriented designers?
the ‘values’ that we strive for. It
As with any workshop, the A: Industrial designers are
is important to consider the
concepts generated needed generally recognised as having
‘value’ that the product will
considerable development. responsibilities in relation to
attain for the customer in 15 or
However, the aim of the confer- the forms and images of the
30 years time and how this
ence was to act as a catalyst for products.
relates to environment. Then the
new thinking. As Misako
designer should consider how Q: What about influencing
Yomosa, one of the organisers,
this should and will influence product definition?
puts it: ‘I think of the confer-
his/her design now and in the
ence as an initiation of con- A: This is hard to say, as most
future.
tinuing activities toward eco- work for big companies. Some
The Tennen Design conference oriented society’. of them are acting as design
was held in the shintoist Honen managers instead of being
The Tennen Design Forum
In temple in Kyoto, the temple product design specialists.
continues its work as a loose
city of Japan. Workshops had Several designers work as
network.
themes like ‘Design that will last consultants for comparably small
100 years’, ‘Ecological machines’ More info: http://www.joho-
local companies and may have
and ‘Information environment kyoto.or.jp/~tennen/
more influence.
and design’.
Q: Would you say Tennen
Monks read email The Japanese designer – Design had an average public?
A parallel conference was interview with Fumi Masuda A: Roughly speaking, half of the
connected by email to Delft in designers at Tennen Design
Q: You have worked with
the Netherlands. The concept Forum ‘95 were independent
European and US designers.
was to provide a comparative designers from Tokyo and the
Would you say the situation
Western perspective on the ideas others were employed designers
of the Japanese designers is
that developed at Tennen Design. from the Kansai area (Kyoto and
similar?
Monks from the Honen In tem- Osaka).
A: Well, no. The position of
ple and participants translated
industrial designers in Japan is Q: So what else can we expect
the printouts of the East-West
unusual. Over 90% of the whole from Tennen Design?
conversation for each other.
population of industrial design-
A: Tennen Design is a temporary
A green laptop ers in this country is employed
group or a non-regular event
Some of the inevitable misunder- by industry. Independent indus-
which has happened twice (the
standings from the e-mail work- trial designers are minorities.
workshop in ’95 and an exhibi-
shop actually led to new ideas. Major manufacturing industries
tion in ’96). The participants
For example, the question of such as Toyota Motor Co. or
shared a very special time and
whether a laptop computer could Matsushita Electric Co. have huge
space before going back to their
be made green or more sustain- design centres and each of them
own life. Someone may organise
able evolved from the workshop employ 200 to 500 industrial
another Tennen Design some-
entitled ‘from symbiotic to designers in-house. They always
time when he or she feels the
assimilated design’. This led to work in collaboration with prod-

O2 NEWS
awareness and attention is Recycling developments genics. Low temperatures

running out. No goal, no in Japan (-150 degree C for steel) make
strategy. the materials so brittle that they
If you don’t know how your
can be easily milled into small
Q: Is O2 a factor in Japan? It is products are going to be
mono-material pieces. This is
European by origin and may recycled, how can you ever
especially relevant for complex
still be rather European in design for it?
components like motors and
approach.
Background compressors, where materials are
A: I always respect the O2 way of closely intertwined. Even the
In Japan, 24 million air condi-
thinking, which is very practical paint comes off the steel. After
tioners, television sets, refrigera-
and realistic, in other words, the metals, the somewhat
tors and washing machines are
quite Western. I hope we could ‘warmer’ nitrogen can still be
bought annually. 14 million are
show our way of thinking from used for unlocking plastics.
thrown away per annum, which
the Eastern side. This is still
constitutes 620,000 tons of Plastics
difficult to explain to a
waste (over 1.2 % of household
Westerner. O2 is actually quite A new technique for plastics
waste). To cope with the volume
well known among young separation uses the temperature
of household waste (50 million
Japanese industrial designers. at which it becomes brittle.
tons a year, 124 million inhabi-
Quite a few of them would be After cooling and milling,
tants), a legal framework was set
interested in getting involved; materials with can simply be
up in 1991. This will evolve into
the only barrier is the language separated by sieving. Only
more specific and stricter laws
problem. polyvinylchloride (PVC) is
over the years. Officially called
recycled, polyethylene (PE) is
Q: ‘What about the man on ‘law for the promotion of using
reduced to oil and polystyrene
the street? Does he or she recycled resources’, the law is
(PS) is burnt.
bother about environmental usually referred to as ‘the recy-
problems?’ cling law’. Therefore smart Bottom line
A: Japanese people are generally thinking implies that larger At the facility, recycling of
aware of, or at least understand, consumer products should be refrigerators costs about ¥3500
the importance of the en- designed for recycling with (US$28), and recycling of tele-
vironmental issues. For many consideration of ‘take back’ visions and washing machines
it is a deeply a cultural subject also included. about ¥1100 (US$9). With this
rather than a technical matter. capacity (3000 ton/year), Tokyo
Pilot plant
They have a long history of living alone would need 7 plants.
Hitachi, together with two
symbiotically with nature. But, I Therefore, Hitachi, MITI,
government agencies, set up a
think they need some more time Mitsubishi and Sony aim to
home appliance recycling pilot
to remember how pleasant it build a plant with 4 times this
plant. To allow for effective
used to be. capacity. •
separation of the materials, the
connections, form enclosures Adapted from Technieuws, issue 1,
and surface layers need to be 1997, Dutch Department of Economical
released (‘unlocked’). To achieve Affairs.
this the pilot plant uses cryo-

REVIEW
Review of SimaPro 4.0

SimaPro Details f you have ever had cause to consider Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
PRé Consultants B.V. I software, you will almost certainly have come across SimaPro.
Since PRé Consultants released the very earliest version of SimaPro
Plotterweg 12
3821 BB Amersfoort in 1990 it has led the field in terms of licence sales around the world.
The Netherlands To date, the MS-DOS based SimaPro 3.1 (SP3.1) still manages twice the
Tel +31 (0)33 4555022 market share of its nearest rival. Now the next generation, SimaPro
Fax +31 (0)33 4555024 4.0 (SP4.0), is due for release.
http//www.pre.nl Unlike SP3.1, SimaPro 4.0 runs in the ubiquitous Windows
info@pre.nl environment (Windows 3.x, 95 and NT4) and whilst retaining every-
thing which has made the earlier SimaPros successful, SP4.0 contains
several new features, a revised and expanded database structure and
an array of different ways to manipulate data and results.
Very simply, SimaPro will analyse the environmental impacts of a
product, or compare the impacts of two or more products. It uses a
modular system whereby you can combine individual processes (ie.
materials, transport, industrial processing and waste disposal options)
from its central process database to make more complex ones.
Processes are then placed in assembly boxes representing complete prod-
ucts. In this way, infinitely complex flows of materials and processes
(process trees) can be built up and these are stored in a life-cycle box
which forms the top of the tree. The software can apply various
weighting methods to calculate the resulting environmental impacts
for the whole life-cycle arising from raw materials usage and
substance emissions. These impacts are worked out for any number
of criteria such as ozone depletion, greenhouse effect, summer smog,
etc, and the results are presented in a detailed tabular or graphic form.
A typical life-cycle box can contain several assemblies, details of the
product’s use phase, ie. its working life, and its final disposal options.
Disposal options include disposal scenarios which allow you to direct
waste units to final disposal, recycling, or re-use; disassembly boxes,
which let you describe how a product might be broken up into its
component parts for recycling or waste disposal; and re-use boxes
which describe the processes involved in supplying a product for
re-use.
Using the program – creating a process tree

As with a number of LCA programmes, SimaPro 4.0 may appear a little
overwhelming at first. However, the guided tour in the accompanying
user manual is certainly comprehensive, and providing you take the
time to follow it through from start to finish, you should become
familiar with most of its features fairly quickly. The programme is laid
out in a logical manner, with separate tabbed pages for each of the
important components and once you have learned the basics, SimaPro

REVIEW
is remarkably straightforward and consistent, despite its complexity.

At the heart of the software is the information contained in the
process records detailing materials, transport, industrial processes and
waste disposal. Linking these processes together to form a process
tree is done by inserting the name and amount of a ‘daughter process’
into the appropriate inputs from technosphere part of a parent process’
record, or into an assembly box. The operation is made very easy
through the use of pop-up dialogue boxes containing processes for
you to select, and at any time you can switch to a tree diagram show-
ing the component parts of the current process or assembly you are
constructing. Raw materials and emissions for each process record
are selected from a separate substances database.
Figure 1: A process tree showing
A very helpful feature is that the software lets you enter amounts in
the simple lifecycle ‘use of filter’.
process records and assemblies using any scale you choose, as, for
Upward flows show inputs;
example, SimaPro is fully aware that 0.001 tons is really 1000 grams.
downward flows show disposal.
This reduces the time taken to add data and probably increases data
accuracy too! You can even define your own unit conversions in case
you want SimaPro to calculate in units it does not initially recognise.
The structure of process records has been designed to conform to the
relevant sections of the Society for the Promotion of Lifecycle Design (SPOLD)
Common Format for Lifecycle Inventory (LCI) Data. The SPOLD format is
likely to become the standard for LCA data and it makes good sense
to include that standard in LCA software, making it much easier for
organisations to share information. However, the SPOLD format is
also somewhat unwieldy and asks that the user enters large amounts
of text which contributes nothing to actual calculations. With this in
mind, PRé have included the option to use, view, edit and add records
in a much abridged form, using essential data only. Unfortunately,
adopting an external data format has left no obvious place to include
transport processes in the new style records. Transport must now be
entered under energy/heat to conform with SPOLD, though it is cate-
gorised elsewhere in the software as a distinct process type, quite
separate from energy.
SimaPro 4.0 is supplied with over 930 process records using data by
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; PRé Consultants,
and an officially licensed and peer-reviewed version of the BUWAL
250, 1997 database. You can add your own processes to the database,
import them from other SimaPro users, and modify those supplied
with the software to suite individual circumstances. SP3.1 users can
convert their databases for use in SP4.0.
Using the programme – calculating the impacts

Calculating impacts from a ‘process tree’ can be done at almost any
time – the model certainly doesn’t need to be complete, though
obviously the more complete your model, the more complete your
results. Clicking the analyse button will set SimaPro calculating the
inventory and the environmental impacts for a selected process or

REVIEW
Figure 2:
Graphic display for
characterisation stage of a
product using the Eco-Indicator
95 evaluation method
box. If you have more than one data object open, clicking the
compare button will calculate the inventories and impacts for all
of these so that the results can be viewed side by side.
SimaPro uses various evaluation methods which will classify substances
according to their effects on environmental impacts such as acid rain
and ozone depletion. PRé’s much used Eco-Indicator 95 (included in
the software) will:
· Show the relative contributions of each calculated process to
a list of environmental effects (scaled to 100%);
· Normalise these contributions to the effects of an average
European inhabitant over one year;
· Evaluate the effects by applying a weighting factor to derive the
overall seriousness of the impacts with regard to human health
and ecosystems;
· Aggregate all impacts in the evaluation stage to arrive at a single
figure for the environmental impact of each material and process
in the model.
SimaPro also comes with methods by CML (University of Leiden)

and BUWAL’s ecopoint method. As with processes, you can create
your own methods or edit those supplied. In this way you can
include new substances in calculations, alter their overall effects,
and add additional environmental criteria against which to measure
the product’s impacts.
SimaPro will check to see if any substances in your model are
missing from the selected evaluation method before it does any
calculating. After that, the software will calculate all available data
and present the user with some gloriously colourful graphs.

REVIEW
The graphical displays are easy to understand, but if you need to be

specific, you can click the table button to view the precise impact
results in tabular form. Either way, tables and graphs can be exported
or pasted to other Windows applications for further manipulation.
Clicking the substances page tab will take you to the inventory, or
impact table. This lists the amounts of all substances included in the
calculations under their respective materials or processes. There are
separate tables for raw materials, airborne, waterborne and solid
emissions, emissions to soil and non-material emissions such as heat
and land use.
SimaPro can also display impact data on a process tree diagram. Here,
each element details the name and amount of the process or box it
represents and shows its contribution to environmental impacts by
means of a numerical value and a vertical bar like a thermometer.
The thermometers can display cumulative impacts for the whole tree,
or absolute impacts for each element. They can represent any of the
impact criteria available in the evaluation method used.
Conclusion
Whether you want to carry out a quick analysis or more detailed
LCA calculations, SimaPro 4.0 is a useful aid. In the Windows
environment it is straightforward to use and has a logical and uniform
feel about it. Process data now conforms to a common standard,
rather than to the whims of an individual software producer. Data,
results and graphs can be exported or pasted to other Windows
applications for presentation or further analysis.
The way it has been designed, SimaPro is perfectly capable of model-
ling a full range of products, from packaging to electronics, but the
results will obviously depend upon the quality of data used. PRé are
at pains to stress that the whole LCA methodology is constantly being
updated and changed, and that you will not find a definitive answer
with SimaPro. However, with the range and quality of data provided,
and the flexibility to update and add your own, SimaPro offers a
comprehensive tool for use in LCA calculations. •
Paul Stockdale is a freelance author and has a background in Wastes

Management and Environmental Technology.
References
Siegenthaler, C.P., Linder, S. and Pagliari, F., ‘LCA Software Guide 1997’
(Adliswil, Switzerland: Swiss Association of Environmentally Conscious
Management, 1997).
PRé Consultants, Amersfoort, the Netherlands.

DIARY OF EVENTS
Managing eco-design 1: online 31 October 1997 17–18 November 1997

conference Managing eco-design: Take it back 97: conference on
Managing eco-design 2: online 2nd International conference packaging and product stewardship
conference London, UK Virginia, US
Textiles, design and environment: ✉ Martin Charter ✉ 6429 Aubren Avenue
online conference The Centre for Sustainable Design Riverdown 20737
Sustainable Product Design 2: The Surrey Institute of Art & Design Maryland
online conference Falkner Road US
✉ Martin Charter Farnham ✆ +301 345 4237
The Centre for Sustainable Design Surrey GU9 7DS fax +301 345 4768
The Surrey Institute of Art & Design UK email: Michele@raymond.com
Falkner Road ✆ +44 1252 732229
Farnham fax +44 1252 732274 19 November 1997
Surrey GU9 7DS email: cfsd@surrart.ac.uk Product re-thinking workshop
UK New York, US
✆ +44 1252 732229 1–3 November 1997
fax +44 1252 732274
✉ Caroline Nunley
European roundtable O2 New York City
email: cfsd@surrart.ac.uk on cleaner production ✆ +212 361 2400
Oslo, Norway email: info@materials=1Fconnexion.com
27–29 October 1997
✉ Jostein Myrberg
Recycling Council of Ontario 18th National Institute of Technology 19–21 November 1997
annual conference and trade show 24C Right Light 4: fourth European
Toronto, Canada PO Box 2608 St. Hanshaugen conference on energy efficient
✉ Recycling Council of Ontario N–0131 Oslo lighting
489 College Street Norway Copenhagen, Denmark
Suite 504 ✆ +47 22 865107
Toronto fax +47 22 111203
✉ Gert Nielsen
Right Light 4
ON M6G 1A5 email: myrj@teknologisk.no
Association of Danish Electric Utilities
Canada
Rosenarns Alle 9
✆ +1 416 960 1025 12–14 November 1997
DK – 1970 Frederiksberg C
fax +1 416 960 8053 ENTREE 97: the seventh Denmark
email: rco@web.net conference on environmental ✆ +45 3139 0111
training in engineering education fax +45 3139 5958
30 October 1997 Sophia-Antipolis, France
Products & environmental ✉ Pekka Pellinen 27 November 1997
management systems UETP-EEE Wave of factors: reduction
Rotterdam, The Netherlands ✆ +358 9 2291 2259 factors for sustainability
✉ O2 Netherlands fax +358 9 2291 2944 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
PO Box 519 email: pekka.pellinen@tek.fi
3000 AM Rotterdam
✉ O2 Netherlands
PO Box 519
The Netherlands 16–17 November 1997
3000 AM Rotterdam
✆ +31 10 411 8102 First European waste forum The Netherlands
fax +31 10 404 9495 Brussels, Belgium ✆ +31 10411 8102
✉ Brussels Institute for Management fax +31 10404 9495
of the Environment (IBGE)
Service Info –
Environment Gulledelle 100
1200 Brussels
Belgium
✆ +32 2 775 7575
fax +32 2 775 7621
email: Info@ibgebim.be

DIARY OF EVENTS
27 November 1997 and March 1998 7–8 April 1998

What will new packaging Ecotextile 98: Sustainable
legislation mean to your business: Development
packaging waste alert seminars Bolton, UK
Surrey, UK ✉ Professor Richard Horrocks
✉ Jackie Warton Faculty of Technology
Training Group Bolton Institute
Pira International Deane Road
Randalls Road Bolton BL3 5AB
Leatherhead UK
Surrey KT22 7RU ✆ +44 1204 900123
UK fax +44 1204 900125
✆ +44 1372 802047 email: a.r.horrocks@bolton.ac.uk
fax +44 1372 802243
email: training-service@pira.co.uk 26–28 October 1998
Eschholzstrasse 86 Green Building Challenge 98
79115 Freiburg Vancouver, Canada
Germany
✆ +49 761 368 92 20
✉ Nils Larsson
Green Buildings Information Council
fax +49 761 362 66
13th Floor
email: 100717.313@compuserve.com
580 Booth Street
Ottowa
3–4 December 1997
Ontario
Eco Procura 97: The European KIA 0E4
forum for eco–purchasing of Canada
products and services ✆ +613 769 1242
Freiburg, Germany fax +613 232 7018
✉ Claudia Grotz email: larsson@greenbuilding.ca
International Training Centre (ITC)
International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)
European Secretariat
5–8 December 1997

The Design and Environment
Conference
Canberra, Australia
✉ Catalyst ’97 Conference
University of Canberra
PO Box 1
Belconnen ACT
2616
Australia
✆ +61 6 201 5754/61 6+ 201 2178
fax +61 6 201 2279/61 6+ 201 5034
email: cat97@design.canberra.edu.au.

NOTES
Contributor guidelines
The Journal of Sustainable Product Second sheet: A self-contained Tables, graphs, photographs etc.
Design is targeted at Environmental abstract of up to 150 words summaris- All graphs, diagrams and other drawings
directors, managers, Design managers, ing the paper and its conclusions. should be referred to as Figures, which
Product designers, Academics and Subsequent sheets: Main body of should be numbered consecutively in
Environmental coordinators in local text, footnotes, list of references, Arabic numerals and placed on separate
and central government worldwide. appendices, tables (on separate sheets), sheets at the end of the manuscript.
and illustrations. Their position should be indicated in the
Submissions text. All figures must have captions.
Authors are urged to write as concisely
Authors should minimise the amount of
Three copies and a 31/2” Macintosh – or as possible. The main title of the article
descriptive matter on graphs and
IBM compatible disk should be sent to: should be kept short, but may be accom-
drawings, and should refer to curves,
Martin Charter or Anne Chick panied by a subtitle. Descriptive or
points, etc. by their symbols and place
The Journal of Sustainable explanatory passages, necessary as
descriptive matter in the captions. Scale
Product Design information but which tend to break the
grids should not be used in graphs,
The Centre for Sustainable Design flow of the main text, should be
unless required for actual measurement.
Faculty of Design expressed as footnotes or appendices.
In all figures taken or adapted from
The Surrey Institute of Art & Design Bibliographic references: All other sources, a brief note to that effect
Falkner Road bibliographical references should is obligatory, below the caption. Please
Farnham be complete and comprising of authors ensure any photographs taken are of
Surrey GU9 7DS and initials, full title and subtitle, place good quality. They may be supplied as
UK. of publication, publisher, date, and page prints or transparencies, in black and
Email submissions should be references. References to journal arti- white or in colour.
sent to: cfsd@surrart.ac.uk. cles must include the volume and
A black and white photograph of the number of the journal. The layout must Copyright
author(s) should be supplied. adhere to the following convention: Before publication, authors are
Author, A., and B. Author, ‘Title of book: requested to assign copyright to
Presentation Subtitle’ (Place of publication: publisher, The Centre for Sustainable Design.
Articles submitted to the Analysis date), pp.xx–xx. or This allows The Centre for Sustainable
section (peer reviewed) should be Author, A., and B. Author, ‘Title of Design to sanction reprints and photo-
between 2,500–5,000 words. Shorter Journal Article: Subtitle’, in Journal, copies and to authorise the reprint of
articles of 1,000–1,500 words are also Vol.x No. x (January 19xx), pp. xx–xx. complete issues or volumes according
requested for the Case Study and to demand. Authors traditional rights
Innovation sections. Manuscripts should These should be listed, alphabetically
will not be jeopardised by assigning
be typed in journal style, double spaced by author surname, at the end of the
copyright in the manner, as they will
(including footnotes and references) article.
retain the right to re-use.
with wide margins, on one side only If referring to works in the main body of
of good quality A4-size paper. the article, please use the ‘short title’ Proofs
Manuscripts should be arranged in the method in parentheses.
Authors are responsible for ensuring
following order of presentation. Footnotes: These should be numbered that all manuscripts (whether
First sheet: Title, subtitle (if any), consecutively in Arabic numerals and original or revised) are accurately typed
author’s name, affiliation, full postal placed before the list of bibliographical before final submission. One set of
address and telephone, fax number references. They should be indicated in proofs will be sent to authors before
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addresses of co-authors should be ‘(see Note 1)’. promptly (by Express Air Mail if outside
clearly indicated. Please also include UK).
approximately 100 words of biographi-
cal information on all authors. Copy deadlines
Issue 4: 12 December 1997
Issue 5: 13 March 1998
Issue 6: 12 June 1998.

Typography: design@emspace.co.uk
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The Journal of
5 Editorial
Martin Charter and Anne Chick, Editors, The Journal of Sustainable Product Design
Analysis
7 Learning from the introduction of green products: two case
studies from the gardening industry
Annica Bragd, Research Assistant, Gothenburg Research Institute,
18 Sustainable design: re-thinking future business products
Colin Beard, Lecturer, School of Leisure Management, Sheffield Hallam University,
UK, and Rainer Hartmann, Consultant, HCS Consulting, Germany, and Visiting
Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
28 Sustainability by design: new targets and new tools for designers
Ursula Tischner, econcept, Ecology and Design Consultancy, Cologne, Germany
Interview
38 Professor William McDonough, Dean of School of Architecture,
Martin Charter, Joint Coordinator, The Centre for Sustainable Design, UK
Gallery
40 Metzzo
Innovation
42 A design tool for eco-efficient products
Jonathan Williams, Director, Group for Environmental Manufacturing, UK
and Calum Morrison, Project Manager, The Planning Exchange, Scotland
47 Moving companies towards sustainability through eco-design:
conditions for success
Professor Dr Ir A L N Stevels, Senior Advisor Environmental Engineering,
Environmental Competence Centre, Philips Sound & Vision, the Netherlands
O2 news
56 Special feature: O2 Japan
Edited by Sytze Kalisvaart, Chair of O2 Global Network, Product designer,
TNO Industrial Technology, the Netherlands, Fumi Masunda, Liaison Officer,
The Centre for Sustainable Design
O2 Japan, Director of Open House, Japan, and Misato Yomosan, Product
Planner, Japan
an initiative of 60 Review
The Surrey Institute
of Art & Design 64 Diary of events

Issue 3: October 1997

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Issue 3: October 1997

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ISSUE 3 : OCTOBER 1997

Sketch for a table with a Detail of carpet sweeper, Table made

Editors Editorial Board Dr Stefano Marzano

4 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

Welcome to the second issue of

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 5

Lawn mowers: power systems

6 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

Learning from the

The development of environmentally Introduction

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 7

process, based on the rationale forces can be very different, for

8 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 9

Case study one: the This product is a business success

beginning of as weight loss, performance

Sweden in product had no exhaust fumes

relation to competitors had no alternative

10 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

In 1995, ‘Carb 95’, the Californian

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 11

Figure 1: Experiences resulting from the launch of the battery-powered mower

· ‘Re-education of customers marketed using environmental from a strategic point of view

12 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 13

Figure 2: Experiences resulting from the launch of the Solar Mower

The product Marketing customers had no experience

14 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 15

The study more in relation to green prod-

indicates documentation must be

awareness and environmental The customers hold certain

conventional to be a multi-dimensional learn-

products introduction phase. The company

16 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

specification was not sufficient; Conclusion

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 17

Environmental impact reduction is Introduction

18 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 19

Figure 1: The simple IQ test

scientific analysis and is not upper left in the diagram. The

20 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

Myths and legends: innovation or ideas?

A new breed of scrap merchants are also emerging, opportunist

One major recycling company in Germany is said to turnover DM 2

Reprinted from an article by Beard & Hartmann in European

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 21

overcome the ‘can’t do’ barriers. patterns of East and West

22 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

Wealth & design Frugality & design

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 23

company currently trades at an urgently seeking waste for

‘heads’ but been able to make their outdoor

24 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

household use… and one-third

OCTOBER 1997 · THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN 25

Check it, challenge it and change it!

Metaphor Product People Barriers

2 REVIEW – · Does it have to be like this? · Challenging public · Resistance to change

3 CHANGE its · New products · New lifestyles · Innovation lethargy

26 THE JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN · OCTOBER 1997

∑· the possible contribution of