When does green design become more than just a "nice to have?" What is driving the many advancements in environmentally friendly product design? A panel discussion at today's
Greener By Design conference brought together experts on
carbon regulation, product toxicity, and sustainable product certification to discuss.
For starters, how will carbon regulation impact product design? Steve Gutmann, Senior Commercialization Manager at
EcoSecurities, explained that a cap and trade system will impact companies indirectly by raising the cost of energy. "95 percent of entities will not be directly affected by cap and trade, but their product design processes will be impacted by more expensive energy." Gutmann advised companies to push on energy efficiency to position themselves strategically as carbon regulation develops.
In the voluntary carbon market Gutmann described a trend of more seamless ways of purchasing credits. Consumers are facing more and more options to make "micro-contributions" of 1 percent of their purchase price to go towards carbon offset projects. Another trend is the emergence of more local offset projects to choose from.
Toxics have recently become a renewed source of consumer concern. Dr. Richard Liroff,
Executive Director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) speaks of a "toxic footprint" that companies need to understand. "If you want to sell to
Wal-Mart and others that will follow their lead, you better know what chemicals are in your products. And ask yourself how to get rid of them," Liroff advised.
"Is the hype ahead of science in restricting chemicals?" moderator and VP of
GreenBiz Intelligence, John Davies, inquired. Do we know enough to take products off the shelves? "There will always be scientific uncertainty. The strategic challenge is where do you want to be in the face of it?" Liroff explained. Turns out its better to be on the safe side. For example, Whole Foods followed the BPA debate for years, and pulled BPA containing products three and a half years ago. They are ahead of the game today. It's better to listen to consumers' concern than to simply rely on FDA compliance.
Liroff mentioned
SC Johnson's Greenlist process of understanding their product portfolio as an exemplary case study. All products are ranked by toxicity and the process is built into the company processes, such that manager incentives and supply chain decisions are aligned with Greenlist.
Another trend in green product design is the development of numerous green product certification labels. Christopher Nelson, Director of Global Commercial Development at
UL Environment (a subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories) is developing environmental sustainability standards. UL Environment offers environmental claims validation and sustainable product certification. But the trick remains communicating with the every day consumer. "One of issues is that there are tons of labels, and people don't understand who is making the claims and what they mean," Nelson explained. Most consumers don't understand Life Cycle Analysis and other terms, so the trick is to communicate with that in mind.
At the end of the day product standards, carbon limits and toxics regulations are all pieces of the puzzle. But as Gutmann explained, what we need is greater than the sum of these pieces -- we need to rethink our needs. He cited car sharing services as a perfect example of the type of rethinking that will drive sustainable innovation. Cars take up 50 percent of urban real estate and are used on average for a mere 50 minutes a day, hence we don't all need our own cars. This is an example of a shift from heavy material needs to simple access to experiences. Gutmann advised that "Designers should focus on how can we share the benefits of a product without everyone having to have that product."
