Whitepapers

3 Five Steps to Eco Design // C. Cost & Supply Chain Management Legislation may be forcing you to consider eco design, but there can also be clear cost benefits. By taking an eco design perspective during the a product's design, companies often find that they are able to cut manufacturing costs by eliminating waste and reducing materials and energy use. In addition, assessing the risks associated with critical materials early in design can minimize supply chain disruptions by allowing designers to avoid using risky materials. To successfully adopt eco design, both cost savings and sustainability need to be considered together, requiring an evolution in the day-to-day behavior of engineers. When the major environmental impacts of a product are related to a sub-system or component that is designed and manufactured by a supplier, eco design can provide a good opportunity for engagement with these suppliers. This may result in a leaner, more cost- effective supply chain. This is certainly an ambition of companies such as WalMart and Procter & Gamble, which have extensive supply- chain reporting initiatives. These companies are asking suppliers to report on environmental issues such as embodied energy, water footprint, and CO 2 emissions. These data are then used to benchmark supplier performance and identify the environmental hotspots in their supply chain, thus reducing costs. D. Stimulus for Innovation Companies can also discover opportunities for innovation when they consider the potential environmental impact of their products. For instance, Lightweight Medical developed the award-winning transport incubator. The use of carbon fibers makes it >50% lighter than existing models, enabling easier movement and reductions in associated transport emissions. The Dyson Airblade hand dryer uses high-efficiency electric pumps to force air through specially designed apertures that "cut" water off the hands of the user as they slowly lift their hands out of the drying chamber. By blowing water off the hands rather than trying to evaporate the water off as conventional hand dryers do, Dyson claims that the Airblade requires ~77% less time and uses up to 80% less energy to dry hands. In this way designers and producers can deliver both functional benefits and environmental benefits. E. Pressure from Investors Through a combination of public opinion, climate change science, and boards and company directors recognizing the importance of sustainability, corporate objectives around sustainability are becoming mainstream. These objectives are becoming more tangible and public as part of companies end-of-year reporting and aligned with director remuneration. It's becoming critical to product designers to align with these strategic objectives and ensure that both embedded and in-use CO 2 is being considered at every stage of design of the next generation of products. / 2. The Challenge of Implementing Eco Design Typical Responses to Eco Design Drivers If your company has decided that the business case for eco design is sufficiently strong, the first task is to establish how to respond. To date, many companies have focused on reporting environmental performance and assessing the compliance of products against environmental regulations or standards. Initially, many environmental marketing claims were based on limited evidence or were misleading in some cases. This resulted in backlash f rom environmental NGOs and consumer groups, who demand greater transparency in these environmental claims. Guidance is now available on how to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) and how to communicate the results. Standards such as the ISO 14040, ISO 14001 and ISO 14020 series have helped to significantly improve the quality and transparency of environmental claims. Conventional LCA methods and technology, with their focus on detailed analysis of environmental impacts of existing products, are probably the best-known class of tool for analyzing environmental impacts. The downside of these approaches is that they are aimed at use late-on or after the design process, and are too data- or effort-intensive to be adapted for use in an iterative manner early in design. They are thus of limited use in making practical improvements to the current or future generation of a product by design or simulation engineers trying to decide on what materials to consider for the product they're working on. Despite market pressure, the idea of addressing environmental impact during early design is still in its infancy. Such assessment is seen as the preserve of dedicated eco specialists and consultants, as they often find it hard to engage: They often find it hard to engage engineers and designers across the company in improving product sustainably. This white paper is based on the belief that we need to embed practical eco design tools and the right data — such as water consumption, embedded energy, or the carbon footprint for a chosen material — into the regular design processes and engineering tools (CAE, CAD, PLM) for the engineers actually designing the product and components. The Challenges Before considering how to achieve this goal, why is eco design not already integral to the design process? • Limited Time: Environmental impacts are just one of many constraints a designer must consider during product development. Designer engineers are constantly battling to balance often-conflicting project requirements such as functional performance, cost, aesthetics, regulatory compliance, and lead time. Eco design adds yet another issue to consideration to this list, but having it as part of an early design trade-off is critical to make the right product decision as early as possible. "To improve the environmental performance of products, we must embed practical eco design tools and approaches early in the regular design process."

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