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The REDI
Project
The Regional
Eco-efficiency Demonstrator Initiative (REDI) was launched in late 1995 to show
how eco-efficiency and commercial viability could be aligned within new product
designs. A wide range of companies has been involved, reflecting the
supply-chain and whole-life orientations of the project. Funding has been
received from the Esme Fairburn Charitable Trust and the European Commission,
as well as from companies and business support organizations.
A major deliverable
from REDI is a software tool which aims to assist the designer to minimize ‘end
of life’ liabilities and maximize whole-life value in a number of ways.
Firstly, by entering the product specifications into the software tool, the designer
is warned of any potentially hazardous materials included, wherever they may be
located within the product. This all flows at the very least, for the designer
to be aware of the liabilities in the product and to quantify them for further
reference. This information can then be used within scenarios, to identify
vulnerability of particular designs to future regulatory developments.
Secondly, by
tracking the value throughout product life, REDI gives the user a snapshot of
the ‘value-adding’ and ‘value-reducing’ processes throughout the product’s
life, tracking material fluxes from raw resources to finished products and
waste streams. A key element of this functionality is the ability to
Representation
of product life cycle within REDI
model the scrap
and waste rates of the various process flows that the product undergoes and
also to estimate overall material recovery percentages.
Each stage of
the life-cycle, from component manufacture to waste processing, is modeled;
each draws on material/energy resources, and each creates waste. These fluxes
of material flows are modeled so that resource and waste burdens can be
calculated for each unit of output from the production process.
The concept
of eco-efficiency is central to the REDI design tool. Eco-efficiency is a
measure of how much customer value is offered by the product compared with the
resources needed to create that value. By modeling value-adding and
value-reducing processes throughout the product’s life, its overall eco-efficiency
can be derived, in the form of an eco-efficiency index. Designers can use this
index to explore the optimization of eco-efficiency at an early stage of
product design. This is a novel aspect of design tools, and an important
function of the REDI project is to appraise how useful this eco-efficiency
approach could be in a commercial design context.
One of the
major uses of the REDI tool will be the management, and ‘designing out’, of
liabilities resulting from the product’s ‘end of life’ and manufacturing
phases. It is recognized that small firms have an important role in achieving a
more eco-efficient industrial base. Yet many recent initiatives (e.g. waste minimization)
have encountered difficulties in attracting small firms. Therefore REDI has
been constructed to allow an easy entry route for small firms.
The design
tool has initially focused on the electronic equipment sector, working closely
with a range of leading companies including Hewlett-Packard, Rank Xerox,
Whole-life
liability management
One of the
major uses of the REDI tool will be the management, and ‘designing out’, of
liabilities resulting from the product’s ‘end of life’ and manufacturing
phases. Many of these liabilities are hidden costs falling outside the
conventional design brief (i.e. the cost of complying with Control of
Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations due to the use of particular
solvents during manufacture).
Of particular
significance is the cost of producing, handling and disposing of packaging used
to ship components and assemblies from supplier to manufacturer. These costs
are rarely considered in product engineering, but they can end up being
substantial. It is only by tracking all such packaging throughout the
life-cycle that it is possible to quantify the cost, and thereby to focus
management attention on reducing cost.
In addition,
it is important to ensure that designers are aware of all hazardous materials
used in the product, particularly if these end up being shipped in the product
where they can contaminate otherwise recoverable resources at ‘end of life’.
This is presently extremely difficult, for two reasons:
• product designers
do not usually possess information on material composition of bought-in
components nor are they usually fully aware of regulatory constraints affecting
the use and disposal of different materials.
The REDI tool
addresses these needs, making information available in a form which is valuable
to small and large firms. It achieves that by incorporating within the tool two
databases. One is a component database which contains information on common
components used in electronic equipment. Initially a demonstration component
database has been created, covering a limited range of components, to allow the
tool to be used and evaluated.
The second
database contains information on materials and regulations pertaining to those
materials. This data resource all flows REDI to flag up potential hazards,
without getting bogged down in details of environmental regulations. However it
will be possible to link REDI to one of a typical product.
The
proprietary environmental databases to access more detailed information.
Whole-life value
management
As already
mentioned, the ability to optimize ‘value-added’ against
resource utilization
is essential to develop eco-efficient products. REDI achieves this by
calculating the embedded value in a product at every stage in its life.
This shows a
modest raw materials value (£B) rising through the manufacturing processes to a
maximum value at the point of sale (£A). As the product is used, it steadily
loses value (ignoring some discontinuities due to maintenance and repair) until
it finishes up in, say, a municipal waste site. Here it has a negative value
since it requires some waste processing and its materials are not yet available
for reuse.
At this
stage, the product can either by treated by a recovery system which releases
its intrinsic value, and brings the net value back up (£C); or it can be
disposed of without recovery of its intrinsic resources, incurring a further
loss of value (£C’).
Based on
information from recycling plants, the designer can input recovery rates and
costs for the product and its constituents. This all flows REDI to create the
value profile, whereupon the designer can explore how design decisions affect
the profile. In the case of a
poorly designed
product, where the ‘end of life’ processing costs are high, it may not be
possible 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 than by commercial judgment.
Eco-efficiency
index
The index is
computed as the ratio between maximum product value (in the above case £A) and
the net whole-life material value consumed in achieving that product value (£B
less £C). That is: heco = A/(B–C)
The index is
a convenient way of summarizing the eco-efficiency performance of a design. It
assumes that the value at point of sale (A) can be taken as the price a
consumer is prepared to pay to acquire the product, i.e. its retail price.
Material values B & C can be computed by the REDI model: clearly, designs
which improve the net value of resources extracted from product (C), and/or
which reduce the resources consumed in manufacture (B), will attract an
improved eco-efficiency index.
Maximizing
impact
The next
stage in the project will address the evaluation of the REDI tool.
Participating companies will be given an opportunity to experiment with the
tool, to apply it to product design situations relevant to their own
businesses.
It is
important to get feedback from smaller firms at this stage, so the project is
working with various organizations.
The tool is
structured on economic factors, since these will drive moves towards eco-efficient
products in the commercial world.
interests of
small and medium enterprises.
Using the design
tool
In order to maximize
the value of REDI, considerable effort has gone into the user interface. The
tool is coded in Microsoft Access with Visual Basic controls, offering an efficient
prototyping environment and flexibility to customize the user interface. An
example of a screen, showing product information summary, is illustrated.
Conclusions
The REDI
project has successfully developed a design tool which all flows designers to optimize
the eco-efficiency of products. At
this stage,
it has been focused on electronic equipment, but this applicability can be
expanded once the use of the tool has been validated.
The design
tool is structured around a whole-life representation of material flows
required to manufacture, use and dispose of products. Economic values of
material flows are built into the tool, since ‘end of life’ processing is
dependent upon the intrinsic value of resources embedded within products.
An eco-efficiency
index has been proposed, and is built into the tool. The formulation of this
index needs to be appraised by designers and engineers.
The tool
differs from conventional life cycle analysis models, in that it does not
attempt to quantify every emission and resource utilization. Instead, it quantifies
whole-life material utilization and recovery, and presents this information in
a form directly useful to the design process. The tool is also unashamedly
structured on economic factors, since these will drive moves towards eco-efficient
products in the commercial world.
The next
stage in the work seeks to generate feedback on the tool from designers and
engineers, in the context of both large and small company environments. Moving
companies towards sustainability through eco-design: conditions for success
Senior
Advisor Environmental Engineering, Environmental Competence Centre, Philips
Sound & Vision, the Netherlands
Ab Stevels
studied Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology and, after being
employed at Philips Electronics Eindhoven in 1966, he received his PhD in
Physics and Chemistry at the Groningen University, the Netherlands.
In 1969 he
joined the Philips Research Laboratories and worked on various subjects in
solid state chemistry and materials science. After changing to the Glass
division in 1981, he worked in various capacities: glass technologist,
laboratory manager, head of prototyping and general manager of the Optics
business. In 1989 he was transferred to the Consumer Electronics division (his
assignments included the management of the laser optics business and projects
in Asia). From January, 1993 he has been senior advisor on environmental
engineering of Philips Consumer Electronics and from December 1995 he was
appointed part-time professor in Environmental Design at the Faculty of
Industrial Design Engineering, the Delft University of Technology, and the
Netherlands.
Experiences
in moving companies towards more sustainability through eco-design are
highlighted in this paper. Incremental improvement of environmental product
attributes is well underway especially in those areas where eco-design can be
linked to cost reductions. More radical re-design of products is currently
still hampered by lack of appropriate validation methods. Finding product
alternatives and introducing them to the market will require intensive
stakeholder dialogue. The formulation of common goals will be crucial to move
society towards sustainability.
Introduction
he need to achieve sustainable development
poses an enormous challenge for society. It is estimated that in order to make
this happen, the burden on the environment in industrialized countries will
have to be reduced by at least a ‘factor 10’ in fifty years time (Weterings
& Opschoor, 1992). Over a shorter time scale Von Weizsacker, Lovins and
Lovins (Weizsacker, Lovins & Lovins, 1995) advocate an increase in the eco-efficiency
of consumption by a ‘factor 4’. In order to realize this a number of
techno-economical, social and ethical issues will have to be tackled. This
paper highlights the role of companies in achieving the societal goal of
sustainability through eco-design. Basically this is a technical issue;
however, this paper will show that mindset and corporate culture are important
conditions for success.
The
Brundtland Commission report (The Brundtland Commission, 1997) brought the
concept of sustainability to the attention of a wide audience. However, in the
subsequent years various actors have became more and more involved in the
debate. In business the increasing eco-efficiency of production processes has
been progressing for several decades; with, the oil price shocks of the early
seventies and eighties greatly accelerating efforts. Nowadays the concept of
eco-efficiency is well accepted in smart industrial practice; but attention to
eco-efficiency of products has evolved only recently.
This flows
that after the initial awareness phase, national governments in various
countries stepped in with (draft) legislation and regulation. Between 1991–1994
the first environmental criteria appeared in consumer product tests and in
eco-labels; shortly after this leading companies started to implement
product-related eco-design and eco-efficiency considerations. More recently it
has been realized that product-based eco-efficiency as such is not good enough
to realize breakthrough gains. The systems/infrastructure in which the product
functions has to be considered as well.
This paper
suggests that eco-design has several levels of sophistication. For each of the first
three levels, i.e.improvement of current design, radical re-design based on
existing product concepts and product alternatives, experience from Philips
Sound & Vision (S&V) is described, both in terms of critical success
factors and support tools used or needed.
Levels in
eco-design
The eco-design
process has been described by Brezet, Cramer and Stevels (Brezet, Cramer &
Stevels, 1995) as a staircase with four steps.
First step:
incremental improvement of products Second step: (complete) re-design of
existing product concepts.
Third step:
alternative fulfilment
of
functionality, new concepts Fourth step: functionality concepts completely fitting
into the sustainable society.
When
developing eco-prototyping projects or implementing eco-design in a wider sense
in organizations, it is important to know exactly what level of eco-design the
company or Business Unit should be aiming for.
The choice of
the level has far-reaching consequences for the type of information required,
type of institution/department involved, the environmental validation (the
‘greeness’ of the result), financial aspects, consumer life style and
infrastructure.
It can also
be concluded from activities on level 1 and level 2 are well within the span of
control of individual companies. For success at level 3 and 4, consumer life
style and infrastructure changes in society play a major role.
Level 1: eco-design
activities, incremental improvement
Level 1 eco-design
actions can be carried out by all companies launching products into the market
and every employee can contribute to it.
Common sense
plays an important part in these type of activities. Essentially it is bringing
together the following type of information:
By counting, i.e.
• how many
parts are in the products?
• how many
types of material have been used?
• how many
screws or other fixtures are in place?
By measuring,
i.e.
• energy
consumption
• weight
• presence of
environmentally relevant substances
• disassembly
time of the main parts?
By
calculating, i.e.
• what is the
cost of environmental improvements?
• what are
the yields of environmental improvements?
Bringing
together information almost automatically leads to the generation of ‘green’
improvements
Philips
Environmental Policy Statement
Environmental
care is an integral part of the industrial and product policy of Philips.
The four
basic principles are: • sustainable development • prevention is better than
cure • the total effect on the environment counts • open contact with the
authorities.
These
principles lead to the following policy statement:
• Philips is
committed to environmental care in all its operations. All parts of the organization
will incorporate this into the management of their activities.
• Philips encourages
the assessment of the total environmental impact when introducing new
processes, products and packaging.
• Philips
recognises the importance of an on-going involvement and commitment of
management and of all employees.
• Philips
will strive to conduct its industrial and commercial activities in such a way
that the quality of the environment now and in the future preserved. Philips
supports the Business Charter for Sustainable Development of the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC), dated March 1991.
• Philips is
committed to complying with all applicable environmental laws and regulations
and emphasises the necessity of international harmonization of environmental
regulations.
• Philips
will cooperate with governments, regulatory bodies, industries and consumer organizations
and will take the initiative, where necessary, to promote workable and improved
codes of practice and effective laws and regulations.
• Philips encourages the collection and
qualified recycling of products at the end of their useful life by third
parties. In this respect, Philips will provide the necessary information
concerning its products.
• Philips
will strive to inform the customer in such a way that he will be able to take
the respective environmental consequences into account in his decision to buy,
provided an assessment of the total environmental impact of its products has
been made.
Source:
Philips Electronic experience has shown that the process of bringing together
information, as described above, almost automatically leads to the generation
of ‘green’ improvements (and also leads to improvements outside the strict
environmental area). The reason for this is due to the complexity of today’s
products and because most companies are still organized into specialized
departments focusing on particular parts of the total product concept (i.e.mechanical,
electrical, electronic, manufacturing planning, etc). Eco-design is essentially
a cross-functional activity!
In order to
successfully integrate level 1 eco-design activities, basically four types of
action are needed:
• formulation
of the environmental vision, policy and overall targets by management.
• incorporation
of an environmental section into the individual product specification.
• eco-design
training and the publication of an environmental design manual with mandatory design
rules, directives and recom-mendations, background knowledge on how to
successfully execute eco-design
• follow-up
both at management level (‘review’) and in the product creation process
(environmental release).
In order for
an organization to start operating in this way, a business rationale must be
developed, technical matters should be addressed and environmental awareness
should be generated.
Environmental
Design Manual
Philips
Electronics N.V. 1996
Part 1: Sound
& Vision (S&V),
Business
Electronics (BE) and
Communication
Systems (CS)
environmental
requirements
• how to use
the manual
• summary of
mandatory
design rules
• environmental
weight
and
calculation method
• marking and
labelling
of mechanical
parts
• packaging
• customer
information
• purchasing
directives
• banned
Substances
• batteries
• ozone
depleting chemicals
The business
rationale for level 1 eco-design activities is primarily based on compliance
with legislation/regulation and to changes where eco-design and cost reduction
are directly linked, such as product weight and packaging weight reduction,
reduction of (dis)assembly time, reduction of wiring/cabling and the
application of recycled material. Experience indicates that successful eco-design
generates environmental improvements and cost reduction, which contradicts the
well-established prejudice that ‘ the environment’ only costs money. It is more
difficult to derive market advantages from level 1 eco-design activities; as,
both private and original equipment manu-facturers (OEM) customers Part 2:
Business group specific environmental standards.
Part 3:
Environmental policy:
S&V, BE
and CS environmental organization environmental recommendations and information
• chemical
content
• power
consumption
• end-of-life
costs & design
recommendations
• environmental
management
systems
• LCA/Eco-indicator
• eco labels
simply expect
that quality companies continuously introduce environmental improvements in
their new product generations. Moreover, level 1 eco-design improvements are
straightforward and easy for competitors to follow, so commercial advantages
will be short-lived.
Philips Sound
& Vision (S&V) has approached eco-design activities both through a
‘top-down’ and a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The ‘top-down’ approach was launched
through the formulation of a vision/policy statement in 1991. This was followed
by the implementation of an environmental program called ‘The Environmental
Opportunity’. On a company-wide basis the following three goals are set:
• certification
according to ISO
Part 4:
Annexes environmental release status of:
passive components
active components
electromechanical components
key components
laminates (for PWBs)
plastics
metals
chemicals
Philips CE
list of environmentally relevant substances • summary of legislation and
regulations.
• 15%
packaging reduction in all operations by the year 2000.
Each Business
Unit has to establish a program addressing:
• eco-design
energy consumption of products
The need to
drastically improve the eco-efficiency of products and services through level 3
eco-design also calls for an intense stakeholder dialogue.
and training programs.
The Environmental Design Manual gives the mandatory design rules (to be checked
at product release), design directives and design recommendations. The
supporting text and information tables are organized in such a way that they
not only invite the designers/developers to fulfil the requirements, but also
to surpass this minimum as much as possible (see JSPD, Issue 1, p. 7).
Training programs
include the following items:
introduction
What is eco-design
environmental product analysis ?
Environmental
validation
How to
environmentally improve energy consumption materials application
chemical
content packaging ‘end of life’ properties • ISO 14001 • business and
environment eco-design as business issue
environmental
business analysis/roadmaps
green
consumer behavior
environmental
product strategy • legal and political issues
•
implementation of eco-design • ‘end of life’/recycling specials.
Level 2: eco-design
activities, radical re-design based on existing concepts.
In level 2
eco-design activities existing product concepts are environmentally improved up
to the limits which physics, chemistry and electronics will allow. This is difficult
to achieve
through a
‘Plan-Do-Check-Action’ approach. Therefore level 2 eco-design projects are
being organized in pre-prototyping or research laboratories.
Going for the
limits for energy consumption, materials application and ‘end of
life’/durability of a single product always implies compromises and ‘tradeoffs’
as to what is the best or the better environmental option. Drastically
improving one item (i.e. energy consumption) can have negative implications for
other items, such as materials or ‘end of life’. Therefore level 2 activities
require environmental validation; Life Cycle Assessment (eco-indicator
calculations) and Life Cycle Cost calculations are needed to track down the
best options, with commonsense and the checklist-based activities of level 1 –
no longer applicable to a higher level of sophisication.
In order to find
out what the best approach for radical re-design in an industrial setting would
be, the S&V Business Unit has organized a ‘Green TV’ project. In this
project attention has been focussed on both the technical issues, and corporate
culture issues, like how to overcome barriers and prejudice and how to simulate
green creativity. The experience in this project has shown that it is very beneficial
to allow ‘open thinking’ in the first stage of the project. This means that the
normal boundary conditions of an industrial project, quality, cost price and
throughput time, are set aside for a certain period of time. Later on these are
brought in again. Practice with the Philip’s ‘Green TV’ project
STRETCH:
checklist of
environmental
opportunities
Minimisation
of production impact • minimisation of waste,
emissions and
energy use • respect for biodiversity
Minimisation
of product impact • reduction of toxic substances • minimisation of materials
consumption (i.e.
through miniaturisation, weight reduction, systems integration)
• minimisation
of use of non-renewable resources
• minimisation
of fossil energy consumption (i.e. through energy efficiency and durable energy
use)
Efficient
distribution & logistics • produce where you consume • direct distribution
to consumer Intensity of use • lease versus sell • collective use
Durability of
products • reuse • technical upgrading • longer lifetime • repairability •
refurbishing • ageing with quality
Recyclability
of materials
• reduction
of materials
diversity •
materials cascading • design for disassembly • selected, safe disposal
STRETCH
methodology showed that solutions were found in avenues which otherwise would
have been eliminated beforehand.
This has
resulted in a product of where the environmental load is approximately 30%
lower than in the comparable current products. The advantages break down in the
following way:
• reduction
of energy
consumption:
30%
• plastic
weight reduction: 32%
• reduction
of hazardous
substances:
100%
• use of recycled
materials:
69% of total
weight • recycling potential: 93%
The cost
price of this product is approximately the same as current products. The main
roadblock for ‘massive introduction’ (the production of large quantities for
market introduction) is the investment which has to be made to transform the
present production facilities into that suitable for the ‘Green TV’. This
transformation would also have consequences for suppliers, as they would have
to change their parts geometries and moulds and would have to learn to work
with new (mostly recycled) materials.
The above
mentioned reasons suggest that the results of the ‘Green TV’ project can only
be implemented ‘step by step’ over a longer period of time.
Level 3: eco-design
activities, product alternatives
As is shown
in the implications of level 3 eco-design activities go beyond individual
companies.
The risks can
be enormous:
• product
alternatives might require huge investments with unsure returns
• product
alternatives might invalidate current investments and might force a supplier
base to change significantly
• the
customer may not be prepared to buy the new products/service; if ‘environmental
gains’ do not go hand in hand with other customer benefits, many people will
not buy the product (however, ‘environmental gains’ are unlikely to be key
purchasing criterion for the majority of people)
• the
infrastructure to fully exploit the environmental gain is not (yet) available.
Companies
wanting to start level 3 eco-design activities have therefore to approach their
environmental product strategy from a much wider perspective.
The best way
to do this is to link it to existing corporate and business strategy
development. S&V has developed a tool to address ‘level 3’ type issues. The
first two steps of STRETCH (Selection of sTRategic EnvironmenTal Challenges)
therefore consist of:
• identification
of the crucial driving forces in the business over a timescale of 3–10 years.
• making of a
limited number of plausible scenarios leading to a shortlist of potential
product/ market strategies.
This identifies
potential environmental opportunities and threats in relation to the identified
scenarios. These are then applied to individual products and with the help of a
checklist.
Current LCA
methodology will have to develop further to enable consideration of emissions
within well defined systems boundaries, and also to include the depletion of
resources
3) the
opportunities are scored on different scales: • environmental scale
(i.e.
eco-indicator/LCA) • customer benefit(financial,
ease of use,
emotional) • business benefit(cost reduction,
expected
increase in sales) • feasibility.
In order to
be selected for implementation, the option must lead to a substanial decrease
in environmental load. The last step is to communicate the STRETCH results to
the organization and to develop the implementation plan.
At S&V
brainstorm sessions have been held at a Business Unit level following the
STRETCH methodology. The outcome of these sessions has indicated the
substantial business and environmental potential for considerably enhancing the
durability and eco-efficiency of products.
Eco-efficiency
is defined here as:
Utility
(units of service)
Life Cycle
Impact (milliPoints)
As a result
several advanced research and development (R&D) projects have been started.
The need to
drastically improve the eco-efficiency of products and services through ‘level
3’ eco-design also calls for an intense stakeholder dialogue. The purpose of
such a dialogue should be to test the results of the STRETCH brainstorms in a
societal context. The reason for this is that to realize ‘level 3’ improvements
involves big changes in companies, as a result of the risks associated with
consumer acceptance and the uncertain fit into existing
physical and
societal structures. In order to make ‘level 3’ improvements in a market
economy all stakeholders should be prepared to adapt themselves and contribute
accordingly. Prototyping of clearly communicated and agreed societal objectives
and terms of reference is essential.
Rather than
starting from the existing situation it is recommended to use the ‘backcasting’
technique: first define the goals to be realized in i.e. the year 2010 and go
back in time in order to define what needs to be done.
The benefits
of such an approach are: • focus on relevant items • clear roadmaps for the
various
actors
• definition
of conditions for
success both
in material and
immaterial
respect.
This
methodology has been elaborated in a paper by the author (Stevels, 1997). The
‘backcasting’ technique has been applied to ‘take back’ of consumer electronic
products. In this case the environmental validation of issues to be addressed
are simple, i.e.reuse/recycling quotes and cost (Stevels, 1997).
In cases
where several parts of the life cycle have to be addressed detailed
environmental validation of various ‘level 3’ avenues is a major problem.
Current Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology will have to develop further to
enable consideration of emissions within well defined systems boundaries, and
also to include the depletion of resources, embedded toxicity and
reuse/recycling
in (half) open product systems. In addition LCA will need to address the issue
of the industrial and infrastructure transformation leading to better
environmental performance of individual products.
Level 4: eco-design
activities, sustainable product concepts
As yet, there
appears to be no experience at ‘level 4’, with the lessons from ‘level 3’
changes still being learnt by leading companies.
Conclusion
In this paper
the experience of a division of a Philips has been described. It is shown that
eco-design can be successfully integrated into current business operations.
Critical success factors for this process are indicated.
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
meaningful conclusions about what avenues are likely to lead to sustainability.
•
References
R.A.P.M.
Weterings and J.B. Opschoor. ‘Environmental space as a challenge for
technological prototyping’. (RMNO publication no. 74, Rijswijk, the Netherlands,
1992)
E.U., van
Weiszecker, A.B., Lovins and L.H. Lovins, ‘Factor four, twice the affluence,
half the use of natural resources’ (Droemer Knaur, Mnnchen, Germany 1995)
The
Brundtland Commission, ‘Our common future. Report of the World Commission on
Environment and Development’, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom
1987)
J.C. Brezet,
J.M. Cramer and A.L.N. Stevels, ‘From Waste management to Environmental
Innovation’, (Rathenau Institute, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1995)
A.L.N.
Stevels, ‘Design for Environment’ (UNEP, Asia Pacific Technical Monitor 1997,
p. 27–33)
J.M. Cramer
and A.L.N. Stevels, ‘Experiences with Strategic Environmental Product Planning
within Philips Sound & Vision’ (Proceedings Of the Greening of Industry
Network conference, Heidelberg, Germany, Nov. 1996)
A.L.N.
Stevels, ‘A Roadmap for eco-efficient take-back of Consumer Electronics
Products’ (Proceedings Globec 1996/Recycle 1996, Davos (Czechoslovakia, March
1996)
The Journal
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which report live from O2 events using email and the Worldwide Web (
For further
information on the above activities and the O2 Global Network contact: O2
Global Network Tourslaan 39 5627 KW Eindhoven The Netherlands email:
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tel/fax: +31 40 2428 483 internet: http:www.wmin.ac.uk/
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‘O2 News’
will update readers of the Journal on the latest eco-design issues from around
the world and on O2’s national activities. In this issue O2’s activities in the
Netherlands are highlighted.
Special
feature: O2 Japan
Chair of O2
Global Network, Product designer,
Liaison
Officer, O2 Japan, Director of Open House, Japan
Product Planner,
Japan
Eco-design
update: news on eco-design projects worldwide
‘Take back’
at Philips
Philips have
decided to set up a product ‘take back’ system in the Netherlands, thus forcing
the Dutch trade organizations covering consumer electronics manufacturers and
importers to become involved in the system. This means that product ‘take back’
for consumer electronics will be a reality starting January 1999. The companies
will be responsible for those ‘end of life’ products which are not collected by
shops and local communities. Shops will be required to accept ‘end of life’
products when selling a new one.
Mitsibushi
joins the Future 500 round table
Mitsibushi
has become one of the founding members of the Future 500 CEO round table. ‘Future
500’ was set up in contrast to the Fortune 500. The companies in Future 500
will be the leading companies involved in green technologies and products and
will aim to significantly increase resource productivity.
Japanese
Eco-Indicator
In Japan, Pré
Consultancy has started to translate the Eco-Indicator ’95 system from the
Dutch to the Japanese situation. The initial work has recently been completed
and presented to the JLCA (Japanese Life Cycle Analysis) association.
Presently, a heated debate about the type of weighting of environmental effects
is going on in Japan. In contrast to the US, there has been no discussion about
the necessity of such an indicator for designers.
Green
consumer guidelines
SC Johnson
Wax Inc. has developed a set of ‘Environmental Education Materials Guidelines
for Excellence’ to be used in schools. This is based on a Roper Study in 1995,
which found that customers are willing to take environmental issues into
account, but do not have a basic understanding of environmental issues. SC
Johnson Wax concluded that environmental education may help restore customers’
trust in industry. Furthermore, it will enable consumers to make more educated
choices in purchasing
products, so
that they can distinguish an ‘environmentally considered’ product from a
generic product. Up to now a company could produce a green product without the
consumer recognising it – unless it was highlighted. In the long term, SC
Johnson Wax expects that environmental education will help generate new professionals
that can deal with the complexities of combining industrial and environmental
interests.
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