Developing sustainable products and services

In light of increasing pressures to adopt a more sustainable approach to product design and manufacture, the requirement to develop sustainable products is one of the key challenges facing industry in the 21st century. Hence, the concept of developing sustainable products as well as services is evolving as a key element of Cleaner Production. Sustainable product development initiatives (mainly through eco-design) have been evolving for some time to support companies develop more sustainable products. Ireland has been running the highly successful Environmentally Superior Products (ESP) initiative that supports industrial companies to incorporate a more sustainable approach to the development of products and/or services. The lessons learned from the ESP and other global Sustainable Product and Service Developments in industry and research, are being used to develop a method for effective sustainable product and/or service development (SPSD) in industry. The method is designed to provide pragmatic guidance to business and industry for developing sustainable products and services as well as incorporating this approach within existing corporate strategy, cleaner production and product development systems. This method is being developed by the authors at the Environmental Policy and Management Group (EPMG), Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Imperial College London, UK in conjunction with industry and practitioners. The method provides a framework for implementing SPSD throughout the entire lifecycle of a product and/or service. It can be used to identify, assess and implement the options for optimum sustainability in the design and development of a product and/or service. This paper describes the key features of this method.     

Life cycle engineering methodology applied to material selection,a fender case study

Materials selection is a multidisciplinary activity, which integrates a large number of knowledge fields and professional domains. In fact a material selection decision should capture not only the functional performance required for the application but should also consider the economical and environmental impacts originated all along the product life cycle. In this paper a life cycle engineering (LCE) approach is proposed to support material selection, integrating the performance of the material for the specific application in technological, environmental and economical dimensions throughout the duration of the product. The methodology proposed compares a set of candidate materials and, through the aggregation of the three dimensions (technical, economical and environmental), identifies the “best material domains”. These “best material domains” are presented in a ternary diagram, which allows a global comparison of the candidate materials and supports an informed decision as regards the selection of the “best material” according to different business scenarios and corporate strategies. The methodology was applied to a case study aiming the use of new metallic materials (high strength steels and aluminium alloys) for an automobile fender currently made of mild steel and the evaluation of potential benefits as regards the global performance of the material.     

A quantitative method to evaluate the level of material use in lease/reuse systems of electrical and electronic equipment

This paper evaluates if offering Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) as a Product Service System (PSS) reduces material use and waste generation. Three hypothetical EEE lease/reuse and existing product systems in Japan were evaluated by using an indicator, annual product demand. The lease systems appeared to use more materials than the conventional reuse system. Lease systems can reach the same material intensity as conventional reuse systems, if: (1) the number of leased products is reduced, (2) the lifetime of leased products is extended to that of firstly owned products, and (3) the lease system increases the number of reused products in use. Whether a system shortens or extends the lifetime of products appeared to be the key factor to determining material intensity, not whether the system itself was a lease system or a possession system.     

Environmental,financial and quality assessment of drinking water processes at Waternet

Waternet (formerly Amsterdam Water Supply) has been seeking a sustainable scenario for producing drinking water and offering services that fulfill the requirements of clients and regulations, and, at the same time, maintains a sound environmental performance while keeping costs as low as possible. Presently, the company is in the process of evaluating alternatives for the treatment of water that cause the least financial and environmental impacts. The quantification of these impacts, for the current conditions, was carried out in earlier investigations. However, until now, the water quality aspect was not yet considered.In order to include this water quality aspect into the financial and environmental assessment, a quality function was constructed created by comparing water quality parameter values for a current and an alternative treatment process. Four qualifications were assigned to the sum of these scores: “Worse”, “Same”, “Better” and “Much better”. The qualifications allowed the comparison of the water quality and the financial and environmental impacts of the selected alternatives using a graphical representation of them.The method was applied focusing on the environmental and financial assessment of six alternative processes for the Loenderveen–Weesperkarspel treatment line, and including the quality aspect, as a third parameter for comparison.     

Less bad is not good enough: approaching zero emissions techniques and systems

Radical changes towards sustainable products and a clean and safe system of production have yet to be developed and implemented in all sectors of industry. Technology holds the key to addressing many environmental problems and achieving sustainable patterns of economic growth. In many cases, companies already have the appropriate technological solution. However, the technology may not be in widespread use because of market and systemic failures and cultural barriers. Examples of market failures are the lack of information about cleaner technologies. Examples of systemic failures are weaknesses in linkages among firms, universities, research and development (R&D) institutions, and others involved in developing, supplying and applying technology. Cultural barriers are caused by the differences in the way companies communicate and do business. This makes “zero emissions” a much needed approach. The Journal of Cleaner Production has devoted this special issue to “Zero Emissions Techniques and Systems – ZETS” in the production and the urgent issues surrounding, “How to make sustainable companies become reality”. To document the state of the art in this field and to report progress are main goals of this issue. The objective of the planners of this special issue is to present perspectives, case studies and pedagogic initiatives from, academic, governmental, business, technical and financial sectors, as well as from NGOs from around the world.It is, however, evident that the term “zero emissions” still has different meanings and refers to different strategies and technologies. “Zero Emissions Techniques and Systems” are really a “SYSTEMS” aspect and not a sectoral approach. It develops more and more like a discussion about a mosaic. Some speak of the image they expect to be seen at the end, others speak of the tesserae they have to shape or the cement that fills the gaps between.     

Environmental performance,indicators and measurement uncertainty in EMS context: a case study

EMS is a tool for managing the interaction between the organization and the environment. The aim of an EMS is to improve the overall environmental performance of the organization. The performance should be monitored through measurements, and managed by indicators. Indicators are variables that summarize or otherwise simplify relevant information about the state of a complex system. A correct evaluation of environmental performance arises from the choice of adequate “raw” data and from the relationships among “raw” data.This paper, after a short excursus concerning the rule of indicators in environmental performance evaluation and the mean of uncertainty, proposes an approach to the study and the evaluation, through indicators and indices, of the environmental aspect “wastewater discharges” of a Local Authority who is involved in EMS implementation. Particularly, the critical analysis of one of the indices that has been used is reported. The role of the uncertainty of measurements has been stressed. The results showed that measurement uncertainty is essential for an efficient data comparison and for a correct evaluation of environmental performance, which, in turn, is essential to guarantee the effectiveness of the EMS application.     

Complementarity,biodiversity viability analysis,and policy-based algorithms for conservation

Biodiversity conservation “area-selection” strategies include not only trade-offs among society’s needs in land-use allocation, but also allocation of economic instruments such as incentives, levies, and biodiversity credits. For these applications, the key property of an area is its “complementarity”—the context-dependent, marginal gain in biodiversity provided by the area. Given that there has been little implementation of whole-sets of areas generated by the popular computer-based selection methods, we suggest that analogous “policy-based algorithms” would be a more effective real-world application of complementarity. Areas would be “selected” for conservation over time as a consequence of policies in which dynamic complementarity values influence application of economic instruments. These integrated biodiversity/economic strategies can use an extended form of complementarity reflecting marginal changes in regional probability of persistence of biodiversity. While probabilistic measures of biodiversity viability have been explored in area-selection for some time, it remains difficult to make viability statements about “all of biodiversity.” New approaches that use biodiversity surrogate information for “biodiversity viability analysis” (BVA) can take advantage of a general quantitative biodiversity framework in which pattern-based relationships among areas allow predictions at the species level. A standard assumption of “unimodal” species responses to environmental gradients yields an expected distribution of species in an ordination pattern, and allows sampling of inferred species. Based on environmental correlates, inferred species can be mapped in geographic space, forming distribution fragments. This information, when linked to species persistence models, may allow ongoing calculation of areas’ complementarity values. An example illustrates application of these ordination models to museum collection data for lizards from New South Wales (NSW), Australia.     

Technology-based industrial environmental management: a case study of electroplating in Shenzhen,China

Severe industrial pollution has largely hindered the sustainable development of China. Taking Shenzhen’s electroplating industry as a case, this article investigates the current status of the industry and proposes a specialized policy framework to push its environmental innovation. There is a relatively complete environmental management system in Shenzhen’s government, but it does not work well when dealing with the electroplating industry, mainly because it lacks regulation aiming at production technology, which is the underlying decisive factor of the environmental performance of the industry. So, we first develop an evaluation criterion, which incorporates a technological index about whether enterprises engage identified obsolete technologies. With this evaluation criterion, enterprises are classified into “advanced” and “obsolete”. Then, we propose specific policy suggestions for different types of enterprises, including command and control mixed with economic tools, voluntary agreements, establishing electroplating parks, and improving current management system. Finally, we assess the impact of the policy proposal and prove it to be conducive to the sustainable development of the industry and conclude it from a more general perspective.     

Possible steps to follow for filling the gap between requirements and the real condition in tanneries

The tannery industry, as one of most important industrial activities, faced more dilemmas at the fall of communistic era:

• -Can the branch keep a leading position for the exported products at the national level, under a de-centralized system?
• -Can the industry comply with the new, more stringent environmental legislation?
• -How far is this industrial branch from the European BAT/BATNEC?

Facing a completely new perspective for their development, many industrial units had a limited margin for manoeuvre and those not enough flexible had to shut down.“Economic survival whatever the price” has been the mantra for some good years. The newly presented EU legislation has been raising many difficult and complex problems for the units that managed to survive that they need to prioritize their improvement actions.Combining Cleaner Production (CP) measures with laboratory research for technology upgrades can have a synergistic effect for improving environmental performance and decrease resource consumption. The effects were evaluated for more experimented measures, such as better process control, toxics use reduction, and source separation of wastes. The results demonstrate that real improvements of environmental performance can be achieved and the indicators that were utilized have values that are comparable with those published for “advanced” processes practiced in EU.     

A tool to implement sustainable end-of-life strategies in the product development phase

Responding to constantly more demanding European legislation, notably for electrical and electronic equipment, worn-out vehicles or hazardous substances, manufacturers have to develop End of Life (EoL) strategies. The challenge today is to assess which “product EoL process” would be profitable for an enterprise given the business model in place. Most of the Original Equipment Manufacturers recycle or subcontract reverse logistic and EoL treatments. Recycling is currently the most common solution but it is far from meeting the goals of Sustainable Development. We believe that, integrating constraints from EoL strategies into the early phases of design is one important aspect that needs to be improved. We are currently combining this idea with principles from concurrent engineering to develop design aids which permits designers to compare their products to “Remanufacturable Product Profiles”. However, conscious those EoL solutions often involve several strategies; it is now envisaged to develop tools to help designers make optimal decisions while designing a product considering 3R strategies: Reuse, Remanufacture and Recycle. In this paper, our vision of why and how to integrate EoL strategies in the early design phases is presented, and what tools to apply 3R strategies are envisaged, considering the evolving architecture of the product, and the translation of transversal information into design criteria.     

Food security and global environmental change: emerging challenges

Most research linking global environmental change and food security focuses solely on agriculture: either the impact of climate change on agricultural production, or the impact of agriculture on the environment, e.g. on land use, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and/or biodiversity. Important though food production is, many other factors also need to be considered to understand food security. A recent international conference on “Environmental Change and Food Security: Bridging Science, Policy and Development for Adaptation” included a range of papers that embraced the multiple dimensions of the food systems that underpin food security. The major conclusion from the conference was that technical fixes alone will not solve the food security challenge. Adapting to the additional threats to food security arising from major environmental changes requires an integrated food system approach, not just a focus on agricultural practices. Six key issues emerged for future research: (i) adapting food systems to global environmental change requires more than just technological solutions to increase agricultural yields; (ii) tradeoffs across multiple scales among food system outcomes are a pervasive feature of globalized food systems; (iii) within food systems, there are some key underexplored areas that are both sensitive to environmental change but also crucial to understanding its implications for food security and adaptation strategies; (iv) scenarios specifically designed to investigate the wider issues that underpin food security and the environmental consequences of different adaptation options are lacking; (v) price variability and volatility often threaten food security; and (vi) more attention needs to be paid to the governance of food systems.     

Developing benchmarks for consumer-oriented life cycle assessment-based environmental information on products,services and consumption patterns

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been recognized in the EU in the context of ‘Integrated Product Policy’ (IPP) as providing “the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products currently available.” A study to promote the use of LCA-based product information was designed, with the following objectives: (a) to develop different benchmarks to which the LCA results of various products can be compared, (b) to study how consumers understand the different benchmarks and what proposals for improvement they have, and (c) to propose a few presentation formats and benchmarks for presenting LCA-based information in communications to consumers. Here we present the final results, i.e., the suggested benchmarks and presentation formats, ‘eco-benchmark’. We also present some lessons derived from the feedback gained from consumers and other stakeholders, and point out future directions for improving the benchmarks and their utilization.     

Integrated environmental product innovation in the region of Munich and its impact on company competitiveness

This paper examines the impact of environmental innovations on company competitiveness of both the environment industry and related sectors in the region of Munich. The focus is on the drivers of these innovations and their respective effects on innovating companies. Not only innovations in the area of end-of-pipe technologies, but also the development of integrated products and production methods are examined. In a regional case study approach, a sample of 14 manufacturing and service companies in Munich (Southern Germany) was interviewed. Essentially, environmental innovation is driven by a mixture of factors internal and external to the firm: not only regulatory pressure, but also cost pressure, competitive advantages, technological lead and customer pressure are important drivers. Regulatory pushed innovations contribute to the competitive performance of sample companies in a similar way as environmental innovations which are carried out voluntarily. That would yield proof for the so-called Porter hypothesis which assumes that environmental legislation stimulates innovation and leads to “win–win” opportunities where simultaneously pollution is reduced and productivity increased.     

Emerging design strategies in sustainable production and consumption of textiles and clothing

This study contributes to current knowledge of sustainability in textile and clothing production and consumption. When the textile and clothing industry aims to promote sustainability, the main change factors have been linked to eco-materials and ethical issues in production. At present, however, business models are mainly linked with a large volume of sales and production. Although industrial development has moved toward smaller environmental impact, production as well as consumption has increased to levels where the benefits of technological development are reduced. A change is thus needed to reach a systemic transformation, not only in production but also in consumption. The aim of this paper is to open up the discussion on opportunities for radical change in this industry. The paper presents ways to rethink and redesign business in the textile and clothing field by offering an overview on several design strategies that exist today in niche markets. Furthermore we evaluate how interested consumers are in these design strategies and discuss the opportunities these design approaches offer to sustainable development through new value creation.     

The role of social processes for sustainable consumption

Rethinking the role consumption plays in individual well-being and societal development is key for addressing pressing environmental problems. We perceive the need to envision consumption as a social activity, which requires the active engagement of consumers in order to better enhance their quality of life. The paper focuses on the framework of Product Service Systems, one particular programme for more sustainable consumption. After reviewing the potential benefits and limitations of this programme, we explore the opportunities to learn from participatory and community-based strategies like LETS.     

Making consumption “reasonable”

In light of the theoretical implications from ecological economics and industrial ecology, increased efforts should be undertaken by policy makers to make consumption “reasonable”. To remain sustainable, “reasonable” decisions should take into account the long-term survival of ecosystem and acknowledge the fact that the existence of human species ultimately depends on it. Two additional objectives should complement “reasonable” consumption: (1) changing product systems so that products are properly managed at the end of their useful lives. (2) making products more environmentally friendly. A case study of the Integrated Product Policy of the European Union reveals that it addresses the above objectives selectively. The general conclusions are that “reasonable” behaviour is challenged by conflicting interests of various market actors, that economic reasoning should complement environmentally “reasonable” behaviour, and that “reasonable” consumption should indeed be discussed in conjunction with “reasonable” production.     

生命周期设计用于产品环境要求设计初探

产品的生命周期设计是在可持续发展要求的推动下,为既能降低产品对环境的影响又能满足用户的需要而提出的。它是将综合预防污染和节约资源的战略用于产品的设计中,以开发更生态的、经济的、可持续发展的产品体系。文中着重分析了产品生命周期设计的基本框架、设计策略和设计要求,并在此基础上探讨了如何推行产品的生命周期设计。      

Finding the connection: environmental management systems and environmental performance

With more than 130,000 organizations worldwide certified according to ISO requirements, business people, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders have reason to wonder whether the purpose of ISO 14001, which is to help improve environmental performance, is being fulfilled. There is a growing body of literature attempting to answer this question. The results, however, are inconclusive.This meta-study analyzes a pool of 23 studies connecting environmental performance to environmental management systems. It shows that the reason that earlier studies arrived at mixed conclusions is twofold. Firstly, there is no agreement on what environmental performance is or how to measure it. Secondly, there is neither clarity nor agreement about how or why environmental management systems are expected to aid performance. It is therefore unclear whether the mechanisms that lead to improvement are expected to be the same for all companies or dependent on each implementation.The authors conclude that it is more fruitful to research how environmental management systems affect performance, rather than whether they do so or not. The recommended starting point for such studies is environmental performance as each organization defines it. This in turn implies a case by case approach and a need for much more research in the field.     

Creating and managing a virtual inter-organizational learning network for greener production: a conceptual model and case study

The utility of applying a virtual learning network model for illustrating successful triple bottom line transitions—one that integrates the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of cleaner production—is illustrated by a successful approach to promote “green chemistry” in the North Carolina textile wet-processing industry. This case is unique in demonstrating the quality of this process to develop cleaner production methods; it shows how reducing aquatic toxicity and harmful environmental effects in a “real world” situation depends on successful efforts to build, manage, and maintain an inter-organizational network of multiple stakeholders. This network included industries in the textile production chain, their local and provincial communities, regulators and policy makers. The utilization of cases such as this in the business school pedagogy expands understanding of the role of sustainable practices in enterprise management. The value of this specific case in promoting the understanding of such networks was demonstrated in a recent MBA experience when students trained in these areas linked diverse stakeholders and applied the triple bottom line perspective in traditional business simulation exercises in an MBA capstone course. Such cases can also effectively prepare students for actual challenges facing managers in the rapidly changing business environment.     

Using quality function deployment for technique selection for optimum environmental performance improvement

The paper tackles how a given process or technique can be improved to qualify as an environmentally-conscious one at a given budget constraint. The use of quality function deployment (QFD) for the improvement analysis of selected “Best Available Techniques” is discussed. A modified version of QFD is developed and applied to determine the emissions which need to be analysed further for environmental performance improvement. The critical emitted substances with consideration given to environmental impact potential and cost budget are reported. The target specifications used are the environmental benchmarks obtained from the comparison of emission values of the techniques. Sinter production is used as an illustrative example to apply the proposed House of Ecology and the linear mathematical model. QFD could be applied to the continuous improvement of any process or technique with some modifications.