Balancing Green by Yossi Sheffi

Author:Yossi Sheffi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: corporate sustainability; supply chains; management; strategy; procurement; manufacturing; delivery; design; marketing; economic growth; Patagonia; Seventh Generation; Dr. Bronner's Magical Soap
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 2018-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

8 Green by Design

Paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw, Senator Robert Kennedy said: “Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’”1 Moving from incremental sustainability initiatives to ones that create substantial reductions in environmental impacts requires changing the products themselves, and it sometimes involves far-reaching changes. It requires changing elements of the design such as the types of materials, the amounts of materials, and the manufacturing technologies. “Designers are the start of everything, and if we can educate the designer to make better choices, then they can become agents of change for the entire industry,” said Hannah Jones, vice president of sustainable business and innovation at Nike.2 Design and engineering with the environment in mind can lead to reduced impacts caused by sourcing, manufacturing, use, and disposal of the product.

Design, by its very nature, involves trade-offs among competing objectives such as costs, product features, product performance, quality, and manufacturability.3 Starting at the end of the 20th century, many product designers and engineers were challenged with an additional objective: curbing environmental impacts by reducing material footprint, emissions, waste, and toxins. The goal is to “eliminate negative environmental impact completely through skillful, sensitive design,” according to Jason McLennan, author of The Philosophy of Sustainable Design.4

These added goals may also involve trade-offs, even between different sustainability objectives, let alone conflicting with other business objectives. A new bioplastic might reduce the carbon footprint of making a product but increase waste if that plastic cannot be recycled. A new, more efficient car might go farther on a gallon of gas and spew fewer emissions but require sourcing higher-environmental footprint alloys that consume more energy during manufacturing. Eliminating a potentially toxic ingredient from a detergent might diminish cleaning performance and cause consumers to use more hot water or more of the product itself to achieve the same level of cleanliness.

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