A Critical Component in the Sustainability Equation

In today’s business climate, design is a critical part of product lifecycles. Changes in design and manufacturing processes to support sustainable packaging, for example, and working to ensure that product design meets downstream concerns can favorably affect a company’s triple bottom line.

Companies are adjusting business processes to ensure that design innovation is in line with sustainability principles and are developing metrics and guidelines in the design and development processes to stimulate awareness for and focus on environmental issues.

The majority finds that examining environmental pros and cons up front ensures that the design doesn’t undermine the market success of the product, whether it’s a magazine, product packaging, or a consumer product.

Packaging Innovations Good For The Environment

Wal-Mart—Recently, Walmart asked General Mills to replace curly noodles in its Hamburger Helper with straight noodles because straight noodles take up less space and require smaller boxes…same weight, less packaging, but good for the environment.

Coca Cola Company—In May of this year, the Coca-Cola Company announced the PlantBottle™, a first generation recyclable PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic made partially (30%) from plants (sugar cane and molasses). In mid-November, the company delivered beverages in PlantBottle™ to select markets throughout the world.

Touted as a sustainable packaging innovation by Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, the move positions the company to rely less on a non-renewable resource (petroleum).

A Coke-sponsored life-cycle analysis conducted by Imperial College London revealed that the “PlantBottle™” reduces carbon emissions by up to 25 percent, compared with petroleum-based PET.

HP—The technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world recently reduced packaging on their Pavilion Notebook by 97 percent. Designers and engineers follow stringent packaging guidelines to minimize environmental impact.

Recently, engineers reduced PC packaging by 20 percent for units shipped from China and were able to increase the number of PCs per pallet from 28 to 40 units resulting in a 40 percent decrease in energy required to ship each unit. They rely on an in-house designed Robust Orientation Size effect (ROSe) calculator to develop packaging designs that minimize the amount and cost of materials used.

Are You Sitting on Soy?

Ford—Ford leads the industry in the use of soy, a renewable bio-material. Soy-based seats (backs and cushions) can be found on more than 1.5 million Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles, decreasing Ford’s use of petroleum oil by one 1 million pounds and reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by five million pounds annually.

“Natural fiber-reinforced composites and polymer resins made from plant resources provide positive environmental impact by utilizing renewable resources, reducing CO2 emissions, by being entirely compostable and—in some cases—reducing weight, which helps improve fuel economy,” explains Debbie Mielewski, Technical Leader, Ford Plastics Research.

Ford’s innovative use of environmentally friendly, soy-based foam has earned six prestigious awards to date, including the including the 2009 R&D 100 Award which honors the latest technology developments across numerous industries that are designed to meet societal, scientific, or business challenges.

Design Innovations Can Contribute to Sustainability

Responsible and sustainable packaging and product design innovations have a favorable effect on the environment, reduce costs, save space, and accrue benefits in product transportation. For many companies, the changes have resulted in improved efficiency, life-cycle effectiveness, and eco-innovation.

Adopting and acting on sustainability principles give consumers tangible evidence of a company’s commitment to the future of our planet.