DFE Advisor™ — Design for Environment Guidelines

For companies that are committed to sustainability, Design for Environment (DFE) has become an integral part of their new product development process. DFE assures that new products are developed with a full understanding of environmental, health and safety considerations at every stage of their life cycle—material extraction, transport, processing, assembly, distribution, customer support, and end-of-life. Early adopters of DFE, such as 3M, DuPont, and HP, have enhanced their competitiveness by introducing environmentally responsible products that provide exceptional customer value.

The DFE Advisor is a software tool that provides users with customized design guidelines, based on the characteristics of their products and processes as well as their priorities in terms of environmental life cycle aspects. It is based on worldwide best practices compiled over a decade, and documented in Joseph Fiksel’s book, Design for Environment: A Guide to Sustainable Product Development (McGraw-Hill 2009). The guidelines are divided into the following four major categories.

• Design for Dematerialization
Minimize material throughput as well as the associated energy and resource consumption at every stage of the life cycle. This can be achieved through a variety of techniques such as product life extension, source reduction, process simplification, remanufacturing, use of recycled inputs, or substitution of services for products. For example, in response to a challenge from Wal-Mart to reduce packaging, HP introduced the Pavilion dv6929 notebook PC in a recycled laptop bag with 97 percent less packaging than typical laptops. The carrying bag contains no foam, only some plastic bags for consumers to dispose of. Save for the buckle, strap and zipper, the bag is made out of 100% recycled fabric. HP is able to fit three bags in a box for shipping the product to stores, thus reducing energy use and costs related to logistics.

• Design for Detoxification
Minimize the potential for adverse human or ecological effects at every stage of the life cycle. This can be achieved through replacement of toxic or hazardous materials with benign ones, introduction of cleaner technologies that reduce harmful wastes and emissions, including greenhouse gases, or waste modification using chemical, energetic or biological treatment. Note that, while detoxification can reduce environmental impacts, it may not substantially reduce resource consumption. For example, BASF, a global chemical company, has developed a novel line of synthetic plastics, called Ecoflex®, that are completely biodegradable, and will decompose in soil or compost within a few weeks. Introduced in 1998, it has become the world’s leading synthetic biodegradable material, and is commonly used for trash bags or disposable packaging. Another product line, Ecovio® is a blend of Ecoflex® and polylactic acid made from corn, and is used in flexible films for shopping bags. BASF applies rigorous eco-efficiency analysis to these products.

• Design for Revalorization
Recover residual value from materials and resources that have already been utilized in the economy, thus reducing the need for extraction of virgin resources. This can be achieved by finding secondary uses for discarded products, refurbishing or remanufacturing products and components at the end of their useful life, facilitating disassembly and material separation for durable products, and finding economical ways to recycle and reuse waste streams. Industrial ecology approaches fit within this strategy, and are discussed separately below. Revalorization goes hand in glove with dematerialization, since repeatedly cycling materials and resources within the economy reduces the need to extract them from the environment. For example, Xerox has pioneered the practice of converting end-of-life electronic equipment into new products and parts. Xerox began a systematic “asset recovery” program in 1991, and by 2008 remanufacturing and recycling had given new life to more than 2.8 million copiers, printers and multifunction systems, while diverting nearly two billion pounds of potential waste from landfills – 111 million pounds (50,000 metric tons) in 2006 alone. Moreover, the program has saved more than $2 billion over that period. To accomplish this, Xerox developed a comprehensive process for taking back end-of-life products, including design methods for ease of disassembly and recovery as well as systematic processes for remanufacture, parts reuse and recycling.

• Design for Capital Protection and Renewal
Assure the availability and integrity of the various types of productive capital that are the basis of future human prosperity. Here “capital” is used in the broadest sense. Human capital refers to the health, safety, security, and well being of employees, customers, suppliers, and other enterprise stakeholders. (Also important is the preservation of social capital; namely, the institutions, relationships, and norms that underpin human society, including bonds of mutual trust.) Natural capital refers to the natural resources and ecosystem services that make possible all economic activity, indeed all life. Economic capital refers to tangible enterprise assets including facilities and equipment, as well as intellectual property, reputation, and other intangible assets that represent economic value. Capital protection involves maintaining continuity and productivity for existing capital, while renewal involves restoring, reinvesting, or generating new capital to replace that which has been depleted. Thus renewal may include attracting new talent, revitalizing ecosystems, and building new factories.

For example, Herman Miller, a manufacturer of office furniture, is known for incorporating environmental design into high-quality products such as the famed Aeron chair. The company is also recognized as a leader in sustainable facility design, which builds human capital as well as natural capital. Herman Miller headquarters was one of the first “green” office and manufacturing complexes built in the U.S., and the enhanced workplace led to noticeable increases in employee satisfaction and productivity. The company has set ambitious goals for the year 2020: to eliminate solid and hazardous wastes as well as air and water emissions, to use 100% green electrical energy, to construct buildings to a minimum of LEED silver certification, and to have 100% of its sales from DFE-approved products. Another example is Intel Corporation’s investment in preserving natural capital. The company uses ultra-pure water in its semiconductor fabrication plants, some of which are located in water-stressed areas such as Arizona and Israel. At Intel’s Chandler, Arizona facility, treated process water is sent to an off-site municipal treatment plant, brought up to drinking water standards, and re-injected into the underground aquifer at a rate of 1.5 million gallons per day.