Design for the Environment
Free Quality Assignment
Andre Loumeau
11/19/2012
Outline
• What is design for the environment?
• How can it be applied to your organization?
• What are the nuts and bolts of “green design” and
how does it work exactly?
• Company DfE Programs
• Hewlett Packard – A Real World Example
• A mental Exercise to help you think about the
environmental impacts of products
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What is DfE?
• Design for the environment  the process of
designing the entire life cycle of a product or service
so that at each phase of its life it is creating the
smallest detrimental effect possible on overall human
health and the environment as a whole
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Brainstorming Exercise
• How can this tool be used in your organization?
• Choose a product or service that you are familiar
with
• Write down the basic life cycle stages including
procurement, manufacture, packaging, and disposal
• Pick one of the four life-cycle stages
• Write down a list of five possible ways to improve
• Estimate the environmental and financial impact of
each possible solution you have suggested
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Example
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DfE at each Stage in Life Cycle
Procurement
End-of-Life
Manufacture
Packaging
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Designing the procurement process
• Standards are available in most countries
• The key is to be as transparent as possible in how
you procure your raw materials or input parts
• Managing supplier relationships is becoming
increasing important
• Example: Casio
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Green Procurement - Casio
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Designing the manufacture process
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Digital Prototyping of both product and workflow
Energy Efficiency
Materials Analysis
Lean Manufacturing
The Five S’s
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Designing the packaging process
• Use recycled materials
• Eliminate or reduce hazardous substances from
packaging materials
• Use as few packaging materials as possible
• Use materials that can be recycled in the future
• Create awareness among consumers
• Use materials of greener origins
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Designing the end-of-life process
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Design for reuse
Design for disassembly
Design for remanufacture
Sell to other companies who can reuse or
remanufacture specific parts
• Proper disposal of waste
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Company DfE Programs
• Harmful effects of greenhouse gases and waste
materials are now known
• Consumers are demanding greener products
• Companies have responded by creating their own
DfE programs
• As programs have proven beneficial to the bottom
line, more and more companies are adopting them
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Creating a DfE program
• There are many ways to create a DfE program but the
following general guidelines give a good starting
point:
• Assign product stewards
• Product stewards and product designers work
together and submit regular reports
• Reports should identify, prioritize, and recommend
environmental improvements
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Creating a DfE program
• Upper management decides which changes in the
product life cycle will have the greatest impact
• Upper management assesses how these initiatives
jive with the core competencies and resources
available to find the best plan of action
• Upper management publishes a list of priorities and
principle measures that are being taken to achieve
those priority goals
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A Real World Example
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HP’s DfE Program
• Created in 1992
• Product stewards and designers work together on
each project to achieve vision
• Three major priorities:
– Energy efficiency
– Materials innovation
– Design for recyclability
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HP’s DfE Program
• Main initiatives implemented to achieve priorities:
• Eliminating the use of harmful flame retardants
• Reducing number of parts used and standardizing
parts for multiple products
• Using mold-in colors and finishes as opposed to paint
and coatings
• Helping customers reduce energy consumption
through using HP products
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HP’s DfE Program
• Increase the use of recycled materials in products
• Minimizing waste through reducing amount of
packaging materials
• Designing for disassembly and recyclability through
using less parts and implementing ISO 11469
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Results of HP’s DfE Program
• Last year, HP took back 140 million pounds of end-oflife HP products and either reused them or properly
disposed of them
• HP better understands how customers use their
products
• HP has seen a big positive impact on their bottom
line
• Energy efficiency is now second nature to HP
employees
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A Mental Exercise
• You own a restaurant and you are trying to decide
whether paper napkins or cloth napkins have less of
an effect on the environment
• Write down on a piece of paper all of the possible
effects that each type of napkin could have on the
environment at each stage of its product life cycle
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A Mental Exercise
• What did you come up with?
• What are the procurement and manufacturing
effects of each?
• What about washing and drying the napkins?
• Disposal or reuse?
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Summary
• DfE is about being a good steward of your company’s
impact on the environment and the general public
health
• At each stage of the product life cycle, initiatives can
be set to reduce negative impacts on the
environment
• Your company can establish its own DfE program to
protect the environment, improve public perception,
and help the bottom line
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Readings List
• Design and Environment: A Global Guide to Designing Greener
Goods by Helen Lewis and John Gertsakis
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by
Michael Braungart
• Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice by
Stuart Walker
• ecoDesign: The Sourcebook by Alastair Fuad-Luke
• The Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement
Sustainability Practices for Bottom-Line Results in Every
Business Function by Daniel C. Esty
• What is Lean Six Sigma by Michael L. George
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