Sustainable product innovation
Introduction to the unit................................................................................................. 3
1. The Humble Milk Float ....................................................................................... 3
1.1. The Humble Milk Float ................................................................................ 3
Greengoods NSW Government Australia ............................................................ 6
1.2 Thinking Question ......................................................................................... 6
POLICY INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND
CONSUMPTION ................................................................................................. 6
TRADE, SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT .... 7
2. Kathalys Delft Netherlands .................................................................................. 7
3. Leica ..................................................................................................................... 8
4. Everyday Essentials USA .................................................................................... 8
5. Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................ 9
5.1. Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................... 9
5.2. Useful websites ........................................................................................... 10
Do this ................................................................................................................ 10
Try this ............................................................................................................... 10
References .................................................................................................................. 10
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 10
Authors ................................................................................................................... 11
John Merefield ................................................................................................... 11
John Blewitt ....................................................................................................... 11
Images .................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction to the unit
There is undoubtedly a growing pressure on manufacturers to produce and
consumers to purchase sustainable products. The benefits in sustaining resources,
reducing energy consumption, minimising environmental damage and waste
requirements are well established.
For further consideration of these and for your own notes you might take at
look at:
S. Hinchcliffe, A. Blowers & J. Freeland (2003) Understanding Environmental
Issues. Chicester, Wiley.
The aims of this unit are:
 To outline the concept of sustainable product innovation
 To explore the benefits of ‘green’ designs
 To examine the social-take up of such approaches
1. The Humble Milk Float
1.1. The Humble Milk Float
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Description
A milkman next to a milk float.
End of description
Consequently, considerable effort is being put into developing innovative goods.
Much of the thinking here builds on the early ideas of battery-operated transport
and towards modern approaches in ‘cradle-to-grave’ approaches with regards the
materials and resources required during a product’s lifecycle. The humble milkfloat
should be regarded as one of the earliest forms of sustainable product innovation.
Batteries charged during the daytime at the dairy enabled milk deliveries to be
conducted during the night and with minimum noise impact.
CMP Batteries of Bolton has provided the battery for the Electric Mercury
prototype Specialist Delivery Vehicle (SDV).
Orders for vehicles have already been placed by Arla Foods (Express Dairies) and
Sheffield City Council and were delivered in 2006. The E-Mercury vehicle was to
be available from the new trading company Modec - after its purchase from
London Taxis International.
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E-Mercury has been designed specifically for urban and inner city use and the
maker believes E-Mercury will be the delivery vehicle of the future.
The SDV (commonly referred to as a "milk float") with the Chloride Motive Power
battery option incorporated has a governed top speed of 80km/h and a potential
range of over 100km.
The vehicle has a versatile 2t payload capacity and a gross vehicle weight,
including battery of 5.5t.
Chloride Motive Power's advanced lead acid gel battery incorporates a thermal
management system to keep the power pack at its optimum operating temperature.
In summer it keeps the battery cool and on cold winter mornings it will keep the
battery warm to ensure maximum battery performance.
It achieves this by means of a sensor that monitors the ambient temperature and
then either pumps air-cooled water round it or uses heat from the heat exchanger if
it needs to be kept warm.
Today's electric delivery vehicles demand such performance because they now
have to travel further and are often required to be working all day.
If required, batteries can be replaced using a fast battery exchange system that will
be available at its depot or one of a number of special exchange points that will be
developed as part of the operating infrastructure.
The battery powers a sophisticated AC drive system with permanent magnet motor
from Azure Dynamics to produce 57kW, 207Nm at 6000rev/min.
Other power options will be available, including a diesel electric hybrid, but Modec
believes that the battery version will be particularly popular due to its low running
costs, cheap maintenance costs and zero road tax because it is environmentally
friendly.
A sophisticated electronic system can set the vehicle's management system to a
particular driver's profile.
If, for example, one duty cycle involves multiple stop-start deliveries over a limited
area, then the maximum speed of the vehicle can be restricted to 50km/h, which
ensures that the draw on the battery is minimised.
However, if just a small number of drops are required, but over a longer distance or
larger area, the maximum of 80km/h can be made available, thus ensuring complete
flexibility to the user.
Whilst battery weight has proven a problem, much development work is taking
place on lightweight cells. For some interesting developments try:
http://www.milkfloats.org.uk/otherflt.html
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Sustainable product innovation has been taken aboard on global proportions and
many countries internationally now endorse the need to embrace the philosophy
and to provide guidance to business in response.
The Greengoods initiative of the NSW Government, Australia is an example of
such.
Greengoods NSW Government Australia
Consumers entering the Greengoods website for product advice meet the opening
command:
“STOP! Before you start searching for products consider: do you actually need to
buy a new product in the first place?”
Advice is then provide on such subjects as:
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Energy use
Water consumption
Disposal options
Toxic chemicals
Atmospheric pollutants (eg greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting compounds)
Importantly, in one dimension it provides advice on:
How to buy sustainable products, and at another on, Developing a sustainable
procurement policy
1.2 Thinking Question
Consider comments abstracted from Roberts and Roberts (1997) here, relating to
industrialised-country policy-makers taking action in six main areas with impacts
for developing country producers such as: product regulation, waste legislation,
economic instruments, product information, public procurement and trade policy.
POLICY INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
AND CONSUMPTION
1. Product regulation 'Limiting and ohasing out the use of toxic
chemicals..............A prominent example has been Germany's ban on the
import of textiles and other products treated with potentially damaging azo
dyes.........Uncertainty about the requirements............coupled with lack of
approved testing..........caused real difficulties for many developing-country
textile producers'.
2. Waste legislation 'Governments are now placing greater emphasis on the
duties of corporations to reduce consuler wastes..........Germany's Closed
Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act....1996...will mena that
whoever produces......is now responsible for the avoidance, recycling, reuse
and environmentally sound dispodal of waste..........These take-back
requirements can have significant implications for the packing used by
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3.
4.
5.
6.
producers in the South. favouring materials easy to collect and
recycle...............rather than traitional materials'.
Economic instruments 'Between 1989 and 1994 the number of economic
instruments used for environmental policy purposes.......increased by 50% in
the OECD....These include a new landfill charge on waste in the UK'.
Product information 'Considerable heat has been generated by the growth in
environmental labelling................notably the European Union's eco-label
scheme.......criteria for paper have been attacked by developing-country
exportrs for placing too high a premium on recycled
content...............Elsewhere, positive steps are being taken to improve the
access of developing-country products to eco-labels...........Germany's Federal
Environmental Agency is now developing a new initiative to improve
communication and cooperation with developing countries to produce goods
with high environmental and social standards'.
Public precurements. 'Governments in North America, Europe and Japan are
moving to integrate environmental provisions into their purchasing
programmes.........In October 1993, President Clinton issued an Executive
Order on Federal Acquisition, Recycling and Waste Prevemtion......... In
Japan, a 'Green purchase Network' was established in 1996, comprising 400
companies.....As public procurement becomes more liberated..............
government efforts to raise the environmental performance..... could become
a major bone of contention in international trade.'
Trade policy. Trade policies are also being changed in the industrialised
world..........when the European Union updated its Generalised System of
Preferences agreement with Asian and Latin American countries in 1994. it
included.....international agreements on sustainable forestry management.
Some governments..............are supplementing.....with additional efforts to
transfer information both on new environmental regulations and on clean
technology...........GREENBUS database launched by the Dutch centre for the
Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI).....is accessible online via the internet.....and is used by trade associations.... in developing
countries to find the latest information on regulatory requirements throughout
the European Union'.
TRADE, SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
'The creation of a global economy is taking place at a time when the ecological
impacts of production and consumption are increasingly spilling over national
frontiers'. 'Developing countries have strongly opposed efforts by develped
countries to introduce new environmental regulations that seek to alter ways in
which exports are produced'. 'in 1991 the US banned imports of tuna and tuna
products from mexico on the grounds... of dolphins killed...a GATT dispute panel
ruled against the US'. 'Developing countries also argue that trade measures are
inherently unfair.....only used by the economically powerful against the
economically weak.............what trade instrument can be used by Bangladesh or the
Maldives to ensure the US does not export products......produced with very high
carbon emissions?'
2. Kathalys Delft Netherlands
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Kathalys is the Centre for Sustainable Product Innovation run by TNO and Delft
University Technology. For more than 10 years, they have been leaders in initiating
and realising sustainable product innovations. The research products developed and
completed by the centre in collaboration with international companies. The
complimentary strengths of University knowledge development and fundamental
research experience is combined with TNO’s know-how in developing innovative
products and in managing creative projects, at Kathalys.
3. Leica
Companies are catching on to value of the opportunities offered by innovative
product design. Leica, for example, now address the issue of sustainability at the
first steps of each product that they design. At each stage of their innovation
process, they test such new ideas and if they prove economically feasible they are
implemented. Examples of this philosophy may be summarised thus:
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controlling and reducing the size and weight of instruments, which reduces
the use of materials such as metals and plastics
where possible, use recyclable material (eg aluminium and brass)
use screw or lock mechanisms instead of glue to allow easy dismantling of
parts
products are easily upgraded with additional parts, devices & software
ergonomic products that are easier to use
New directives such as the EC Directive 2002/95/EG, which confines the use of
hazardous materials, has been complied with by the company before it is actually
necessary. For example, no lead (Pb) will be used for the next generation DISTO
products. So, the company has, in a proactive way, embraced sustainable product
design by recognising both cost and regulatory benefits.
4. Everyday Essentials USA
In some cases and increasingly, the innovative design philosophy extends to the
planning and construction of the organisations’ accommodation itself. Everyday
Essentials, a company in the USA that sells cleaning products has built its factory
from recyclable materials. It is designed to run energy efficiently, for example,
which is helped by its grass-covered roof. In selling its eco-friendly products from
such a base, it can, therefore, claim that it has covered every aspect as an ecological
factory.
Sustainable Building Design is regularly awarded accolades/prizes by the industry.
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Description
Illustration of Heathrow Terminal 5.
End of description
British Airways Terminal 5 at Heathrow
5. Concluding Remarks
5.1. Concluding Remarks
We might conclude this Unit, by underscoring the point that the larger
organisations have begun to grasp the nettle to gain product advantage. They are
beginning to see the advantages, savings and marketing offered by sustainable
product innovation. After all, the public are sensitised in this regard and are ready,
out there, and waiting to purchase!
Exercise
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Exercise for your Personal Notes
Explore the websites and marketing information emanating from organisations
known to you. What key aspects of sustainable product innovation apply?
5.2. Useful websites
You should check up on the way that the organisations market themselves in the
area of Sustainable Product Innovation and add your own favourites. Start with the
following:
Greengoods: http://www.greengoods.nsw.gov.au/products/howtoidentity.htm
Kathalys: http://www.kathalys.com Leica: http://www.leicageosystems.com/corporate/en/lgs_405.htm Reusable bags:
http://www.reusablebags.com
You might want to follow up this unit by looking in more detail on the theme of
innovation in sustainable design and eco-efficiency.
Do this
Now you have completed this unit, you might like to:



Post a message to the unit forum.
Review or add to your Learning Journal.
Rate this unit.
Try this
You might also like to:

Find out more about related courses ran by the University of Exeter:
MSc Sustainable Development

Book a meeting with FM to talk live with other learners

Create a Knowledge Map to summarise this topic.
References
Starkey, R. & Welford, R. 2005. The Earthscan Reader in Business and
Sustainable Development. London, Earthscan Publications Ltd, 364pp.
United Nations Council for Sustainable Development. 1997. Overall Progress
Achieved since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development:
Report of the Secretary General. Addendum: Changing Consumption and
Production Patterns, Chapter 4, Agenda 21, UNCSD, New York.
Acknowledgements
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Authors
John Merefield
John is an Environmental, European and Chartered Geologist with research
interests in atmospheric particles and science education. John is a long standing
member of the Institute of Science Technology, the Geological Society of London,
the Association of Geoscientists for International Development and the National
Society for Clean Air.
Formerly Director of the Earth Resources Centre, he is currently programme leader
in Environmental Studies for the School of Education and Lifelong Learning and
tutor in Business and Sustainability for the School of Geography, Archaeology and
Earth Resources. His research, training and consultancy assignments have led to
work in 20 countries and 70 publications.
John Blewitt
John has extensive experience in adult, further and higher education. He was
formerly Course Leader for the BA Community Regeneration and Development
and Undergraduate Course Chair in the School of Lifelong education and
Development at the University of Bradford and a founder member of the Yorkshire
and Humber Education for Sustainability Forum.
John joined the Exeter University in 2003 and is currently co-Director of the MSc
Sustainable Development where he leads the Distance Learning, OPLeaders and
Sustainable Communities pathways. John is also Director of the MA Archaeology
and Heritage Management.
Recent external activities include work with the United Nations Advisory Panel on
Sustainability Communications, WWF International on One Planet Leaders John is
currently a member of Sustainability SouthWest, the UK Sustainable Development
Panel and the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication.
John's research interests are in the areas of developing Sustainable Communities
and New Media and Sustainability.
Images
All other photos contained within this unit originated at the University of Exeter.
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