Focus on sustainability
01
This is the second in a series of between environmental impacts Communications – receive specific
Life Cycle three articles on Life Cycle Thinking occurring at different locations, attention as both are deemed
and its application to design-led times and life cycle stages. This is essential to the continuation of
Management: business practice. The articles and done without losing sight of business success that the company currently
the aligned series of workshops constraints and the functionality to enjoys with its products.
from product at the Unitec School of Design in be delivered to the end-user. Formway uses four key instruments
Auckland are designed to equip It is important to understand (approaches) to deliver integrated
to business people with the capability to that LCM, as an approach, is scalable Life Cycle Management:
promote principles of Life Cycle so can be applied within small
Thinking and to initiate change business and is not restricted to large 1. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
within their organisations. enterprise. Critically, LCM is being studies to inform company strategy
Words Jake McLaren and Timothy Allan adopted by leading industries to and product development.
‘operationalise’ their environmental 2. Environmental Management
A practical framework management strategies and practice. Systems according to the IS0
While Life Cycle Thinking enables a 14001 standard.
migration of thinking from an object 3. Supplier Environmental
01 A schematic breakdown of to a product system, Life Cycle LCM at Formway Requirements and initiation of
Formway's life chair shows the Management (LCM) moves you from Formway is a design-led New Zealand specific supply chain collaboration
materials used.
a product view to an enterprise company that has adopted a holistic projects.
view. In effect, it can sharpen your approach to sustainability within 4. Eco-labelling: used to verify
organisation’s focus on delivering its business. Six discrete areas product and production
sustainable products and services. have been defined in the company’s environmental performance, based
LCM is a practical approach sustainability programme. These on Life Cycle Thinking.
which focuses on the application of areas follow the main stages of the
Life Cycle Thinking through the use product life cycle: The Formway Life chair and
of life cycle tools and approaches. a number of other products and
LCM has been defined as an 1. Sustainable Product Design. materials have been analysed from a
integrated framework of concepts, 2. Supply Chain Management. life cycle environmental perspective
techniques and procedures to 3. Environmental Management (and the results peer reviewed).
address environmental, economic, Systems (EMS). Analysis results for the Life chair,
technological and social aspects 4. Product Stewardship (addressing illustrated here using CO2 impacts,
of products and organisations. end of life issues). show three major findings:
Continuous environmental 5. Climate Change.
improvement is the key tenet, from 6. Stakeholder Communications. 1. The majority of the Life chair’s
a life cycle perspective. climate change impact is due to
LCM provides the link between The first four areas follow the CO2 emissions occuring during
theory and practice. Its greatest main stages of the product life raw materials extraction and
advantage is the ability to identify cycle, whilst the last two areas component processing.
and account for the trade-off – Climate Change and Stakeholder 2. Final product assembly and
82 Issue 95

transport stages make a relatively established auditors such as Telarc. strategy, actions and improvements
small contribution to the climate Another design-led company, will follow this commitment.
change impact. Design Mobel built on an existing There are huge opportunities
3. Recycling the chair gives an ISO 9000 quality system to move for New Zealand designers to
overall reduction in the climate into ISO 14001. This defined the demonstrate leadership by creating
change impact even when taking operational impacts and established credible and inspiring solutions of
into account transportation and a set of objectives and targets which tomorrow today. So get started.
reprocessing energy. would address these issues over a The third, concluding article in
Using these LCA results period of time (including all facets this series will provide an overview
as a source of innovation, the of the business). In this instance, of specific life cycle tools and
company has been able to make an internal team worked with an approaches, including approaches
more informed design choices in external ecologist who advised on to sustainable ideation and life cycle
subsequent product development the best process to work through tools suited to more analytical stages
projects. They have also been and it resulted in internal staff of the product development process.
instrumental in stimulating the presentations to all levels about the
company to initiate a ‘Product outcomes of this research.
Stewardship’ project to enable A New Zealand developed EMS Further case studies
improved environmental is Enviro-Mark NZ. One of the The LCA Center Denmark has
performance at end-of-life. This att ractive things to an SME is the a website giving examples of
product stewardship programme lower entry level and cost. It enables companies that have implemented
injects a service based component a company to start the process of Life Cycle Thinking. These include
over the life of the product and adoption and build up to the level Electrolux, Grundfos, Novozymes,
offers some interesting potential of ISO 14001.This approach breaks Philips, Rockwool and Vestas:
for re-engagement with consumers ISO 14001 requirements into five www.lca-center.dk/cms/site.
at different touch points along the audited sub-steps, to enable a aspx?p=4015
product life span. phased EMS implementation. This Patagonia is an example of
method is delivered and audited by total supply chain and material
Landcare Research. understanding which leads to a
Toolbox and standards product leadership position. Take a
As the Formway example shows, look at the footprint chronicles which
LCM is realised within an organisation Fusing with science explain impacts of the product and
by applying an appropriate suite Formway and Design Mobel both supply chain: www.patagonia.com/
of tools. A crucial prerequisite to exemplify the fact that SMEs in New web/us/footprint/index.jsp
its successful application is an Zealand can adopt an LCM approach Ford Motor Company has
organisational culture which enables, and apply new tools and approaches developed a life cycle sustainability
fosters and maintains focus on to put some rubber on the road. It has approach to product development.
sustainable action and dialogue with directly enabled Formway to make The Product Sustainability Index is
all relevant stakeholders. effective decisions about the life one design and communication tool
To learn more about A wide range of established cycle of products simply because of a developed in-house:
sustainable product design tools approaches and international more in-depth understanding. www.ford.com/aboutford/
processes, check out the
standards exist, each having different Life Cycle Management can be a microsites/sustainability-report-
remaining two of three half-
day workshops on Life Cycle application areas and benefits. daunting endeavour as it can move 2006-07/documents/ford-psi.pdf .
Thinking (details opposite) The most well known system business owners and executives The United Nations Environment
at Unitec in Auckland on the is the ISO 14001: Environmental into areas where they have little Program SETAC Life Cycle Initiative
following dates: Management System (EMS). Often expertise or experience. This can is a global programme which
EMS approaches are used to address be overcome by taking small steps specifically aims to bring science-
July 3: Life Cycle Management
August 7: Life Cycle Tools operations or site specific issues. and making an enterprise level based life cycle approaches into
ISO 14001 does operate effectively commitment to the integration practice worldwide: www.unep.
www.thinkingdesign.co.nz within New Zealand and there are of Life Cycle Thinking. Company fr/scp/lifecycle/management
84 Issue 95