Ecovalue
a trip to the
deep rabbit hole
by Oriol Pascual

for educational purpose only ;-)

Traditional eco-belief or trip
to wonderland?

Science
Governments
Technology
MANUFACTURING Voters
Suppliers
COMPANY Customers
Financial
NGOs
community
External Value Chain
The Matrix

Overview presentation
Two stop trip

Blue
Everybody should
love eco

75%
Global Fortune 500 claim to do Ecodesign

Relatively mature 30% Way to maturity 18% First movements 6%
Starter & good intent 6% Publicity driven 14% Not interested 26%
Ecodesign maturity profiles

Companies can do more

Technology will save us all

Eco-solutions
seem not to appeal to mass consumers

Consumers can be educated
If not green yet, you will soon get!

Consumers are rational
When doing the math, they act accordingly

Designers as decision makers
out of control!

Strategy
Management
Product
Development Marketing
management
Production Sales
Suppliers Customer
Purchasing Logistics
Internal Value Chain
The Internal Matrix

Red
Questioning reality

Low-hanging fruit picked
Rapidly reaching the limits of physics

What design option is best?
from a value chain perspective

10.000 Tones
of CO2...what do you
mean?
!
Do you understand?
Communication issues with the rest of value
chain

What fish are you catching?
For the resources invested, what are the
opportunities?

business value
environmental load
Value creation
How is ecodesign contributing to it?

To solve the equation
you have to realize that...

Ecodesign is not alone

Demand side is key
Environmental impact directly related to
consumption power

The market is diverse
even within the Guinea Pig food market!

How?

Ecovalue

Eco-efficiency index
Product value
Ecovalue =
Environmental load
Product value
acceptable +
- + Environmental
0
Load
non-acceptable
-

Supports decision making
at strategic & product level

Setting priorities

Action oriented

Value = perceived benefit
Functional & intangible benefit

Functional value

Intangible value

Paradigm shift
Traditional ecodesign (blue) is about reducing product
environmental load only
Unbalanced with customer values
New paradigm (red) shift asks for products with low
environmental load and high value - reduced
environmental load per monetary unit

Why Ecovalue?
The environment is not alone, market forces apply
Sustainability is about how we produce and consume
Consumers have limited amounts of money in their
pockets

How to make it happen?
Science and technology
Design
Product differentiation
Feelings and emotions

Setting priorities
Value creation = Environmental & economic profitability
Addressing;
✤ Product value
✤ Customer value
✤ Business value

Product value
Supply side Demand side
Functional value Retail price
Production costs WTP, pricing strategies
Design & tech Marketing competition
wholesale
price
Subjective value Cost of ownership
Organizational costs Efficiency
Design, brand, strategy Energy prices

Customer value
Price buyers Feature buyers Experience buyers
Each market segment perceives differently the trade-off product
value/product price

Business value
Consumer Value
Market size
group captured
Price buyers 1/3 +
Special feature 1/3 ++
Experience/
1/3 +++
quality buyer

Eco-efficiency index
Product value
Ecovalue =
Environmental load
Ratio between environmental load & product’s use value
(functional + intangible)

How does it work?
Pick a baseline (given environmental load & economic
value)
Develop all possible scenarios (improve and/or reduce
load & money)

Ecovalue scenarios
Price Env. load Ecovalue Target group
1 ++ + +++ experience
2 ++ - + feature
3 + ++ +++ experience
4 + -- - feature
5 - ++ + price
6 - -- --- not applicable
7 -- + - price
8 -- - --- not applicable

Visualization
Product value
acceptable +
- + Environmental
0
Load
non-acceptable
-

Case study: displays

Case study displays
Screen
Model Tech. Market Price
size
1 CRT 29” China 354,63
2 CRT 28” Europe 481,00
3 LCD 23” Europe 972,32
4 LCD 32” Europe 215.592

Case study displays
Env. load Shelf price
Model Ecovalue
(mPt) (euro)
1 69732 354,63 5,09
2 54169 481,00 8,88
3 50335 972,32 19,46
4 50595 2155,92 42,61

Product #1
4
acceptable + Product value
3
2
10 Environmental
- +
Load
non-acceptable
-

Product #2
4
acceptable + Product value
3
20 Environmental
- +
Load
1
non-acceptable
-

Product #3
acceptable + Product value
4
30 Environmental
- +
Load
2
1
non-acceptable
-

Product #4
acceptable + Product value
40 Environmental
- +
3 Load
2 1
non-acceptable
-

Conclusions
The environment is not special; traditional market forces
also apply to ecodesign
It is possible to reduce a product's environmental load and
increase its final value
How consumers perceive product value, determines
ecodesign strategy: tailor-made solutions
Ecovalue helps to set up priorities based in profitability
(environmental & economic)

oriol.pascual@gmail.com
sustainablerotterdam.com