Product Innovation and Eco-efficiency

The WESTAB Group has been active as a waste management company for more than 20 years and has worked in the fields of physico-chemical treatment, incineration, landfilling deposition and recycling. WESTAB engineers and scientists design biological, physico-chemical and thermal treatment facilities. They also develop recycling processes, atempt to find suitable locations for waste disposal sites and produce environmental studies, hazardous waste site surveys and waste management studies, as well as waste flow analyses for customers. The most important customers are the chemical, metallurgical and metalworking industries in Germany and The Netherlands.

The Dutch cement producer ENCI (Eerste Nederlandse Cement Industrie) was founded in 1926. Although its name indicates Dutch roots, the company has always been owned by foreign investors. Today, the Belgian CBR-Group and Holderbank from Switzerland are shareholders of ENCI. CBR in turn, belongs in part to the Heidelberger-Zement Group. Heidelberger-Zement and Holderbank are among the top five of the world’s cement producers. Striking advantages of this interlinking are an easy access to capital and technical know-how, the two main production factors in the manufacture of bulk goods.

In recent years, the bulk polymer PVC (polyvinylchloride) has been the target for attack by environmental groups. While the emphasis of these attacks has been on PVC packaging, the PVC pipe industry in Europe has also had to endure criticism for the supposed negative influence of both the raw materials and the finished products on the environment. The European PVC industry has not taken this criticism lightly; it has studied the situation carefully. In particular, the plastic pipe industry, united in The European Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association (TEPPFA), has been active in providing information and advice concerning the limitation of possible negative effects of plastics and, in particular, PVC piping systems on the environment.

For industry, the best route to a sustainable society may not involve concentrating solely on core business. In fact, creating a range of by-products from a less refined basic commodity might be a much more sustainable approach. Considerable effort needs to be made in order to make optimal use of the potential inherent in (energy) resources; not only do processes have to be adapted, but the location of those processes also needs to be reconsidered. If these considerations are taken into account from the start, particularly in developing regions of the world, they can make a contribution to a development towards sustainability. This paper reviews such opportunities in the electricity production sector. After reviewing the methodology and past experience related to energy conversion, the case for a new type of energy services company to manage the exchange of energy flows — a kind of ‘energy broker’ — is presented, a company that not only produces the right form of energy, but also takes back forms of energy that are no longer of use to users.

In The Netherlands and other European countries strategies are being developed for the production of foods based on new sources and process technologies with an ultimately lower environmental burden. Reduction factors of environmental burden of 20 or more have been mentioned as a necessity for a sustainable future. Some strategies and new developments are directed at the development of sustainable foods such as novel protein foods (NPFs). New opportunities will be sought for using vegetable and plant proteins in place of animal proteins. The challenge is, of course, to produce acceptable and nutritional foods for consumers taking preferences into account.

It is well accepted in industry that major improvements in productivity and manufacturing costs can be achieved through increased emphasis on product design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) [1]. This stems directly from recognition that most of the overall manufacturing costs are determined by decisions made right at the early conceptual design stages of a product. In a similar way, ease of disassembly for service and end-of-life management of products are determined by early design decisions, concerning assembly structures, assembly methods and material choices.

In the chemical industry sulphuric acid is, among others, used for producing chemical fertilizers, other mineral acids (e.g. hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid) and for introducing sulphonic groups (sulphurization) or (mixed with nitric acid) for introducing nitro groups (nitrogenation) [1].

Environmental analysis of wooden furniture, as performed with the Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, will broaden understanding of the environmental impact produced by the entire cycle which extends from tree to furniture in the consumer’s home. This is the foundation for this chapter, and on this basis, we define potential improvement options and indicate the desirability of achieving these options [1].

This chapter has three parts: firstly, the use of Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) in Statoil; secondly the basic work that was done on methodology to provide a useful tool; and thirdly, the final use of the tool in product development. The last two parts are detailed examples.

Unilever is one of the worlds largest consumer goods companies, with a turnover in 1996 of Dfl 87 795 million. Most of the business is in branded consumer goods. More than half the turnover is generated with food products, which include margarine, oil, tea, tomato-based sauces, ice-cream and frozen fish. The second key product area is home and personal care, which includes detergents, soap, shampoo, tooth-paste and skin cream. Up to the beginning of 1997 Unilever had a major activity in speciality chemicals. Today, Unilever has some 500 operating companies in over 80 countries, and employs about 300 000 people worldwide.

Environmental decision-making is a quite complex affair. Not only does it need effectively to consider thousands of interrelated product systems, but also to take into account the different interrelated environmental compartments (air, water and soil), different geographical conditions (climate, types of soils, etc.) and the numerous interrelated animal and plant species. Additionally, environmental decisionmaking requires a life-cycle approach: each product system needs to be ‘managed’ across its life cycle, comprising all material and energy flows throughout raw material extraction, suppliers’ plants, manufacturers’ plants, transport and distribution networks, customers, consumers and eventually waste treatment and disposal. Often, different independent business entities will be responsible for the individual aspects of this overall system.

Since the end of the 1980s Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) has been the most frequently discussed methodological tool for assessing and improving the environmental performance of products and production processes, see [1]–[4]. Life-cycle Assessment is a process for evaluation of the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy materials used and wastes released to the environment; to assess the impact of those energy and material uses and releases to the environment; and to identify and evaluate opportunities to affect environmental improvements. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or activity, encompassing extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, reuse and maintenance; and recycling and final disposal [5]. From this, it follows that LCAs can help in making more reliable decisions related to ecological improvements of products ([1], [4] and [6]). But LCA is only one tool in the multi-dimensional decision process which until now has been dominated by technical and economical criteria, see [1] and [7]. Using it during development of a product means adding ecological aspects to the traditional decision process ([7], [8]). However, LCA is only suitable for that purpose if concrete computational procedures for performing Life-cycle Inventory (LCI) and Lifecycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) exist [9]. This chapter focuses on aspects of the calculation of LCIs.

At present, the global community understands the concept of sustainable development as the only possibility for living on this planet, and leaving the same environment for our children and grandchildren. Evolutionary changes in the environment are not taken into account, in this respect.

Consider the eco-chair: a chair of truly eco-efficient qualities, all materials are recyclable at a high quality level, all wood is sustainably harvested, all emissions stay well below ecological thresholds, etc. If, by even more sophisticated design and process management, all resource use and all emissions could be reduced by a factor of 2, what would happen to the eco-efficiency of the chair? Would it increase by a factor of 2, or would it remain infinitely high?

Information and communication are the buzz-words of our time. Sometimes it seems as if communication is the answer to any problem, and the lack of it might as well be the source of all evil. Against this background, the statement that communication is vital to the success of product innovation may be self-evident and boring. Nevertheless, this chapter takes as a starting-point that it is worth the effort to explore the links between sustainable development, product innovation and communication. It presents a new angle to these issues, because both communication and product innovation are defined within the broader philosophy of Responsible Care.

The Dutch government has marked off various environmental policy lines, one of which deals with the concept of Sustainable Construction. One of the main principles of Sustainable Construction is Integral Substance Chain Management (ISCM). ISCM implies closing the various raw materials chains in such a way that a minimum amount of the materials is dumped or incinerated and a maximum amount of the released materials is reused, preferably in the same field of application. The effect of this is twofold: residual materials are advantageously reused; and the extraction of primary raw materials is limited.

Since the end of the 1980s, concepts such as ‘ustainable construction’ and ‘integrated cycle management’ have become widespread. Within the Dutch situation, target groups like the construction industry play an important role in the implementation of environmental policy formulated by the government. The Dutch government has drawn up a number of policy documents, like the National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP) 1, the NEPP 1 Plus, and the NEPP 2. Those documents state that a number of environmental objectives must be converted into a concrete set of tasks for the construction industry. This industry was chosen since it uses the largest amount of materials and secondary materials, and produces the highest amount of waste per kilogram of material applied. The tasks set for the building sector are:

In The Netherlands discussions are taken place between the Ministry for Environment (VROM), the Ministry for Economic Affairs (EZ), Vereniging van Leveranciers en HANdelaren van witgoed in Nederland (VLEHAN),¹ Fabrikanten Importeurs en Agenten van Radio’s in Nederland (FIAR)² and the retail trade about chain responsibility regarding end-of-life white and brown goods.

Bang & Olufsen’s line of business is production of TV sets, video tape recorders, radios, CD players, tape recorders, loudspeakers, etc. Bang & Olufsen is sited in the western part of Jutland, the number of employees is about 2700 and the annual turnover approx. 2.5 billion Danish Kroner, with about 80% sales outside Denmark.

Environmental care in companies has now existed for some 30 years. Much attention has been paid to the environmental effects of production processes. Emissions to air, water and soil (including solid waste) have been addressed in terms of end-ofpipe technology and — particularly in the last years — in the form of prevention.

The recent adoption of the European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste has given a regulatory impetus to an activity which was already well under way in Europe through the joint activities of ERRA (European Recovery and Recycling Association) and major food companies, such as Coca-Cola. We have also pioneered with Hoechst Celanese, in the USA, the chemical recycling of PET soft drink bottles and the use of physically cleaned post-consumer waste PET bottles in the form of multilayer bottles. These initiatives of The Coca-Cola Company are part of their overall response to protection of the environment and reduction in the use of non-renewable raw materials.

Independent research and practical experience show that the concern for our environment is linked to consumers in search of liberation from feeling guilty and to intensive media coverage [1]. It is here to stay: it is not a fashion, but a basic movement.

Environmental considerations will play an increasing role in future product developments. Traditionally, when environmental problems have been identified in industry, new equipment and processes have been brought in to remove the unwanted discharges. It has resulted in a positive trend with decreasing emissions from production. An example is shown in Fig. 28.1; the emissions of solvable organic compounds (COD) have decreased by almost 90% since the 1960s, while pulp production has increased by about 100% in Sweden [1]. However, discharges as well as waste have usually been viewed as problems separate from the reason for their occurrence. This cannot continue if sustainable development¹ is to be accomplished [2].