Manual on Product-Oriented Environmental Work
1 Introduction
| 1.1 | Why incorporate the product dimension in your environmental work? |
| 1.2 | The life cycle approach |
| 1.3 | How to use the manual |
The target group for this manual is companies desiring inspiration and practical
recommendations on using a product-oriented approach in their environmental work. Doing
this will greatly affect the cooperation in the product chain and therefore also the
companies' customers and suppliers, and the manual can thus also be used in the dialogue
and cooperation with them. It is not necessary to have experience with life cycle
assessments or to have an environmental management system in order to use the manual
because the introductory chapters explain how to get going on incorporating the product
dimension in environmental work. It is up to yourselves whether you use the manual as a
basis for systematic environmental action or to develop action that is already going on.
The introduction provides a short explanation of product orientation - incorporating the product dimension in a company's environmental work. You should therefore read this chapter before moving on to the rest of the manual.
Most companies are now aware of the environmental impacts that occur in connection with their production and have gained experience in preventing or reducing them.Very few companies, on the other hand, have looked into the environmental impacts of their products over the products' entire life cycle, from extraction of the raw materials, through manufacture, to use and disposal. A product-oriented approach means including in the preventive environmental work an assessment of environmental impacts and possibilities for improvement in relation to both the production and the product's life cycle - and acting on the basis of the resulting knowledge. In other words, it is all about using the life cycle approach in your environmental work.
Product-oriented environmental work means ensuring continual improvement of a product's environmental impacts during its entire life cycle.
At the same time, the market and authorities are now focusing not only on the production process but also, increasingly, on the products themselves. More and more companies are getting enquiries from their customers about the environmental aspects of their products, and the increase in public, green purchasing is pulling in the same direction.The official eco-label schemes (the Nordic Swan and the EU's Flower) and the Danish EPA's Green Buying Guides for Public Procurements include, for example, a number of specific requirements that products must meet and recommendations that they should live up to.
The overall political objective of product-oriented environmental work is to foster the development of and demand for cleaner products. A cleaner product is a product that pollutes less during its entire life cycle than other, similar products with corresponding deliverables. Compared with environmental action that is focused on cleaner technologies and improvements in the individual company, product-oriented action requires a far greater degree of coordination and cooperation.
Internationally, more and more companies are working with "Product Chain Management", where the various companies in a product chain cooperate more closely, and where management and control are tighter. Today, environmental aspects are increasingly included in this cooperation.
An absolute prerequisite for product orientation is sufficient knowledge about the environmental impacts of the products throughout their life cycle and about the possibilities the individual player - which means your customers and suppliers as well - has for reducing the impacts. Therefore, before making far-reaching decisions on how you are going to incorporate the product dimension in your environmental work, you must have sufficient knowledge, both about the products' environmental and occupational health and safety impacts and about the market's expectations and potentials (see Chapter 3). It is important to include the market angle. No matter how eco-friendly a product may be, if it is not bought and thus does not replace a more environmentally harmful product, there is no benefit.
Build up knowledge about your products' environmental and occupational health and safety impacts - and about the market potentials. Use this knowledge to decide what your environmental action is to cover and which players you want to cooperate with.
A product-oriented approach also means that the various parts of your organisation will probably be involved in the company's environmental work in a different way than they used to be. For example, the purchasing department has direct contact with the suppliers, the sales and marketing department has contact with the customers, and the development department must also think about environmental and occupational health and safety impacts when developing new products or modifying existing products. It is important to clarify how all these functions can best support the company's work on the product dimension.
1.1 Why incorporate the product dimension in your environmental work?
A number of factors are encouraging companies to think about the environmental impacts of their products throughout the products' life cycle. However, for the individual company, there will always be special wishes and benefits. The manual gives many examples of Danish companies' experiences, wishes, criteria, etc. Chapter 2, "The Companies", lists the companies in question and includes a short description of each and references to their websites. The examples in this chapter illustrate some of the reasons for incorporating the product dimension in a company's environmental work:
Lost orders APC Denmark ApS, which make uninterruptible power supplies, found that they lost an order because they were unable to supply documentation for the environmental impacts at both the company itself and its suppliers. APC have therefore decided to incorporate the product dimension in their environmental work, so that they also know what happens in the other phases of their products' life cycle and act accordingly. |
From part of the problem to part of the solution Henkel-Ecolab supply cleaning agents to professional users. Although they had not carried out an actual life cycle assessment, they were aware that the biggest environmental impacts related to wastewater problems in the use phase. Recognising that there was a business risk in being "stamped" as a creator of problems, Henkel Ecolab defined their environmental strategy as "being part of the customer's environmental solution" instead of part of the problem. That means both expanding their cooperation with their customers on proper use of cleaning agents and intensified development work, both internally and together with the suppliers, so that they make less environmentally harmful products. |
The whole picture is important Ergonova sells ergonomically correct height-adjustable desks and has agencies for other ergonomic office furniture. It has focused from the very start on supplying high quality products. The company is now experiencing growing competition from cheaper "copy products", and that has led to a need to document both quality and environmental and occupational health and safety aspects. When building up a combined quality and environmental management system, the company therefore found it relevant to incorporate the product dimension from the start. |
Headway in the market In Sweden, public purchasers attach great importance to the environmental aspects of products and therefore ask manufacturers for very detailed product-related data. Coloplast, which makes medical disposables, chose to take the challenge seriously, and that resulted in headway in the market. |
A good, overall picture C.C. Jensen, whose products include ship propellers cast to order, has used the life cycle approach to get a complete picture of resource consumption, waste, etc., both totally and for each unit. The foundation has thereby been laid for the environmental management system that the company wishes to build up. At the same time, the company has established a better basis for estimating the real costs of each order. |
The life cycle approach also helps to motivate employees to make a real environmental
effort when,for example,you yourselves are not responsible for significant environmental
impacts,whereas there are many possibilities for improvements at your suppliers and
others.
The action makes sense Production at Ergonova's premises in Karlstrup and Karslunde is limited to assembly of desktops and frames. The premises also house the management and the product development and sales departments. This means very limited environmental impacts, which makes it difficult to whip up enthusiasm among the employees for special action because there is not much that needs to be done. However, with an environmental management system built up from the start to include the environmental aspects in other phases of the product's life cycle, the action makes more sense, seen in a wider perspective, and that fosters motivation. |
1.2 The life cycle approach
All products have a life cycle, from production of the raw materials and semimanufactures, through the manufacture of the product itself, to use, possible recycling and final disposal. However, where in the life cycle the biggest environmental impacts occur, and where it is possible and/or most effective to take action to reduce the impacts, differs considerably from product to product.
Any company that wants to incorporate the product dimension should start by building up a preliminary picture of the product's entire life cycle - irrespective of the kind of product action the management decides on.
A preliminary picture can be structured in the form of a flow diagram as shown in the example in figure 1.1. This will make it easier for you to focus the action on significant environmental impacts relating to the specific life cycle phases. On the basis of the knowledge you already possess or can easily obtain, you can then expand the picture with information on resource consumption and environmental impacts in the individual phases and about the associated transport in each phase. With that, you will have established the first basis for a life cycle assessment.
Figure 1.1:
Main life cycle flow for a plastic cup
In connection with the product action, it is important to ensure coherence between the basis for decisions that you establish through the product/ life cycle-based environmental work and the decisions you make.
When making a start on incorporating the product dimension in your environmental work, you have to consider many factors - not only environmental aspects, but also market and commercial factors. It is therefore important to create a good basis for decisions, but this is not necessarily the same as carrying out a very thorough life cycle assessment.To start with, a picture of the significant environmental impacts in the product's life cycle, possibly combined with specific aspects included in ecolabel criteria, the Green Buying Guides for Public Procurements, customer requirements, etc., will suffice.What the significant environmental impacts are will, in the nature of things, depend on the composition and use of the product. For pumps and other current-consuming appliances, the energy consumption in the use phase is important, while for cleaning agents, it is the discharge to wastewater with associated environmental impacts that is important. Annex 1 contains an introduction to life cycle assessments, while Annex 2 gives an idea of the possibilities and action areas that are normally investigated in connection with life cycle work.
Knowledge about your products' environmental impacts is essential for product-oriented environmental management, but is not an aim in itself.
Building up knowledge about your products' environmental impacts does not in itself mean that you will improve the environmental performance of your products.To do that, you must go through a process that, let it be noted, is continuous, just as in traditional environmental management, and not simply a project that ultimately comes to an end.The process concerns implementing the life cycle approach by:
 | creating a picture of where in the products' life cycle the significant environmental impacts and/or potential for improvement lie |
| prioritising your environmental action on the basis of this knowledge and in accordance with the company's business strategy |
| establishing dialogue and cooperation in the product chain with a view to getting the significant environmental impacts, seen in a life cycle perspective, reduced and to exploiting the market potentials |
| developing policies and methods so that the various functions/managers can incorporate the product dimension in their daily work and ensure active involvement of the employees |
| ensuring that improvements in the product, seen in a life cycle perspective, are included in the continual improvements, so that the process is a continuous one. |
1.3 How to use the manual
The manual is structured to enable you to dip into the parts that are most relevant for you. This means that you do not have to read it from A to Z, but if you do, you will get a complete impression of the process from clarifying possibilities to preparing guidelines for the different groups of employees and incorporation of the product dimension in an environmental management system.
The manual is divided into three parts: Part A, which is the manual itself, contains chapters 1-6 and focuses on the process of incorporating the product dimension in a company's environmental work on the basis of a life cycle approach; Part B contains tools in the form of recommendations on how you can work with various analyses and actual types of product action, e.g. eco-labels and environmental product declarations. Chapter 3 explains where in the process the individual tools can be used. Lastly, Part C contains various annexes. The diagram below shows the three parts of the manual and how they relate to each other.
The manual has been written so that it can be used by companies that have no experience of product-oriented environmental work, but want to get started on it. Chapter 3: Status and Overview therefore focuses on assessing market expectations, your own wishes, and criteria for the environmental action, and on building up basic knowledge about the products' potential environmental impacts, so that you establish a good basis for decisions on the next steps.The chapter also offers ideas for mapping out your strategy for the product-oriented work.
The manual can also be used by companies that already have product experience, e.g. by having carried out a life cycle assessment or having been granted an eco-label, and that now want to ensure good coherence with the company's other environmental work. Here, it is particularly chapters 4 and 5 that will be found useful.
Chapter 4 of the manual: Incorporating the Product Dimension in Practice has two main topics: firstly, how you get cooperation going in the product chain, particularly with your suppliers and customers, and, secondly, how the organisation can be geared to incorporate the product dimension on the basis of the life cycle approach.You do not have to have an environmental management system to use the recommendations given in Chapter 4, but incorporating the product dimension affects so many functions in the company that a well functioning management, where communication, decision paths and responsibilities are in place, is essential for success.
Chapter 5 of the manual: Incorporating the Product Dimension in an Environmental Management System explains where it will be relevant to incorporate product-related issues in a "traditional" environmental management system, exemplified by means of ISO 14001. More importance is attached to the principal differences than to preparing an answer book because each company's environmental management system is based on its own criteria and wishes. Chapter 5 is primarily written for companies that have an environmental management system, but companies that want to build one up, and that want to incorporate the product dimension from the start, can use the manual as a supplement to other guidance on environmental management systems - for example, sectorbased manuals or consulting assistance. The project "Product-oriented environmental management" (see the references) provides further guidance on incorporating the product dimension in an environmental management system's procedures etc., and on involving the employees.
Each of the chapters 3-5 starts with an introduction that will provide you with a clear picture of the chapter's contents.
Most companies find it most natural to link their environmental work with their work on occupational health and safety, and it may also be sensible to think about health and safety issues in other phases of a product's life cycle. However, the working environment is directly related to the individual company, so it is difficult to include other companies' health and safety conditions in one's own life cycle assessment. Therefore, in the manual, occupational health and safety is only dealt with specifically in connection with purchasing and cooperation with suppliers.