Manual on Product-Oriented Environmental Work
3 Status and Overview
This chapter explains how to build up a basis for decisions in order to be able to prioritise action on the product dimension and, on that basis, draw up plans and strategies for your product-oriented work.
The basis for decisions is as follows:
 | an overview of your products' function and life cycle, and the significant environmental impacts associated with these (section 3.1) |
| an overview of your possibilities for changing the product or the way it is produced, used or disposed of, and of possibilities for documenting your product's environmental impacts (section 3.2) |
| an overview of the external requirements, enquiries and expectations concerning your products, together with other factors that can affect your products (section 3.3) |
| assessment of the external requirements, expectations, etc. (section 3.4) |
| assessment of possibilities within the company (section 3.5). |
The last section of the chapter (section 3.6) suggests ways in which you can draw up plans and strategies for your continued work. It is often a good idea to start with one or more product-related projects before you decide on the final strategy. For example, in the first instance, you can use this chapter on a single product.That will take you through some of the main considerations in connection with product-oriented work.
If you already know what you intend to achieve with your productoriented work, you can use the chapter as a checklist.You can also return to the chapter and go through it again when you have gained some projectbased experience.
Put briefly, the purpose of the various elements of the basis for decisions is:
to create an overview of the life cycle and the impacts.
You must use the overview you gain of the life cycle to assess where the biggest environmental impacts (and potentials for improvement) of your products lie and to ensure that possible changes in the design, composition or production of the products, combined, reduce the product's environmental impacts during its life cycle.
When you have an overview of the product's biggest environmental impacts and potentials for improvement, the next step is to decide what possibilities you have of changing the product's design and production/use. Factors on which your possibilities will depend are your placing in the product chain (do you make the raw materials, semimanufactures or the end product?) and your possibility of getting things on which you yourselves have no direct influence changed (e.g. production of raw materials or disposal patterns).
It is important to note that this manual describes only the initial methods for creating a life cycle overview. However, Annex 2 contains information that will give you an impression of the kinds of environmental impacts that it might be relevant to consider. For slightly more complicated assessments based on the life cycle principle, you will also need the procedure and tools described in, for example, 'Manual on Environmental Assessment of Products' (see the reference list).
Map external requirements, enquiries and expectations
In many cases, the motivation for product-oriented environmental work will come from the fact that you have encountered or expect requirements, enquiries or expectations concerning documentation and/or improvement of your products' environmental properties from external parties. In the following, these are called "external expectations".
The expectations may concern direct and indirect environmental impacts and be formulated for many different reasons and by different players (other links in the product chain, authorities or other external stakeholders - called stakeholders in the following). The expectations may be systematised and well documented or be in the nature of more or less wellconsidered ad hoc expectations.
You can use the life cycle overview as your basis for judging whether the stakeholders' expectations concerning your product work are appropriate.
The reason for mapping the external expectations is to ensure that your work is in line with the expectations of the market, the authorities or other stakeholders concerning your products. Knowing the external expectations also provides you with the possibility of exploiting the market advantages of selling less environmentally harmful products.
Map internal needs and possibilities
Mapping needs and possibilities within the organisation means clarifying whether there are departments with specific needs/wishes concerning the product orientation and whether the organisation has the necessary environmental expertise.
3.1 Life cycle overview
When building up knowledge about your products' life cycles, it is important to create an overview first and then, if necessary, seek more detailed information. If the overview is not in place, you will soon find yourselves using many resources to obtain data that will not necessarily make you any wiser about the products' environmental impacts and possibilities for improvement - or that do not correspond to the decisions to be taken.
If you have already carried out a life cycle assessment of one or more products, you can go straight on to assessing possible action areas in section 3.2.
3.1.1 Selection of product
If you make many different types of products, it may be a good idea to select a "get-going" product as case product.You can then apply the experiences from this to the other products.
There can be many reasons for selecting a specific product, for example: The main product on the market TM Coating selected TM ECO-THERM anti-condensation paint as its
case product, partly because it is the company's main product in terms of production
volume and market share and partly because it is a good representative of the rest of the
company's products. At the same time, it allows 'control of the customer side' because it
is a subsidiary, TM Spraying, that sprays the paint on for customers. In addition, TM
ECO-THERM anti-condensation paint is a relatively simple product.
the product is your best-selling product the product is attracting most environmental interest in the market the product is believed to have a big potential for environmental improvements.
A simple product C.C. Jensen selected ship propeller castings because, in this context, they are a simple product. Also important is the fact that the product is supplied to customers with whom CCJ enjoys good cooperation - i.e. CCJ has excellent access to data - and that there were two committed employees who were prepared to help collect data. With the product in question, CCJ thought that it would have all the data it needed for the assessment. CCJ gave high priority to that because they did not want problems with collecting data to overshadow the actual work of incorporating the product dimension in their environmental work. They also thought that if they succeeded in getting the product-oriented approach and life cycle principles incorporated in the metal-casting division, they would have templates and techniques ready for other departments and other, more complicated products. Lastly, of CCJ's three divisions, the metal-casting division is the one that attracts most environmental attention from the authorities, and since it is important for the company to have a good image, it means a lot to be able to document that the production takes place in an environmentally satisfactory way. |
Possibility of comparing new and old products Coloplast has carried out several life cycle assessments and works continually on environmental improvements on the basis of the knowledge gained. Coloplast thinks that the life cycle assessments give it a good basis for comparing existing products with new alternatives and thus choosing solutions that benefit the environment. |
Focus on the main product Ergonova chose to assess the environmental impacts from its adjustable height desks, which are its main product in terms of sales. |
The product is representative APC makes so-called UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies). APC chose to screen a UPC from its DP 300E series, partly because it is representative of the whole series and partly because it would provide background knowledge for use in reducing the present size of the UPS and thus the consumption of materials. |
3.1.2 Overview of life
cycle and environmental impacts
Tool 1 in Part B of the manual provides a guide to creating the necessary overview of a product's function, life cycle and associated environmental impacts. By using Tool 1, you will gain:
| knowledge of the substances and materials used in the product. This is a fairly simple task in the case of most products. However, it may be necessary to obtain information from your suppliers if the product contains semi-manufactures or chemical compounds whose composition you do not know. |
| an overview of the product's life cycle.To create an overview of the product's life cycle, you may have to obtain information from suppliers (including transport suppliers/forwarding agents) and customers. Who makes the raw materials/semi-manufactures you use? How is the product used and disposed of? |
| a definition of the product's function. It is important to define the product's function because the work on improving its environmental properties will often include an element of comparison - between your own and/or competing products or between different alternatives in, for example, the choice of materials (see also Tool 1). |
| a basis for assessing where the principal environmental and occupational health impacts occur during the product's life cycle. |
On the basis of the knowledge you gain from this you must try to judge where the significant environmental impacts and possibilities for improvement of your products lie.Tool 1 does not include an actual environmental assessment of the products. If you need a more detailed assessment (see Tool 1), you can use the procedure and tools described in 'Manual on Environmental Assessment of Products' (see the references).
Main impact during production of subcomponents At Ergonova, the overview showed that the biggest environmental impacts from the desks, seen in a life cycle perspective, were related to sub-processes at the suppliers of the metal underframes and to transport. |
Energy consumption one of the significant environmental impacts At C.C. Jensen, the overview indicated that energy consumption was one of the significant environmental impacts. It can be reduced by making more customised products, which ensures less offcutting at the customer's premises. Besides that, the overview has contributed greatly to understanding within the organisation and to training in product-oriented work. |
Environmental and occupational health properties By collecting suppliers' material safety datasheets for all the product's constituents, TM Coating has gained insight into the environmental and occupational health properties of each of the constituents and has developed a better dialogue with subsuppliers concerning the physical, chemical, environmental and occupational health properties of the various constituents. TMC has also gained a picture of where the biggest energy consumption occurs during the product's life cycle. The detailed data gathered by the company provide a basis for starting up an energy management project. Lastly, TMC has gained an overview of atmospheric emissions and has concluded that transport constitutes a significant part of the product's life cycle. A coming action area will therefore be transport. |
3.1.3 Time required for start-up
and overview
The difficulty of obtaining data on the part of the products' life cycle that lies outside the company is one of the most common obstacles encountered during work on life cycle assessments. By preparing a life cycle overview, you will get an idea of how big a job the data collection is going to be and will therefore be well equipped to plan the continuing activities.
The time you will need to prepare an overview depends on how much data the organisation already possesses about your products' environmental properties and what possibilities you have for adding to your knowledge, through trade organisations, suppliers, other business partners, etc.
The time you will need also depends on your employees' expertise/ knowledge concerning environmental issues and product-oriented work and on how complicated your products are.To avoid the task running away with you, you must ensure that you define it properly and stop now and again and assess what you have achieved and what you perhaps still lack.
A complicated product takes time APC Denmark ApS's uninterruptible power supplies contain more than 2,000 different parts/components - various metal parts, electronics (circuit boards, modules, etc.) cables, batteries and many other things. Each of these parts/components is made of several different materials and it took the company's environmental coordinator 80 hours just to prepare a list of the main substances and materials used in the product. APC Denmark ApS estimated that it would take more than 150 hours to build up a very general overview of the product's life cycle and associated environmental impacts. The LCA overview is therefore fairly comprehensive for this type of product. The company also expects to have to spend time regularly on following up at suppliers because new requirements and new focus areas keep coming. |
That takes time, partly because:
|
Time is needed for training TM Coating spent about 400 hours on gathering data and carrying out environmental assessments of data from suppliers and customers and on supplementary training of TM's key person for the life cycle overview. |
Screening and training C.C. Jensen spent about 220 hours on the life cycle overview, including updating knowledge and supplementary training in the LCA approach. |
Visits to suppliers Ergonova chose to visit all its main suppliers around the country to gain an insight into their environmental aspects, even though this was a time-consuming exercise, because they rightly thought that that would facilitate the subsequent dialogue and procurement of usable documentation. |
When you have used Tool 1 in Part B for the first time or if you already have expertise on
the LCA approach within your organisation, a preliminary overview, which you can obtain by
means of Tool 1, will probably take 1-2 weeks unless the product is very complicated.
However, you must remember that work time and calendar time differ. Although the time actually spent on a life cycle overview is only a couple of weeks, the project itself can take considerably longer because it often takes time to procure information, particularly from suppliers.
3.2 Possible action areas
On the basis of the overview created in 3.1, you can now map possible action areas for product-oriented environmental improvements. First, however, you must get your documentation in order because you will often need that to enter into a dialogue with customers and other stakeholders on your products' environmental impacts.
3.2.1 Documentation
Documentation does not in itself create environmental improvements, but does provide you with a basis for designating action areas, and nowadays being able to document one's environmental and occupational health impacts is a very valuable signal to send out to external stakeholders. In some markets it is vital to be able to document one's products' environmental impacts.
Eco-label criteria (see Tool 2 in Part B) and the Green Buying Guides for Public Procurements (see Tool 3 in Part B) provide examples of the kind of environmental aspects relating to your products that you may be required to document.
Some companies choose to prepare documentation for their products' environmental impacts in the form of environmental product declarations. There are several different ways of preparing such declarations (see Tool 4 in Part B).
How you prepare your documentation and the resources you allocate to the task of collecting data will depend to a great extent on the type of product action you choose to work with.
3.2.2 Possibilities for environmental improvements
There are various ways to improve a product's environmental performance, and the more you know about your products, the more ways you will see. A product's total environmental impacts can be reduced by:
| changing the way the product is produced, transported, used or disposed of |
| improving an existing product |
| developing a new product or a new concept with the same function as an existing product |
| developing services in association with the product (see, for instance, the Henkel-Ecolab/Berendsen example in section 4.1.1.1). |
3.2.2.1 Production, transport, use and disposal
For some products, big environmental improvements can be achieved by changing production methods, transport/logistics or patterns of use and disposal. If the overview of the product's life cycle shows that there are significant environmental impacts associated with your own production, you should naturally concentrate your action there.
If the overview shows that significant environmental impacts come from use and disposal, you must consider how you can persuade your customers and/or the consumers to change their behaviour.You can influence the patterns of use and/or disposal in several ways - by preparing directions for use that include guidance on "eco-friendly use", by bringing up care for the environment in sales and service situations or by establishing return schemes for your product and/or its packaging. The options open to you will depend on your position in the supply chain and a number of other factors (see section 3.2.3).
In some cases, transport can have significant environmental impacts. In such case, you should consider whether you can optimise your logistics - for example, by ensuring a full load on every run (see section 4.2.8).
3.2.2.2 Changing the product
If you are thinking about changing one or more of a product's constituents/ components or the design of a product, you must know enough about the product's life cycle to be able to judge whether the change will reduce the product's total environmental impact.
It is therefore necessary to have an overview of all the parts of the life cycle that the change can affect.
In some cases it may be necessary to carry out an actual life cycle assessment in order to judge whether a change in the composition or design of the product will reduce or increase the total environmental impact, while in other cases, the effect will be clear.Tool 1 and Annex 1 introduce the work on life cycle assessments.
3.2.2.3 Developing new products
Your work on reducing a product's environmental impacts may lead to the development of a "new" product or a new concept that fulfils the same function as the old product.
Improvements in production, use and disposal APC Denmark ApS worked on improvements within production, use and disposal, e.g.
and in product development APC has, for example,
|
Recycling of textile waste Berendsen Textile Service's laundry in Silkeborg has systematised sorting and sale of scrapped textiles with a view to maximising its financial return on this scrap. At prices of more than DKK 7 per kilo, careful sorting pays the wage of the person doing the sorting. The minimum price is at present DKK 9.80 per kilo, but one can often get up to DKK 40 per kilo for textiles of better quality, which are sold for industrial use. The laundry only sells to workshops that dispose of the cloths in an environmentally sound and safe way, including storing used cloths in special containers. |
Changed product C.C. Jensen can minimise the product's weight (and thereby reduce material and energy consumption) by producing in closer accordance with the customer's dimensions and, in the longer term, in cooperation with the customer, minimise the difference between the casting dimensions and the finished dimensions. |
Whether you decide to work on changing patterns of use and disposal, substitution of
hazardous substances in your products or an entirely different type of action, you must
always remember to plan how you are going to document the work.
3.2.3 Consider your position in the product chain
Your position in the product chain can greatly affect your possibility of making environmental improvements or of getting others to do so.
Suppliers will have difficulty in making significant changes without very close cooperation with their customers. Production is usually based on given specifications that take time to change. Manufacturers of end products, on the other hand, will often have great influence on the design of the products. They can, for example, design a product to minimise the environmental impact in the use and disposal phase. For some products, further optimisation can be achieved through guidelines on correct use and disposal. End-manufacturers can also usually influence their suppliers.
Consider how your company itself and the other companies in the product chain can benefit from cooperation and be open to new possibilities.
When considering your options, it is important not to let yourselves be limited (too much) by "how things are today" and by what, on the face of it, you think you can or cannot influence.
3.2.4 Conclusion concerning possibilities
Describe 5-10 possibilities for improvement.
Gathering together what you have learnt in this section, you should describe 5-10 possibilities for significantly reducing your products' environmental impact, including any ideas for developing new products.
Include in your list also possibilities that you cannot directly see will produce improvements.You can examine these possibilities in greater depth later on in the form, for example, of more detailed life cycle assessments.
3.3 Mapping external expectations concerning your products
External expectations can directly affect your possibility of selling your products now or in the future. It is therefore important for you to build up a picture of the expectations and decide what to do about them.
The purpose of mapping the external expectations is to ensure that you include your customers'/other stakeholders' expectations in your environmental work. It is important to keep the dialogue going in order to ensure flexibility in your development work.
As a company, you have a choice of two, in principle, different strategies with respect to expectations:
- You can wait until they arise and then collect documentation and possibly carry out necessary product improvements.
- You can actively seek to influence events by preparing documentation and regularly modifying your product or products in line with the latest knowledge.
In practice, most companies choose a strategy somewhere between these extremes. For competitive reasons it can be extremely risky to remain passive until external expectations arise. In other words, it may be too late to react when a direct demand for action arrives. On the other hand, in some situations it may be difficult or demand too many resources to stay ahead of all potential requirements. It is therefore important to find a suitable level for your action.
When mapping the expectations, there are a couple of questions you must ask yourselves:
| What expectations have we encountered from this party before? |
| What expectations can we expect this party to present us with in the future? |
3.3.1 Analysis of stakeholders
This section presents some of the product-related expectations you may find yourselves faced with.The section is intended to provide you with inspiration for a systematic analysis of the external expectations concerning your products.
Figure 3.1 lists possible stakeholders.You can use it as a checklist when mapping the external expectations.
This manual does not contain a complete stakeholder analysis but focuses on product-related expectations. In the first instance, that means the immediate links in the production chain: customers and suppliers. Authorities and environmental and consumer organisations are also mentioned because they often have a number of requirements and wishes concerning companies' products.
Expectations from customers can be systematic and well considered, but you may also encounter ad hoc expectations that do not seem very well considered and that are perhaps neither reasonable nor relevant for your products (see also section 3.4).
Figure 3.1
The company’s stakeholders with respect to environmental aspects
The environmental aspects of your products to which the customers attach importance can vary greatly.The expectations will often concern:
| the constituents and their possible environmental and occupational health effects |
| production methods, including - particularly - the consumption of energy and ancillaries |
| the amount of packaging and possibilities for its disposal |
| disposal of the product |
| transport distance and form of transport (air, rail or sea ...). |
Section 4.2.6.2 provides guidance on designing a set of questions as an aid to identifying customer wishes.
Customers with different attitudes to PVC Coloplast's medical disposables are made mainly of plastic, and the company's consumption of PVC raw materials amounts to around 800 tonnes per year, corresponding to about 10% of its consumption of raw materials. The company is therefore very affected by the discussions on use of PVC. Coloplast has consequently done some work on substituting PVC with other types of plastic, but has found that its customers' attitudes vary. Some will not accept PVC in any circumstances, while others think that the alternatives are at least as hazardous/ undesirable. |
3.3.2.1 The Green Shopping Bag
Expectations can also come from associations of customers. An example of this is Denmark's national procurement service (National Procurement Ltd.)'s "Green Shopping Bag", which, on behalf of public purchasers, sets environment-related requirements for the suppliers of a range of products. The requirements - or expectations - are based on the eco-label and energy label criteria and the Green Buying Guides from the Danish EPA. More information can be obtained on National Procurement Ltd.'s website: www.ski.dk.
National Procurement Ltd.'s expectations concerning the environmental aspects of products and services are included as requirements or used for prioritisation purposes in connection with the prequalification of suppliers for framework procurement agreements. National Procurement Ltd. intends in time to incorporate environmental aspects in all the framework agreements it enters into.
3.3.2.2 Customer expectations can require a lot of resources
It can take a lot of resources to live up to customer expectations concerning environmental documentation and environmental improvements. By initiating a dialogue with your customers concerning the expectations that you will/may be faced with in the future, you can plan your work accordingly and in that way seek to reduce the time spent on it.
3.3.2.3 Cooperation with your customers on the environmental impacts
Active cooperation with your customers on your products' environmental impacts can strengthen and benefit your relationship with them. By cooperating you will at the same time gain some influence on the expectations you are going to be presented with.
Benefits for both Henkel-Ecolab's cooperation with its customers on reducing the environmental impacts in the use phase and CCJ's possibilities for cooperating with its customers on reducing offcutting are good examples of the benefits that can be gained from close dialogue between the manufacturer and the customer. The examples are described in greater detail in Chapter 4. |
3.3.3 Suppliers
Your suppliers are the key to knowledge about, and reduction of, all the environmental impacts that precede your own production. Besides that, you can obtain from your suppliers information about constituents, including chemicals and semi-manufactures, which may greatly affect the products' total environmental impact.
Your work to reduce your products' environmental impacts will therefore necessarily lead to you making requirements or one kind of another of your suppliers or to cooperation with them.
APC Denmark ApS's supplier requirements in brief:
|
It may go against the grain to make requirements concerning environmental documentation or environmental improvements on top of the requirements you also make concerning price, quality, reliability of delivery, etc. However, as long as your requirements are well thought through and you are open to dialogue, experience shows that the cooperation with suppliers often develops very well.
If your suppliers use the life cycle approach themselves, you may also receive requests from them concerning documentation and/or reduction of the environmental impacts relating to your part of the life cycle.
3.3.4 Local and national authorities
Expectations from the national environmental authority - the Ministry of Environment and Energy - concerning companies' products have traditionally been in the form of statutory requirements, but in recent years, various schemes have been launched with the aim of strengthening the development and sale of less environmentally harmful products.
The schemes from the Ministry of Environment and Energy that you as a manufacturer should consider are described below. However, far from all sectors and product categories are as yet covered by the schemes.
3.3.4.1 Eco-labels and energy labels
The eco-label schemes, the Swan and the Flower, are intended to help consumers choose less environmentally harmful goods. Concurrently with this, the EU has introduced compulsory energy labelling for the main domestic appliances.Tool 2 includes a description of the ecolabel schemes.
3.3.4.2 Green Buying Guides
The Danish EPA has issued and is currently working on a series of purchasing guidelines, called Green Buying Guides, in the series "Better Environment through Purchasing - Environmental Guide to ....".Tool 3 in Part B includes a description of the Green Buying Guides, including an explanation of how the guidelines can be used by manufacturers.
3.3.4.3 List of Undesirable Substances
The "List of Undesirable Substances" has been drawn up as a signal to agents, manufacturers, product developers and other players about which chemical substances should, in time, be phased out or whose use should be limited. The fact that a substance is on the list does not mean that the Danish EPA is thinking of prohibiting use of the substance but that the Agency wants to see use of it reduced.
"..... In September (1999), the Environmental Protection Agency, in cooperation with 120 local authorities, launched a campaign to get the consumers to buy detergents and cleaning agents that do not contain LAS (a detergent surfactant), which is on the "List of Undesirable Substances"). The aim is to reduce use of the substance and thereby also protect the environment. The campaign is at the same time a signal to manufacturers to find alternatives to LAS in their products....." Quoted from the Danish EPA's press release before the campaign |
3.3.4.4 Product panels and sectoral action
Product panels have been appointed for three sectors - electronics, textiles and freight transport - which will be the focus of special attention in the coming years. The panels are composed of stakeholders from the sectors in question and are to advise and present ideas for productoriented activities.
In addition, during 2000, the Danish EPA will support sectoral initiatives within the following sectors:
| the plastics industry |
| the iron and metalworking industries |
| lighting |
| refrigeration equipment |
| the furniture industry |
| detergents and cleaning agents |
| packaging |
| building and construction. |
3.3.4.5 The Danish EPA's website
The Danish EPA's website (www.mst.dk) includes a description of the product initiatives, including eco-labels, Green Buying Guides, product declarations, and product panels, and lists possibilities for obtaining financial support for the work from the agency.The website also provides information on what is going on within the LCA field.
3.3.4.6 Energy information
Energy Information's website (www.energioplysningen.dk) provides information on possibilities for grants for energy savings and information on how to get answers to energy questions.
3.3.4.7 Regulation
Regulation will steadily increase in step with the increasing focus on the environmental impacts of products.
Electronics in focus for regulation - also internationally Electronics is now a focus area in the authorities' productoriented regulation, both nationally and internationally. In Denmark, for example, an executive order was issued at the end of 1998 on handling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (Executive Order No. 1067 of 22 December 1998). At EU level, action is also being taken in the form of "Proposal for a directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment. Third draft", European Commission, July 1999). The draft directive includes a proposal to phase out a number of chemical substances in electronic equipment, including lead and brominated fire retardants. This will require major development work in the electronics industry in the years ahead. |
If you want to find out about future regulation or regulation in your export markets, it
is a good idea to start by contacting your trade organisation. Most trade organisations
keep track of political initiatives that might affect their member companies. Another
source of information is the EU's website www.europa.eu.inc/com.
3.3.4.8 Regulation in the export markets
The product requirements in the export markets are in some cases more stringent than those you encounter in your home market. An example of this is Sweden, where, in the case of public procurements, documentation of the environmental impacts of products is often demanded before a supplier is approved.
Strict requirements concerning documentation in Sweden At the beginning of 1997, APC Denmark ApS lost an order from a Swedish hospital owing to a requirement concerning documentation of material content, undesirable emissions and other factors. As a result of this episode, at the end of 1997, APC began preparing an environmental product declaration. Today, APC uses the declaration in connection with customer enquiries. |
It may often be difficult to obtain a clear picture of requirements and developments in
the export markets.You should therefore consider how you can involve your distributors in
the task of procuring the necessary information.
3.3.5 Consumer and environmental organisations
There are a number of consumer organisations that are working to spread knowledge of less hazardous products. Consumer organisations often focus most on health and safety in connection with the use of products.
Green Information (www.greeninfo.dk) is an independent information centre on environment and consumption. Green Information publishes pamphlets with good advice to the consumers on the chemical substances and materials they should try to avoid in cosmetics, baby care products and many other products.
Other consumer organisations are Green Families (www.gronnefamilier.dk), the Consumers' Advisory Council (www.forbrugerraadet.dk), the National Consumer Council of Denmark (www.fs.dk) and the Danish Asthma Allergy Association (www.astmaallergi.dk).
The environmental organisations often select a problem as the theme of a campaign in the form of activities and/or contributions to debate in newspapers or other media. An example of a product-oriented campaign is Greenpeace's campaign against genetically modified food products (www.greenpeace.dk). Noah (www.noah.dk) and the Danish Association for the Conservation of Nature (www.dn.dk) are other environmental organisations that contribute significantly to the debate.
Many of the consumer and environmental organisations publish a members' newsletter, describing their activities, and many of them also have a website, where you can obtain information about their activities.
3.4 Assessment of external expectations
When you have an overview of the external expectations, you must decide whether they are relevant for your products and then carry out a complete assessment of the influence the expectations have and could have on your possibility of selling the products.
Expectations from customers, authorities and other stakeholders will often be based on environmental considerations concerning a group of products. This means that there might be expectations that are not relevant - or that are impossible to meet for your specific product(s). There can also be expectations that conflict with your other environmental work.
Assess whether the external expectations are relevant for your particular product(s)
If you have studied Tool 1, you will have a basis for meeting the expectations or for entering into a dialogue with the stakeholders on any inappropriate demands.
3.4.1 Assess the expectations in relation to the product's function
In every dialogue concerning your products' environmental impacts, it is important to include qualitative parameters, which describe the product's function and effectiveness. One litre of paint is not just one litre of paint. There can be big differences in the content of solvents, covering power, durability, and many other things. The environmental impacts from the product must always be assessed in relation to the product's functional unit (e.g. 1 m2 of wall covered with paint for five years). Tool 1 in Part B includes a discussion of this problem.
When care for the environment overshadows quality Henkel Ecolab sells cleaning agents. Its customers include dairies. A dairy in Sweden told Henkel that the cleaning agents it purchased must not contain active chlorine. Henkel considered the matter but had to conclude that they could not offer a cleaning agent of suitable hygienic standard without using active chlorine. Henkel lost the customer to a competitor because they could not live up to the customer's environmental requirements. Later, however, the customer returned to Henkel when they discovered that the environmentally better solution did not live up to their hygienic standards. |
The reasons for the expectations concerning a company's products should also be assessed.
On what assumptions are the expectations based? Are they well documented?
3.4.2 Overview of product requirements
When preparing objectives and an action plan you may find it helpful to make notes on the technical aspects and resource requirements of the various expectations, including whether it will be necessary to call on external expertise in order to meet the requirements concerning, for example, measurement or testing.
List the expectations concerning documentation and/or environmental improvements and add your notes on each of them. Direct product requirements can be listed as follows:
You can then make notes on the various requirements on the basis of the following questions:
On the above basis, B and C requirements can, if necessary, be subdivided according to whether they are easy or difficult (technically and financially) to investigate or to live up to. |
3.4.3 Overview of other matters
You should also list and comment on other matters from the stakeholder analysis that could in time affect the production, use, disposal or sale of your products, e.g. possible legislation.
3.4.4 General assessment
To gather up what you have learnt from the stakeholder analysis you should carry out a general assessment of the effect that the expectations have or might have on your possibility of selling your products.
Different conclusions could be:
APC Denmark ApS sums up the situation as follows: "More environmentally active customers and competitors mean that environment is going to be on the agenda. There will have to be considerable demand from the stakeholders - particularly from the market in the form of the customers - before we include environmental aspects as a strategic decision-making parameter." |
The stakeholder analysis and experience from customer enquiries definitely provide
information about the time perspective for taking action. This is illustrated in figure
3.2.
Figure 3.2:
Time perspective for action
The situation at the top of the figure (lost orders) will generally mean an acute need to take action, while the situation at the bottom does not set alarm bells ringing immediately, but, on the contrary, allows longterm, well planned product action.
3.4.5 Threats and potentials
If possible, you should now specifically describe (potential) threats and market potentials associated with your products' environmental impacts. This will often be two sides of the same coin.
New fertile soil At APC Denmark ApS, the risk of losing customers in the future was turned into prevention through the introduction of an environmental management system and related product-oriented environmental action and to a desire to have an environmentally sound profile. APC has also managed to reduce its resource consumption, thereby benefiting financially, and gained more motivated employees. |
Many different customer wishes call for extensive knowledge and documentation. In Sweden, it is the individual local authority that does the purchasing for its local hospital(s), and environmental issues have a big effect on the market. The wishes concerning both documentation and environmental performance are not "harmonised", so Coloplast finds that it has to start from scratch with each customer by completing extensive questionnaires. To facilitate the work of documentation in future, Coloplast has built up a life cycle-based database with answers to all the environmental questions that have been received in the Swedish market. |
3.5 Internal potentials
Within the organisation you must get the following matters clarified:
| Are there departments with special needs or wishes relating to your products' environmental impacts? |
| Do your employees have the necessary environmental knowledge or should you add more aspects to your environmental training programme for employees? |
3.5.1 Internal needs and wishes
It may be a good idea to find out whether the different departments have special wishes or needs in order to carry out the product-oriented action. Your purchasing department, for example, might want better methods of getting an environmental dialogue going with the suppliers, and your sales and marketing department may need material that will enable them to tell the customers about your products' total environmental impacts.
The production department might benefit from a control tool for calculating the individual products' contribution to wastewater discharge or energy consumption - information that can be used when pricing products.
Registration system for costing and green accounts On the basis of an LCA overview, C.C. Jensen has established a registration system for a selected product. The data recorded include:
The data are gathered together in internal green accounts for use in planning and control and also form the basis for external green accounts and for costing. The system is very simple, and the employees like the practical control tool that the overview is - and the tool encourages them to work with environmental improvements. |
You will already have cast some light on these aspects via the stakeholder analysis, but
Chapter 4 gives a thorough introduction to potentials for the various departments'
interaction with the work on the product dimension. Whether you study Chapter 4 now or
later depends on whether you want to establish an integrated strategy now or want
initially to run a number of projects (see also section 3.6).
Needs and potentials within the organisation should be regularly assessed in relation to the activities initiated in connection with your productoriented work - e.g. as a reaction to market enquiries/requirements.
3.5.2 Knowledge within the organisation
You must also find out whether you have the necessary expertise within the organisation to carry out specific elements of the productoriented work - e.g. in connection with:
| more specific life cycle assessments |
| a special need for product development/design |
| analysis of, for example, a product's evaporation or use of specific test methods (could be required, for instance, in connection with ecolabels). |
As will be seen, the needs will to a great extent depend on the employees' assumptions and wishes and on the specific action. Here, too, it is therefore necessary regularly to assess the need for training of employees and any need for external expertise.
Section 5.8.2 gives an example of how the product dimension is incorporated in APC Denmark's environmental training programme.
3.5.3 Conclusion concerning potentials within the organisation
Describe briefly the internal needs and wishes, the need for training/competence and any need for external expertise on parts or all of the task that have been identified so far.
3.6 Strategy for continuation of the work
This section is intended to provide you with ideas for continuing your product-oriented work. The general recommendation is that you initiate one or more project activities in order to gather more knowledge and experience before you establish an actual strategy for the work.
3.6.1 Initiation of project(s)
In this chapter you have so far worked up an experiential basis for one or more of your products. Since you are now well on the way with your deliberations concerning these, this is the obvious moment to initiate some activities relating to the product or products. Particularly if there is market pressure on one or more products, you can start there.
Earlier in the chapter you have built up knowledge concerning:
| potentials for improvement (sections 3.1 and 3.2) |
| external requirements and expectations, including whether there are eco-label criteria or Green Buying Guides, and an assessment of threats and potentials (sections 3.3 and 3.4) |
| wishes, needs and potentials within the organisation (section 3.5). |
If you have not already done so, you should now gather up the threads of these activities, as described in section 3.2.4 (potentials for improvement), 3.4.4 (external expectations) and 3.5.3 (potentials within the organisation).
Build up experience and a system via one or more projects. After that, you should establish an integrated strategy for your productoriented work.
On the basis of the above-mentioned experiences and conclusions, you can identify one or more projects. The project(s) could, for example, focus on:
| achievement of one or more of the potentials for improvement identified in section 3.2 for an existing product or product development project |
| preparation of an environmental product declaration for a product (for help, see Tool 4 in Part B) |
| a more detailed analysis of the environmental consequences of an idea generated in section 3.2 |
| being granted an eco-label for a product (for help, see Tool 2 in Part B) |
| work on the requirements in a Green Buying Guide (for help, see Tool 3 in Part B) |
| a more detailed life cycle assessment of a product in order to have a better basis for decisions. |
If the project concerns several departments, you can obtain help in Chapter 4, in which you will find a list of useful methods for the various functions.
When you have selected a project, you must naturally also prepare an action/ project plan, which must contain:
| a clear definition of the objective and the actual improvements you want to achieve |
| a description of the project activities |
| a time schedule, possibly with milestones for slightly larger projects |
| the manning of the project, including any need for external expertise |
| a plan for evaluation/followup. |
As always, it is important to carry out a realistic assessment of the necessary resource consumption in the form of time and outlays.
If you make several different products, another project idea is to go through Chapter 3 for further products. It is a good idea to choose products along the line of those you have already looked at because, then, you can use again some of the work you have already done.
3.6.2 Integrated strategy for your product-oriented work
When you think you have sufficient experience, you should draw up an integrated strategy for your product-oriented work.
The strategy must at least ensure that you can meet the expectations concerning your products, so that sales are not at risk. As a basis for judging whether you can meet them, you can obtain input from your assessment of the stakeholder analysis (section 3.4.4).
The strategy should also ensure that you will be working towards continual improvement - continual reduction of your products' environmental impacts, seen in a life cycle perspective.
You must decide:
| what you are going to focus on concerning your products, i.e. where the main potentials for environmental improvements lie, where the main present and potential market requirements are, and what possibilities you have for selling less environmentally harmful products; |
| what needs and possibilities you have for cooperating with suppliers and customers on achieving the improvements; |
| how the various departments are to be involved, and which of them are particularly relevant with respect to the main action areas identified above; Chapter 4 provides advice on ways of involving the individual departments; |
| how/when you are going to implement the product-oriented work in your management/control systems. Chapter 5 provides advice on implementation. |
When you have done that, you must naturally draw up an action plan for implementing the strategy.