In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

BEYOND NEW AND IMPROVED: NEW FRONTIER OF DESIGN INNOVATION

In Business, January-February, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 31

GREEN MARKETING

Jacquelyn A. Ottman

TEN YEARS AGO, as the U.S. economy headed into the thick of global competition, differentiation became the competition watchword. I warned readers that “New and Improved Wouldn't Do.” That's true even more so today.
As I write, European and Japanese environmental policy initiatives with names like WEEE, (EC Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals), and HARL ( Home Appliances Recycling Law) raise the ante to play on a worldwide map. What 's more, China, no longer content in the role of outsourced manufacturer, is quickly training its own product designers.

FROM MAKING STUFF TO SELLING SERVICES
Remember the Mobro garbage barge and daily updates of overflowing landfills? The days are long past when we debated the merits of plastic versus paper, or boasted about the percent of recycled content in products and packaging. Ten years ago, at the height of the garbage crisis, we suggested opportunities for “permanent packaging” - the equivalent of sugar bowls for all the cleaning product refills that were coming onto the market. Inspired by apple peels and pea pods, businesses were urged to explore the notion of “edible packaging”. Those ideas didn't quite catch fire, but in the meantime, recycling has become so much a part of our lives, that now the forward fringe is characterized by composting heaps in their backyard and worm bins nestled under their sink.
More significantly, innovative businesses have caught up with the notion of services as “dematerialized products” - and electronic ones at that. The iPod - arguably the hottest product on the market today - makes an astute ecologically correct statement: why continue to argue over the size of a jewel box when you can buy an iPod and access the equivalent of 1,000 CDs worth of music with no packaging -indeed, no CD at all?

FROM ONE WAY TRIPS TO PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
Everyone loves Herman Miller's Mirra chair. But I don't hear sexy words being used to describe its albeit attractive shape, colors or neat mesh back. Maybe I'm biased, but what I tend to hear are boasts like “96 percent recyclable,” “Can be disassembled in 15 minutes” and “Manufactured using solar power.”
At the Design:Green workshop series conducted by my firm during Spring 2004, the case problems that inspired and challenged the innovation-minded participants most tended to focus on product end-of-life conundrums such as how to design a refillable lipstick case for Aveda, or a recycling system for Philips low mercury fluorescent tubes, or most intriguingly, a new business model for cell phones that could guarantee retrieval for recycling ($50 deposits anyone?) Nowadays differentiating products means finding exciting ways to recycle, reuse or remanufacture them after a first useful life.

FROM CHANGING PRODUCTS TO CHANGING BEHAVIOR
Computers , fax machines and photocopiers now sleep when they are not in use. Conference rooms have motion detectors that turn off lights automatically when meeting goers leave the room. Not every product can be designed to compensate for lax human behavior, but we can start to make products that encourage more sustainable behavior by making them cool, even fun. The dashboard on Toyota's hybrid engine-propelled Prius which turns squeezing out every possible mile from a tank of gas into a game is a great start. http://www.trilug.org/~chilcote/
ToyotaPrius/prius-controls.html
The U.S. EPA tells us that the average home pollutes the air with more greenhouse gases than the average car. I predict over the next ten years, we'll harness the power of design innovation to make significant strides in reducing home energy use-while making our homes safer and more comfortable. Start with the meter. When you think about it, electricity meters were designed t o be read by just about everyone but the people who consume the juice. Is your own meter in your backyard or in a public (apartment) basement? Let's now explore opportunities to turn our meters into “home energy dashboards” with the ability to spot power guzzling appliances or teens who leave the lights on upstairs.

WHAT WON'T CHANGE
New products become old. Burning environmental issues smolder and get replaced by hotter ones. Regardless of the product or issue, consumers will always try to make the most of their purchasing dollar, reaching first for those products that superbly deliver on such primary product benefits as cleaning, good taste, health or aesthetics over saving the earth or even helping a laborer to get a fair shake.
New products experts may not be able to invent a new water or energy saving technology, but they can design products with a lighter environmental footprint that consumers want to use, want to be seen with; indeed will even pay a premium for. Doing so is not just good for the planet. It's good business.
The good news for the planet in 2005 is that many earth friendly technologies have already been developed. We already know how to save water and energy. We already know how to extend product life and how to create products with low toxicity. Products like iPods prove we can even harness design innovation to invent entirely new product concepts with lower impact.

Jacquelyn A. Ottman is president, J. Ottman Consulting, Inc. a New York City based marketing and new products consultancy specializing in sustainable products and marketing. She is the author of Green Marketing:Opportunity for Innovation, and the founder behind Design:Green, an initiative that trains designers and others involved in new product development how to use eco-design as a source of business innovation. More information can be found at www.greenmarketing.com.