Article by:

John Gertsakis

Director

Product Ecology Pty Ltd  Sustainability Consultants

It might sound insolent and somewhat authoritarian, however this essential instruction is rapidly characterising the nature of Product Oriented Environmental Policies being developed and legislated across much of Europe, parts of North America, Japan, and now Australia.

While we see growing pressure on producers to take greater responsibility, users or consumers also have an obligation to utilise products efficiently, have them serviced and repaired, and ensure their appropriate disposal in partnership with manufacturers or brand owners. Sustainable consumption of manufactured goods and related demand side measures is an area where much more can be done to further reduce environmental impacts.

Product Stewardship is a well-established concept and approach based on minimising environmental and human health impacts among the chemical and electronics industries. It is now beginning to permeate other areas of manufacturing, including the production of office furniture, floor coverings and building materials.

 
Product Stewardship at Formway Furniture - Formway Life chair designed for disassembly

Product Stewardship can be defined as a pro-active strategy aimed at managing and minimising the life cycle impacts of products and services. It is sometimes referred to as Environmental Stewardship, with additional variations including Extended Producer Responsibility and Shared Product Responsibility. This article seeks to provide readers with an introduction to Product Stewardship and EPR as well as describe the positive role Product Stewardship can play in the design professions as a way of dealing with the producers of building materials and products.

Some critics of EPR and Product Stewardship have argued that Australia’s small (and shrinking) manufacturing base coupled with high imports make the cost of administering ‘take-back’ schemes problematic from an economic perspective i.e. too small a market to sustain an effective product recovery, reuse and recycling service, especially for more complex goods such as whitegoods, furniture and computers. Such criticisms only serve to further reinforce why a Product Stewardship approach is urgently needed to change the general culture of production and consumption.

Origins and definitions

EcoDesign, Sustainable Design, Green Design or Design for Environment (DfE) and Cleaner Production can address an extensive list of environmental issues throughout a product's life cycle. Nevertheless, some impacts are currently beyond their control, especially those associated with discarded products. The bottleneck is often disposal, and it cannot be over emphasised that DfE features in a product can only facilitate – and not ensure – recycling. 

A relatively new direction (in recent years)) in government policy is now being adopted by most OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. It encourages manufacturers, in particular, to accept greater responsibility for their products when they reach end-of-life (EOL) and are discarded. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) represents a more systematic approach with the potential to revolutionise how products are conceived, used, recovered and ultimately reused, recycled or disposed of.

EPR is a logical extension of the ‘polluter pays’ principle. It rests on an argument that the environmental impacts of resource depletion, waste and pollution are a function of the system of production and consumption of goods and services. Those impacts are substantially determined by management, design and engineering options at the point of production, where key choices are made – on materials, processing and finishing technology, product function and durability, systems of distribution, marketing, etc. In brief, EPR can be considered as an effective and radical waste avoidance and resource recovery strategy to enable the integration of the life cycle environmental costs associated with products into the market price for the product.

 
 Product Stewardship at Close the Loop - Steve Morriss

While a growing number of number of companies are implementing take-back schemes for products they or their competitors originally sold, a handful of companies are pushing the envelope with regard to what Product Stewardship can actually mean over and above conventional understanding. Two companies often cited as fitting this category include Interface Flooring and Fuji Xerox. Not only do they have well developed programs concentrating on Sustainable Product Development they are also at the cutting edge with managing the life cycle of their products. A combination of elaborate remanufacturing processes combined with novel leasing arrangements effectively result in photocopiers and carpet tiles that remain the property of the original producers thus enabling significant control over maintenance regimes, recovery methods, disassembly procedures, remanufacturing and recycling, as well second life options for rebuilt copiers. These Product Stewardship models provide a glimpse of how other producers may choose to address environmental issues while also pursuing responsible business development.

The role of Product Stewardship in the built environment

The role of Product Stewardship is mostly discussed within the context of manufactured goods with little or no reference to built environments, however its relevance to the life cycle of buildings is under-estimated. Theoretically and technically speaking, manufactured products are very similar to constructed environments be they buildings, civil works or landscapes i.e. they are designed, produced, used, managed and serviced, demolished, disassembled and discarded, and sometimes refurbished, remanufactured or recycled. Therefore, the scope to apply a Product Stewardship model to buildings is considerable.

This is especially pertinent given the trends and innovations associated with the production of prefabricated housing, system built commercial buildings and other structures where manufactured components constitute a significant proportion of the finished building. It is also important to note that variations in how Building Stewardship might be developed and applied to these various types of buildings. While general EPR type principles would be universal, customisation for specific building types would be necessary. Just as there are differences in what Product Stewardship means for whitegoods versus vehicles versus mobile phones versus computers, there will inevitably be differences between brick veneer project homes versus architect designed housing versus commercial buildings comprising mostly steel, concrete, glass and so on. In other words, a diversity of Sustainable Design strategies might be required depending on building scale, predominant materials(s), use patterns, expect life span, broader geographical location, etc. Such strategies would in many cases need to embody Design for Disassembly features not dissimilar to recycling-oriented disassembly features now common place in most whitegoods and IT products.

Weaving Product Stewardship into the design process

So where and how might design practitioners start to apply the principles of Product Stewardship in a more practical way? Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of building products and construction materials provide one of the most obvious points for intervention. Other key entities directly relevant to fulfilling a Product Stewardship role include developers and building managers. Collectively these stakeholders have control of key life cycle stages that often determine the majority of subsequent environmental impacts. They control the decision-making processes that not only affect initial design parameters and material/product specifications, but also facilities management and occupation.

As with all new and emerging approaches or tools, there are few absolutes and that environmental innovation often surfaces through exploration and trial. Just as many in manufacturing revolted at the thought of taking back their products when it was first floated in the late eighties, we can expect a similar response form industry stakeholders in the construction sector. What is relatively clear is that those developers (and their suppliers) that don’t pursue a strong, environmentally oriented life cycle approach will probably suffer a competitive disadvantage as proactive developers, suppliers, clients and end-users positively engage with managing the building life cycle, including the constituent parts such as building products and materials, fixtures and fittings.

Product Stewardship at BMW -  Natural Fibre Composites and renewable resource components in BMW Series 7

As a minimum, design professionals can pursue a Product Stewardship approach to specification by subjecting suppliers to key questions and demanding robust data and evidence in defence of any environmental claims put forward. For example:

• Can the supplier show evidence of product design features related to waste avoidance, post consumer recycled content and straightforward recyclability through widely available materials recovery programs?

• Can the supplier demonstrate that the product is free of hazardous and toxic substances, including evidence of regulatory compliance where a product does contain environmentally problematic substances?

• Does the supplier provide a user-friendly take-back service that covers product refurbishment and updating, product disassembly and recycling, safe treatment and disposal of hazardous and toxic substances/components?

• Can the supplier demonstrate a life cycle approach to how their product has been designed and manufactured including end-of-life characteristics that minimise waste associated with discarded, obsolete or decommissioned products/materials?

• Is the supplier proactive and eager when it comes to providing environmental information about their products, materials or services, including the use of Life Assessment methods?

• Can the supplier demonstrate how their environmental management system directly contributes to minimising life cycle environmental impacts of their products, materials or services?

• Has the supplier been recognised and acknowledged by independent organisations and institutions for their positive environmental efforts and outcomes e.g. EcoSpecifier listing, Greenstar rating, awards, commendations, standards, other independent assessments and studies?

Product Stewardship type policies can have a significant impact on the business models being run by manufacturing companies, particularly as we see the expression of more holistic thinking and industrial ecologies by global actors such as Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Sony, Herman Miller, Steelcase, Interface, Electrolux and Miele. These companies are transforming themselves in recognition of how environmental imperatives are active factors in stimulating profitable innovation and responsible business activities. Among these sorts of producers, one will find leading edge responses, most of which are underpinned by life cycle thinking and pragmatic outcomes such as sustainable product design, upgradeability, dynamic modularity, dematerialisation, and product-service strategies such as leasing.

Just as Product Stewardship is focussed on product systems (as opposed to cleaner production in factories), we can expect that similar benefits will emerge from applying Product Stewardship to buildings. Indeed this sort of thinking is already being positively reflected in the Greenstar Rating Tools produced by the Green Building Council of Australia.

The common thread through all of these practices is the principle of extending producer responsibility and Product Stewardship.  Whether their efforts will reach all corners of the globe fast enough is another important debate. They do however provide a glimpse of what might be possible should building product manufacturers and associated service providers combine efforts in a quest to extend Product Stewardship thinking to architecture, construction and facilities management.

There are some positive signs, we just need to accelerate the process, intensify the commitment and implement the ideas.

www.productecology.com.au

This article was originally published in InDesign Magazine in 2006.