Sustainability

Life Cycle Assessment Framework See other sustainability projects

Sustainability is a ubiquitous term that is hard to define. That matters most to your organisation is action and implementation. Our pioneering use of life cycle thinking in product development addresses this need; from the application of simple tools & approaches and quantitative assessment tools, through to supply chain, product stewardship, eco-labelling and compliance.

Market Led Change

In many developed economies consumers and retailers have been refashioning the landscape; from Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index to Tesco’s involvement in the Embodied Carbon Labelling standard PAS 2050. In many cases government legislation has not kept pace with these changes.

These changes have placed new requirements for trade on companies around the world. Companies within Australasia face the additional barrier of distance to market. It has become important to clearly and objectively understand and document both your companies and your products environmental footprint.

Beyond the gate

Life Cycle Thinking is at the foundation of our approach to the sustainability of the products, services and companies we work with. This approach extends your perception and engagement beyond the gate. Understanding your life cycle can create insights into how your consumers (and the value chain) use and consume your products and services.

Leveraging your Life Cycle

This understanding of your life cycle can be commercially leveraged to improve delivery, create innovative new product platforms, or coherently address existing problems.

This approach is aligned well with the modern concept of ‘User Centred Design’ (UCD) as the impact of your life cycle critically involves how your consumers interact and the choices they make.

A Management Approach

Creating a clear understanding of sustainability can be a real enabler within an organisation or enterprise. We recognise this and with leading practitioners and organisations in New Zealand have developed a practical 2 workshop based programme that will lead you through the principles, examples and applications of life cycle thinking in your business.

This will assist to establish some priorities and goals and empower your management to practically contribute to the sustainability of the business.

Integrating Sustainability in Product Development

This is an area we have invested 15 years of research and application into. Our team integrates environmental factors into all projects, as it is a core part of our approach to design. This moves beyond compliance into creating value through design and life cycle thinking collectively, it provides us with a structural perspective that can serve as a platform for new ideas.

Using tools that are relative to the stage in the development process is a key consideration. We utilise light, rapid tools at the start of the process and then recommend building greater detail as you move through the process.