Ecodesign in 15 minutes a web based introductory tool for Ecodesign newcomers

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1 Ecodesign in 15 minutes a web based introductory tool for Ecodesign newcomers Rikke Dorothea Huulgaard; Aalborg University, Department of Development and Planning, Vestre Havnepromenade 9, 3. Floor. DK-9000 Aalborg Phone number: , Fax number: , rda@plan.aau.dk Abstract: It is estimated that 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined in the design phase of the product. Therefore it is important that companies make environmental consideration at an early stage in the product development. This can be a challenge for especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which may have less formalised product development processes and are short of resources. This paper presents a recently developed web based ecodesign tool which specifically aims at arousing the interest of SMEs to ecodesign, introduce the concept of ecodesign and guide the SMEs in where to start their efforts. The tool is part of the project Clean Enterprises of the 21st Century, which has as an overall objective to ensure that Danish enterprises and especially SMEs expand their voluntary environmental efforts in accordance with the European Sustainability Strategy and the integrated product policy approach. The project focuses on the development of a digital toolbox with ten different tools that supports SMEs in the voluntary environmental efforts. These tools are freely available on the Internet. The tool is inspired by the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel developed in 1997 (Brezet and van Hemel, 1997). The Ecodesign strategy wheel visualises the steps and strategies that can be followed in ecodesign and allows the user to compare the environmental performance of different products. Several adjustments have been made in order for the tool a) to fit the target group, b) to update the knowledge level to 2012 and c) to fit the web based toolbox which had limited budget. These adjustments include: 1) Danish SMEs request inspiration and easy to use tools that do not demand complicated calculations. Hence, focus is placed on the ecodesign strategies and rules of thumbs from the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel. 2) Update of the ecodesign strategies to the newest knowledge within ecodesign. 3) The spider web function is not part of the digital tool due to budgetary constraints During the development of the ecodesign tool several companies have been involved in the idea phase, and in the prototype testing of the tool. Based on the feedback the ecodesign tool takes point of departure in the life cycle of a product. The user can either choose to work with one life cycle phase or to work with all life cycle phases. For each life cycle phase the tool poses four to six questions which can be answered with yes or no. Based on the answers of these questions the tool will provide a series of rules of thumb which should inspire and motivate the user to environmentally improve the product. When relevant the user will also be asked to write down their experiences with ecodesign and in this way gather already existing ecodesign experiences. The output of the tool is a report with the rules of thumbs and the written experiences. Furthermore, the tool will provide extensive links to helpful tools and materials that can help the user to conduct ecodesign. Key words: Ecodesign, SME, web based tool

2 Ecodesign in 15 minutes a web based introductory tool for Ecodesign newcomers 1 Introduction It is estimated that 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined in the design phase of the product. Therefore it is important that companies make environmental consideration at an early stage in the product development. This can be a challenge for especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which may have less formalised product development processes and are short of resources. This paper presents a recently developed web based ecodesign tool which specifically aims at arousing the interest of SMEs to ecodesign, introduce the concept of ecodesign and guide the SMEs in where to start their efforts. The tool is part of the project Clean Enterprises of the 21 st Century, which has as an overall objective to ensure that Danish enterprises and especially SMEs expand their voluntary environmental efforts in accordance with the European Sustainability Strategy and the integrated product policy approach. The project focuses on the development of a digital toolbox with ten different tools that supports SMEs in the voluntary environmental efforts. These tools are freely available on the Internet. The purpose of the ecodesign tool is to give an introduction to the concept of ecodesign and to inspire companies to start integrating environmental considerations in their product development process. It was imperative not to develop a brand new ecodesign tool as a wide range of ecodesign tool already exists. Rather, the objective was to base the tool on exiting tools and knowledge and adapt this to a digital platform. The focus of the ecodesign tool is on providing inspiration and quick guidelines on where the efforts could begin. It was specifically avoided to make an ecodesign tool that focuses of setting up procedures or a complicated calculation tool which needs extensive data input. The ecodesign tool is specifically targeted small and medium sized companies who are at a beginner s stage in terms of ecodesign. For companies that wish to extend their ecodesign activities the ecodesign tool also provides a compilation of a range of the best ecodesign tools and procedures for further and more in depth ecodesign activities. 2 Material and methods A specific aim in the development of the ecodesign tool was not to start from scratch and invent tools that already exist. Therefore it is important that the ecodesign tool is based on existing knowledge which is refined, updated and fitted to a digital platform. The ecodesign tool takes point of departure in the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel developed by Brezet and van Hemel (1997). In order to update the knowledge and fit the ecodesign tool to a digital platform further inspiration was found in among others (McAloone and Bey 2008; Schmidt et al., 2000; Rocha et al. 2011; Luttropp and Lagerstedt 2006) To ensure the relevance of the ecodesign tool it was developed iteratively and in dialogue with companies in the target group of the tool. A first draft was prepared based on desk research and literature studies. This draft with the overall idea of the tool was presented to an environmental network group within the Confederation of Danish Industries. Feedback was given and the ecodesign tool was subsequently adjusted and elaborated. A more detailed draft was presented to a smaller Danish Electronics company and to the business network on CSR. In the Danish Electronics company a small team consisting of the environment and quality responsible, the logistics and production manager, the product development manager and the employee responsible for

3 waste and recycling was gathered for the presentation of the tool. This was done to ensure that all possible relevant users of the tool could give feedback. The business network on CSR has many years of experience with tool development for companies within the environmental and CSR field and has a broad knowledge about the needs and challenges in Danish companies. Hence it was found relevant to receive their input on the ecodesign tool. The ecodesign tool was redrafted once more and the next step was to adapt the tool in detail to the digital platform. For this task a group of IT experts had been hired to programme the digital platform and an e- learning expert was hired to develop ideas on how an ecodesign tool could be shaped to meet the user need as good as possible. Two perspectives were added in this stage of the development of the toolbox. First of all this work was subject to a rather limited budget. Secondly, the IT experts had experiences with user behaviour in the digital media, which should also be incorporated in final version of the ecodesign tool. Before a digital version of the ecodesign tool was ready to test in companies, the IT experts developed several drafts which were discussed in the working group and adjusted. A wireframe of the ecodesign tool was tested in two companies. This means that a basic digital frame had been developed and most functionality in the tool worked, but no ecodesign technical information was available. The aim of the test was to test the functionality of the tool, user-friendliness, relevance and comprehensibility of the tool. At each test a member of the working group was present to guide the company if necessary, but the aim was the tool should be self-explaining. However, as the test was on wireframe level some guidance was necessary. Based on the feedback from the test a final version of the ecodesign tool was developed. 3 Theory It was decided to base the ecodesign tool on the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel as it is fit well with the aim of the digital ecodesign tool. First of all, it takes point of departure in the product life cycle which is a key aspect in ecodesign and provides clear and concise strategies that can be followed when doing ecodesign. In this way the tool can support the objective of the ecodesign, namely to introduce to the concept of ecodesign and inspire companies to start integrating environmental in the product development process without demanding complicated calculations or major organizational setups.

4 Figure 1: The Ecodesign Strategy Wheel (Brezet and van Hemel 1997) Figure 1 illustrates the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel, which visualises the steps and strategies that can be followed in ecodesign. Life cycle thinking in ecodesign becomes visualized, and the different strategies are highlighted in order to improve the environmental properties of the product at different stages. The centre of the figure is a spider web, illustrating the environmental profile of the product. In this case the blue shape illustrates the profile of the existing product and the green shape the new ecodesigned product. The spider web of the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel was a part of the digital ecodesign tool in the early drafts; however this was chosen not to be part of the final ecodesign tool, which is explained in Section 4. Based on the ecodesign strategies in the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel and other studies a questionnaire was developed. This questionnaire is the main part of the ecodesign tool, which is explained more in detail in Section Results In this section the specifics of the digital ecodesign tool are presented. First, the development which the tool has gone through and the comments and wishes from the companies and networks are presented in Table The Development of the Ecodesign Tool Table 1: The development of the ecodesign tool Ecodesign tool version Very first draft and overall idea with the ecodesign tool The aim is to Presented to Environmental group at the Confederation of Danish Industry Comments to the ecodesign tool The smaller companies are focusing on environmental requirements from regulation. They have not yet got to the point where they do voluntary environmental actions Adjustments of the tool The aim of the project with the ecodesign tool is part of is specifically to provide tools to help companies improve their voluntary environmental efforts. Therefore the challenge is to arouse the companies

5 introduce the concept of ecodesign and inspire companies start doing ecodesign Tool is based on rules of thumb, links to other relevant tools, questionnaire/che cklist to find focus area, spider web to visualise the improvements, possibly tips to how to set up and organisation to work with ecodesign The larger companies need to be sure that they can use the environmental improvements of their products in their external communication, wherefore it is necessary that the results are accurate and that for instance the guidelines on proper environmental communication from Danish Council for Sustainable Business Development are followed. There is a demand for sustainable materials database and surveillance of regulation service interest for ecodesign despite their focus on regulatory requirements and make them aware that by doing ecodesign they can be at the forefront of the regulation requirements and often also save cost on for instance material and energy. One of the other nine tools in the digital toolbox is about environmental communication, wherefore the ecodesign tool does not address this specifically. The ecodesign tool provides an extensive overview of tools and process guideline that can help the companies get the accurate information they need for their communication about their environmental achievements. It is not within reach of the budgetary constraints of the project to develop a sustainable materials database. However, it is the aim of the ecodesign tool to provide links to existing databases. It is not within the scope of the ecodesign tool to provide a service to survey environmental regulations. However, the tool will provide references to the most relevant regulations, but it cannot be interpreted as a complete list. There are two entrances to the tool: 1) You can start with the life cycle phase of the product, which you are particularly Danish electronics company The ecodesign tool should not be too general as it will entail a risk that no companies can use the tool Demand for a tool that can be used in the communication of the company s environmental efforts Demand for a tool that can provide alternatives to materials It is not possible within the budget to develop trade specific tools, however when possible links will be given to other trade specific ecodesign tools. Since the aim of the ecodesign tool is to inspire the company to get started with ecodesign it is assessed that overall rules of thumb are appropriate for all companies. This is out of scope for the ecodesign tool. A reference is made to the environmental communication tool. The spider web may be used for internal use to compare the performance of different products Links will provided to relevant materials databases

6 interested in and 2) you can focus on the departments in the company that you belong to and see what you can do to influence the product. There are two tools; one that guides the company to which life cycle stage is most relevant to start with and one for the companies that already know where to start The results are shown as a spider web and rules of thumb preferably in a database The ecodesign tool must be easy to use even for people who are not knowledgeable within environmental issues and ecodesign. The tool must not be resource demanding in terms on money and time, as environmental issues are not perceived as increasing value for the company. The ecodesign tool aims at being selfexplaining in terms of navigating in the tool and environmental technical terms. Depending on the ambition level of the company the tool can be used as a brief introduction to ecodesign, which does not take more than 15 minutes or the company can go more in depth and spend more time. However, if the company want to actually change their products this requires both time and money. However, as ecodesign also is a possibility to save money on for instance material and energy use, the company very well may get a return on their investment. Same as above Business network on CSR Demand for a tool that concerns the products and which does not require complicated calculation like life cycle assessments. The rules of thumb from the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel are a good way to fulfil this demand. Several versions of the ecodesign tool were developed, rejected and adjusted at this stage E-learning expert and IT experts The spider web is a good way of illustrating the difference between old and new products as long as the scoring system is simple and easy to understand. It is important that we in the very beginning of the tool account for and visualise what the benefits for the companies are by suing this tool Short movie clips illustrating real life cases of companies having gained benefits from doing ecodesign is a good inspiration. It is decided to work further with the spider web. On the front page of ecodesign tool it is clearly stated what the benefits of using the ecodesign tool is. Short movie clips will be developed with cases companies The development of the ecodesign tool is under tight budgetary constraints limiting It was decided to have only one entry to the tool, i.e. the life cycle phases of the product. Hence, the entrance

7 The tool is based on a series of questions for each life cycle phase and the visual expression is a mind map structure Wireframe test the scale and detail level of the tool. The ecodesign tool can be used as an internal sales tool for the environmental employee to convince the designers and other non-environmental technical persons The tool works well as a beginner s tool, but it is important to make the user aware that the tool only provides a taste of what ecodesign is. focusing on the department level was rejected. It was decided to reject the part of the tool where the company is guided to which life cycle stage is the most relevant for them to start at. It was decided to not include the spider web in the tool. Purpose of the ecodesign is fulfilled Emphasis will be put on the fact the tool is for inspiration and a comprehensive collection of links is provided for the companies that wish to go more into depth It should be possible to just focus on life cycle phase This will be included in the tool It is important with a comprehensive collection of links providing more in depth and specific information and tools This will be included in the tool It is important that the tool is self-explaining so it is unnecessary to read explanatory texts This will be included in the tool The tool could work well as a checklist and an eye-opener towards ecodesign Purpose of the ecodesign is fulfilled The mind map structure is not clear and confusing The mind map structure was rejected, which partly also was because of difficulties with the digital visualization. The tool will be based on questions for each life cycle phase - one after another. 4.2 The final Ecodesign Tool Based on the feedback the ecodesign tool takes point of departure in the life cycle of a product. The user can either choose to work with one life cycle phase or to work with all life cycle phases. For each life cycle phase the tool poses four to six questions which can be answered with yes or no. Based on the answers of

8 these questions the tool will provide a series of rules of thumb which should inspire and motivate the user to environmentally improve the product. When relevant the user will also be asked to write down their experiences with ecodesign and in this way gather already existing ecodesign experiences. The output of the tool is a report with the rules of thumbs and the written experiences. In Table 2 two examples of a question and a rule of thumb is given. Table 2: Examples of questions and rules of thumb in the ecodesign tool Life Cycle Phase Question Answer Rule of Thumb Design Is the product designed as compact as possible? No By reducing the size of the product the material use for the product and energy consumption for transport can be reduced. Make the product foldable or suitable for nesting. Consider transporting the product in loose components that can be nested, leaving the final assembly up to a third Reuse and recycling Can the products materials be recycled when the product is No party or the user. Design for dismantling. If toxic materials have to be used in the product, they should be concentrated in adjacent areas so they can easily be detached. Use metals and plastics that do not prevent recycling and as far as possible use materials for which there exist a market Apart from the report with the rules of thumbs the ecodesign tool also provides extensive links to helpful tools and materials that can help the user to conduct ecodesign. Furthermore, there will be short movie clips with examples of companies who have experiences with ecodesign. The ecodesign tool and the nine other tools of the project can be found on from October Discussion The process of developing a digital ecodesign tool has been a process characterised by a constant adjustment and balancing between the high ambitions, the demands of the target group and the possibilities within the budgetary means. The fundamental aim of the ecodesign objective has stayed the same throughout the entire process, namely that the tool should introduce the target group to the concept of ecodesign and provide inspiration to get started with doing ecodesign. However, along the line some of the extra aims and functionalities of the ecodesign have been deselected in the process of developing the digital ecodesign tool. Basically, the ecodesign tool started out by having one overall aim and four different functionalities; introduction to ecodesign and inspiration through rules of thumb, checklist to find focus area, spider web to visualise results, help to setup and ecodesign organisation. Through meetings with the target group it became clear these aims did not all fit into the needs of the companies. Especially the smaller companies were not interested in doing voluntary environmental efforts as they are fully occupied with complying with the environmental regulation. On the other side the larger companies, where in the need of very accurate measures that could help them in their communication of their environmental efforts, wherefore the ecodesign tool would be too vague. Further comments were that there was a demand for very specific material databases, which could be useful in the process of choosing sustainable materials. Offhand this

9 could imply that there was no need for the ecodesign tool in the version presented to the target group. However, it was assessed and based on the next round of interviews with the target group, that there is a need for tool that introduced the concept of ecodesign and focuses on short, easy to use rules of thumbs. It is important though that the benefits of the tool are made clear, and that companies actually may achieve economic savings by applying ecodesign. As to communicating a company s environmental efforts another tool in the toolbox concentrates specifically on environmental communication, wherefore it was assessed that it was unnecessary for the ecodesign tool to focus on this part. It must also be underlined that the ecodesign tool is aimed at small and medium sized companies, wherefore larger companies are out of scope and must expect that the tool does not suit their needs. Based on the comments from the target group the aims of the ecodesign tool were adjusted and more focus was put on the providing a comprehensive selection of links, which could provide material databases, tools for in depth work with ecodesign and environmental communication. Also efforts should be put into making the point and benefit of doing ecodesign very clear, even for companies not interested in doing voluntary efforts. The major changes in the aim and functionality of the ecodesign tool where made when the tool was adjusted to the digital platform. From the project beginning there had been set a budget for the digitalisation process of the entire toolbox. However, the question was how much it costs to develop digital toolbox and what is possible within the budgetary constraints. This turned out to be the most influential factor on the size of the ecodesign tool. The size of the ecodesign tool was narrowed down and only the objective of introducing the concept of ecodesign and inspiring the companies to start doing ecodesign remained. Several functionalities of the tool were rejected including the guide on where the company should start their environmental efforts and the spider web to illustrate the progress in environmental improvements of the products. On the other hand the user-friendliness of the tool and the motivation for using the tool was sharpened in the process both as a result of the workshop with the e-learning expert and due to the experience with user behaviour of the IT experts. It was a challenge to get the digital computer world to meet the scientific and technical ecodesign world. The first obstacle was to teach the IT experts about the world of ecodesign and for the IT experts and e-learning expert to learn the scientist about the possibilities and limitations in digital computer world. The obvious choice in the scientific ecodesign world was not always the obvious choice in the digital computer world, which led to many different prototypes of the ecodesign tool. A basic example of the challenges that were overcome is the phrasing of the questions in the ecodesign tool. The issue was that the IT experts meant that to achieve the best user-friendliness it should always be a no - answer that triggers a rule of thumb. However, this would in some cases lead to complicated sentences that could be difficult to understand. Therefore, the IT experts were overruled in this matter and both yes and no - answers can trigger a rule of thumb. Some of the other changes were that the mind map structure of the tool was rejected, the movie clips with real life cases were added and more efforts were put in visualising why ecodesign is relevant. In order to accommodate the demands from the target group efforts were also put into gathering a comprehensive collection of relevant links to more in depth ecodesign tools, material databases and tools to setup an ecodesign organisation. The next challenge is to continuously keep the ecodesign tool updated. Unless ground-breaking new research results within ecodesign changes the entire ecodesign concept, the rules of thumbs are less likely to be outdated, as these all for many years have been well known and broadly accepted. The main need for continuous updates concerns the collection of links and movie clips with case. To ensure that this part does not outdate the ecodesign tool is part of a digital platform were the users of the tool can exchange experiences and update each other on new knowledge. This is outlined extensively in the paper by Henrik Riisgaard; Creating Life after Deadline, and is therefore not elaborated further in this paper.

10 6 Conclusion So, what can be learned from this process? To develop a digital tool for SMEs is it imperative that different expertise get together. The target group must be involved to inform about their needs and wishes for a tool. The scientist must be involved to establish the scientific knowledge base and the It and e-learning experts must be involved to actually programme the tool and ensure user-friendliness. An important process is the learning between the two professions; IT experts and ecodesign experts. In order for the tool to be successful the ecodesign experts must understand the possibility and limitations of the digital computer world and the It experts must understand the basics of ecodesign and the target group the tool is addressing. The ambition level may be high in the initial phases of a project, but prioritisation is the key when budgets are limited. The challenge is to find what the core aim of the tool is and spend IT resources on developing that part. In order to ensure that more needs are met without spending IT resources it was chosen to spend a considerable amount on research resources to elaborate on the link section, where more in depth tools and procedures can be found. References Brezet, H. and C. van Hemel Ecodesign, A promising approach to sustainable production and consumption. UNEP. Luttropp, C., Lagerstedt, J Ecodesign and The Ten Golden Rules: generic advice for merging environmental aspects into product development. J. Clean. Prod. 14, McAloone, T., Bey, N Miljøforbedringer gennem produktudvikling en guide (Environmental Improvements through Product Development a Guide). Danish Environmental Protection Agency. Rocha, C., Camocho, D., Bajoucu, S., Gonçalves, A., Arroz, M. H., Baroso, M., Brarens, I., Gris Grais, P., Almeida, M., Carradas, F., Frade, J., Fernandes, F., Zugasti, I., Errazkin, O., Eguskizaga, X., Celades, I., Ros Dosdá, T., Coll Badi, N., Aravossis, K., Somakos, L InEDIC Ecodesign Manual. Schmidt, K., Møller Christensen, F., Juul, L., Øllgaard, H., Blak Nielsen, C Håndbog i produktorienteret miljøarbejde (Handbook in product oriented environmental work). Miljønyt 53. Danish Environmental protection Agency.