Martin Charter

System Innovation for Sustainability 1. Perspectives on Radical Changes to Sustainable Consumption and Production

Central to the sustainable production and consumption (SCP) agenda is the need for radical changes not only in the ways we produce but also in the ways we consume. The SCP agenda emerged within the understanding that it is not possible to reach the necessary reductions in environmental impact and resource consumption purely by technical solutions directed at improving the efficiency of production processes and ‘greening’ products. Research demonstrates that aggregate environmental impact continues to rise because of an increasing population and increasing levels of affluence. It was hoped that technological improvements could compensate for increases in these factors. However, to keep within the limits of environmental impact of the year 1990, some commentators argue that a Factor 10, 20 or higher improvement in material and energy efficiency is needed by 2025 (Jensen 1993; Schmidt-Bleek 1995). (Less)

Product sustainability: organisational considerations

Most eco-design research has focused on design strategies, methodologies and tools. However, to ensure that eco-design is successfully implemented, companies require strategic, tactical and operational organisational structures and systems to be considered. This article discusses a range of organisational issues in the development and implementation of eco-design and a broader approach to sustainable product development (product sustainability). The article draws together a range of desk research, observation and unstructured conversations with eco-design practitioners and experts, as well as my own concurrent experience as global chair of a group of international experts that wrote and produced the Eco-design Standard ISO14006: 2011 (published globally in July 2011). The article demonstrates to the wider product development community that eco-design is not just an operational design issue at the level of product design and engineering, and highlights this by illustrating through practical examples the wider organisational issues in developing, managing and implementing eco-design and broader product sustainability. On the basis of this research I led the planning, structuring and writing of the article. My co-author contributed specific research elements, expert comments and made editorial suggestions.