ISM AND ISEG MBA - Développement durable

At the manufacturing and consumer steps the chart proposes to create ecological packaging to
limit the pollution created during the manufacture and to facilitate its use during consumption.
At the destruction step waste recuperation is favored with a view to recycle or reuse.
Finally, the scheme shows a further step, this latter being more in the domain of management
than the designer: the eco assessment of the product. It comprises making a quantitative
assessment to evaluate the environmental impact of the product at all steps of its life cycle. Four
aspects are studied: the employment of natural resources; pollution during manufacture; the
production process; and the production of polluting waste products. The loop closes following
this study, indicating that the feedback of ideas enables a reiterative evaluation of parameters
requiring modification in order to create an ecological product, and this pertaining to the entire
manufacturing process. Consequently, companies and consumers alike must become “eco
efficient”, to be able to do more with less; this follows the principle “to consume better” where it
is recommended to buy less but of better quality).
The notions of “eco design” or “eco conception” follow on from this conceptual principle of the
life cycle of a product. This principle indicates to industry that it needs to become
environmentally efficient by learning to produce more whilst consuming less. Above all, eco
design is a new way of conceptual thinking related to products, which explores both the
legitimacy of the product and its intended use. For example, when contemplating the launch of a
new product the manufacturer is required to research the market to ensure that a similar product
does not already exist which might render his efforts fruitless. The aim is to review the essential
product specification, in terms of utility and functionality; this is not current practice in our
consumer society. To achieve this, companies have to constantly review working procedures over
the entire manufacturing life cycle, specifically to re-specify the requirement for raw materials, to
render production processes more efficient, and to simplify packaging, as recommended by the
Japanese brand Muji.
34