Making Eco Design Work for Your Business

1. WYG Group Making Eco design work for your business

2. Before we get started Sustainability is about reducing costs and staying well ahead of compliance Sustainability offers new business opportunities Sustainability is a valid market proposition for your business

3. What we’ll cover this morning: What is eco-design and why does it matter? Making eco-design work for your business; Making changes; where to start

4. “What’s a sustainable package?” ……………“One with no packaging!” • But we need packaging to: • protect products in shipping • offer consumers information • providing a branding billboard for your business • give customers a way to carry things home.

5. “Cradle to cradle” Natural systems are cyclical

6. “Ecological metabolism” In nature, nothing is wasted…….. …there is no such thing as waste! Source: McDonaugh & Braungart, “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things”

7. “Technical metabolism” A virtuous circle…… materials are constantly recycled with minimal loss of quality Source: McDonaugh & Braungart, “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things”

8. The Concepts………. Biological Nutrient: A biodegradable material posing no immediate or eventual hazard to living systems that can be used for human purposes and can safely return to the environment to feed environmental processes.

9. “Product of service” A product that is used by the customer, formally or in effect, but owned by the manufacturer. The manufacturer maintains ownership of valuable material assets for continual reuse while the customer receives the service of the product without assuming its material liability. Products that can utilize valuable but potentially hazardous materials can be optimized as Products of Service.

10. What isn’t C2C, but may appear to be. Antimony!

11. The market drivers………. • Government: legislation and regulation • Consumer preference • Saving energy and carbon emissions • Saving water (and carbon emissions, 8-10%) • Saving money!

12. Making eco-design work for your business …by considering and improving each step along the entire product journey

13. Case study: Pret a Manger • In 2009 - plastic bags reduced by 28%, simply by asking customers if they actually wanted one. • 96% of Pret’s packaging can be recycled; they’re working very hard on the last 4%. • Were the first retailer to move from plastic sandwich boxes to cardboard in the 1990s. • Pret’s ‘bio-box’ is 100% recyclable , made with virgin board from sustainable forests with a water-based coating, not polyethylene. • Pret Pots: 100% recyclable, no longer PLA as biodegradable cornstarch impractical (no adequate composting sites and collection services)

14. Case study: Cargo Cosmetics • Plant Love , first biodegradable lipstick tube made entirely from corn. • Sourced from manufacturer Natureworks. • Product is PLA, so “carbon neutral” • Packaging carton is made with biodegradable paper infused with wildflower seeds —just moisten and plant! • The lipstick itself is environmentally friendly, without mineral oils or petroleum.

15. Alternative materials may have issues.. • PLA (polyactic acid) fast becoming the favoured • Alternative to plastic: • Clear - consumers can see the product • Stiff/rigid - stands up to processing equipment, • Renewable - made from corn/maize • Less polluting - uses less fossil fuels, generates less carbon • Compostable - easy for customers to dispose of? • Also…. maize uses large amounts of petroleum-based fertilizers and oil-based equipment, and can cause soil erosion.

16. Materials to avoid!

17. Make it easier for your customers

18. Getting started: getting help and advice

19. The Waste Hierarchy: • Restore - by using materials and supporting suppliers and customers who want to reduce their own impacts; • Respect - by examining all the impacts that your packaging may have; • Reduce - the amount of materials, layers of packaging, weight of package, fuel used in transport, etc.; • Re-use - something that’s already been made, and make your package easy and desirable to reuse; and • Recover - the materials used through recycling, composting or reusing as far as you can.

20. A simple audit:

21. Eco Design Indicator Tool (EDIT) • Recyclability • Water Footprint (of materials) • Recycled Content • Embodied CO2e (of materials) • Transport • Product Pack Ratio (weight) • Consumables • Use • Volumetric Efficiency

22. Useful web sites: Be compliant www.netregs.gov.uk. Make a planwww.businesslink.gov.uk(environment and efficiency tab) Case studies www.envirowise.wrap.org.uk & Tools Get help & get funding www.fenland.gov.uk/.../green-business-club/