I’m glad to hear you’re getting such requests. More companies are now seeing the value of ecodesign strategies. Regarding your question being engaged with this site is a good indication you are serious about providing ecodesign options to your clients. And the Okala methodology and other resources available via Sustainable Minds can provide a solid foundation for delivering quality services.

However, what isn’t included is the practical knowledge to transfer this information into part of a consulting service mix. This response offers you and other consultants a simple framework for how to best integrate ecodesign services.

This information is available in detailed form in a new Greenleaf publication, Consulting for Business Sustainability. Chapter 12, A Guide to Sustainable Design Consulting, directly addresses your question and it is my contribution to the book. I’ll provide an outline of the key practice points within the chapter, but I recommend you obtain the publication. http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/consult

1: Do your homework First, a company must have a genuine appetite for developing more environmentally responsible products and/or processes. Be certain your client views this approach as strategic to their business future and not just a short-term marketing detail. Start by acquiring information regarding corporate mission statements on the environment, current supply chain practices, any ‘low hanging fruit’ processes underway – anything that helps you get a fix on how the company perceives and communicates its environmental role.

Designers (in the various design professions) should not assume this generalization about biomaterials to be true. In many cases, plant-derived materials are more renewable and can be more ecologically responsible than petroleum-derived materials. In many other cases, however, plant-derived materials can be more resource intensive and/or more ecologically damaging than their petroleum-derived counterparts.

Let’s look at grocery bags as an example. We’ve compared six grocery bag alternatives, listed below. The bag materials are listed with a manufacturing method, the number of time it's used, the approximate weight of bags needed to carry 20 lbs of groceries, and the assumed waste distribution at the end of the life of the bag. The functional unit is Okala impacts (in millipoints) per delivery of one cycle of 20 lbs of groceries.

Despite the extreme turbulence in the economy and the resulting insecurity felt by product development groups in nearly all market sectors, many companies still have budgets to develop new products starting at the beginning of the new year. Counter-intuitively, economic shockwaves reverberating through the markets can liberate product managers to find new market strategies.

Managers are increasingly under pressure to adopt novel ways to intelligently address the needs of users in their respective markets. Offering greener products are one of the primary ways that companies can substantively differentiate themselves from their competitors. The question on the minds of product managers is “Which products have the most potential to improve their value by improving environmental performance?” Product managers, marketing directors and the entire product development team should carefully ponder this question.

Explaining the environmental benefits of product longevity is pretty simple. For instance, as long as the impacts of the product during its use phase stay constant, then doubling the product lifetime usually cuts the impacts in half. It is easy to run the numbers and produce the charts that demonstrate the reduced environmental impacts that result from extending product life. It is a bit more challenging to help a client realize how this approach might benefit their bottom line.

Designers have been helping clients understand the economic value of good design for decades. Since much of the work of extending product lifetime equates to good design, we can tap into our own experience when it comes to educating others about longevity.

For instance, many years ago, when I idealistically began my design career, I was involved in designing a multi-bit screwdriver. The client’s innovation allowed the bits to be securely organized in the handle without rattling. I confess to being a bit disenchanted to be working on something so, well….unexciting. I left to take another position before the first prototype came back from manufacture.

Several years later, I encountered the resulting product, and was forced to reassess my view of design, for here was a product that asserted simple quality. Someone had followed through on the manufacturing; the screwdriver was built to high tolerances, and from quality materials. The handle opened easily, and clicked shut with a satisfying thunk. The screwdriver had a solid heft, and didn’t rattle annoyingly, unlike other multi-bits of the day. I promptly bought them as gifts for all of my family. Eighteen years later, all of them still have and use this product (except for one brother, who lost his). Meanwhile, the client (MegaPro) and design firm (Karo and then White Box Design) developed an ongoing relationship that has since taken the product through several iterations – including the contractor’s version and the kitchen drawer version – which expand the product’s market reach without rendering prior models obsolete.