New Products Gain Competitive Edge

In the EcoReDesign™ process multi-disciplinary teams of designers, environmental specialists, engineers, and market researchers apply innovative environmental design tools and strategies (developed by the National Centre for Design at RMIT) to minimise the life-cycle environmental impacts of manufactured consumer products. These cutting-edge approaches include computer-based life-cycle assessment, design for disassembly and recycling methodologies and cleaner production techniques. Participating companies contribute significant resources in terms of funds and expertise to ensure products developed through EcoReDesign™ are commercialised.

The three-year-old EcoReDesign™ Program finishes in December 1996 with the publication of a manual and video documenting eight product case studies and providing a step-by-step guide for companies interested in improving the environmental performance of their products (information kit). EcoReDesign™ helps companies to meet new environmental standards and compete in export markets.

On 2 October 1996, the Federal Minister for the Environment, Senator Robert Hill, opened an exhibition at RMIT Storey Hall of six products from MEC-Kambrook (Axis Kettle), Schiavello Commercial Interiors (HOTdesk™), Southcorp Whitegoods (Dishlex Global Dishwasher), Blackmores (Waste Conscious Packaging), Imaging Technologies (SwapShop™) and NIDA Group (EcoVend). The two other participating companies whose products will be released in 1997, Email, and Caroma were also present to celebrate the programs success.

The EcoReDesign™ Program, funded by the Environment Protection Agency - an Agency of the Federal Environment Department, and the

Federal Environment Department, and the Australian Research Council set out to facilitate a rapid response from the Australian manufacturing sector to a critical new demand for environmental quality in the international market for manufactured products. Government support for the program was directed to the development of a new area of environmental design and ecodesign research in Australia to assist industry respond to this new market.

The National Centre for Design at RMIT helped develop this new research capability through a series of collaborative projects with Australian manufacturers who agreed to commit their resources to a major redesign of an existing product to reduce its total life-cycle environmental impact. The total investment for product development and production by the participating companies exceeded $15 million.

The successful commercialisation of the products of this collaborative program is a tangible demonstration of the potential to achieve improved environmental outcomes at the same time as improving local and export-market performance.

Federal Government investment in these demonstration projects has created world-leading environmental design and ecodesign research capabilities in this country, and a series of high-profile and successful company products which should stimulate further Australian industry activity in this important new area of design and innovation.

Environmental Quality and the Greening of the Global Market

The international market for low-impact products (which are more energy-efficient; which reduce water consumption; decrease pollution; reduce end-of-life-waste; which are designed for efficient, fast, low-cost disassembly; which are able to be recycled or remanufactured) is growing at an astonishing rate. This is particularly true for the rapidly developing economies of Asia.

These markets are growing because of serious resource constraints in these regions that would otherwise limit development, and because of the inter-national commitment to reducing global environmental degradation. The demand grows as well because research design and innovation are delivering new products with greatly improved environmental efficiencies. The EcoReDesigned products are part of this new equation- increasing exports in a new market, stimulating market demand and reducing total environmental load.

Innovation, Competitiveness and Better Environmental Performance

In much of the industrialised world, consumer concern has led to political action to strengthen environmental regulations and set new standards for environmental performance and environmental management. The international reflections of these changes are obvious to us in Australia through the introduction of the ISO 14000 program and various agreements on greenhouse gas reductions, bio-diversity, etc. The test-bed for the future in environmental regulation is Europe, in particular Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In these countries, serious attention is paid to what are referred to as environment-oriented product policies. These include various forms of resource taxes and a variety of mechanisms adopted to extend the responsibility of producers to encompass what happens to their products at the end of the product life. According to the OECD, some 18 member countries are now actively pursuing some form of producer responsibility regulations.

The regulatory environment, consumer action, new standards and now the market itself reflect a growing sophistication in dealing with environmental problems. Initial, simplistic concern over waste and waste manage-ment has quickly given way to a more appropriate demand for waste and pollution minimisation. This is where design comes in - in the move from stopping waste from leaving the system to redesigning systems which do not produce waste; in designing systems and products which are eco-efficient, i.e. efficient in economic and ecological terms at the same time. Product design has always included a focus backwards to production and forwards beyond the market to issues of quality, reliability and function in use. The new EcoReDesign™ perspective adds to the breadth of the design focus - back to the extraction and processing of materials and forwards to the disposal phase, the aim being to minimise all adverse environmental effects.

This shift in perspective has led to new industry investment based upon an assessment (at least in Europe, USA and, lately, Japan) that environmental concern is not transitory and that significant changes to all stages of production, from resource availability to product disposal, are inevitable.

The EcoReDesign™ Program, in its products, company support and investment, is a clear sign that Australian industry is willing to break away from the traditional mode of thinking which pits environment and economics as opposing forces. These products represent a change in perspective, from treating the environment as a threat, to viewing it as an opportunity for new productive (and sustainable) endeavours.

The EcoReDesign™ Program - Phase Two

The Centre will continue to work with companies on a commercial basis, assisting large companies in redesigning their products. The October exhibition opening also saw the announcement of a new support program aimed at small-to-medium-sized companies. The new program, to operate from the beginning of 1997, has the support of the Energy Research and Development Corporation, the Australian Chamber of Manufactures, the Packaging Council of Australia and the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association. The NSW EPA, the Victorian EPA, the Waste Management Council and the Recycling and Resource Recovery Council have also expressed support for the program.