The Winning Recipe: Eco-Designing a Product

According to an international study conducted by IBM in 2020 with over 18,000 people, 78% of respondents state that it’s important for brands to offer “clean”, sustainable, and environmentally responsible products. Currently, and due to recent events related to the health crisis, people want to consume better, be more “eco-responsible” and greener. To maintain a place in the hearts of their consumers, companies must respond to these new challenges.

Thus, brands are seeking to adopt an increasingly responsible approach, going as far as eco-designing their products. Eco-design consists of integrating environmental considerations from the conception of a product or service, and throughout all stages of its life cycle (AFNOR, 2004). To do this, one must not be afraid to modify certain processes at all stages of the product’s life cycle: from the extraction of raw materials to the end of the product’s life…

Are you an environmentally conscious brand and want to integrate an ecological approach in the design of your products? Are you unsure of the steps to implement the principle of eco-design in your strategy? Trustt guides you by proposing the main steps to follow to eco-design your products, from their creation to their market launch!

Conduct a Clear and Precise Brainstorming Session

All companies, regardless of their size, are capable of developing and designing products while respecting the principles of sustainable development and the environment. The main objective: to reduce the environmental impact of productions by taking into account several criteria: eutrophication, acidification, ecotoxicity, greenhouse effect, non-renewable energy, rare resources, tropospheric ozone, toxicity.

Eco-design invites a detailed analysis of the use of resources and energy to design the product and uncover possible improvement paths throughout its life cycle. The first step in launching into product eco-design is to conduct a brainstorming session with all your collaborators to establish your strategy in advance.

Ask yourselves:

• What raw materials and energies can we use?
• What manufacturing method do you want?
• What transportation should be prioritized?
• How will you sell and distribute your products?
• What will be the most responsible use of your product?
• How will you educate your consumers on this eco-responsible use?

It’s important that everything is well-defined in advance so that the design of your product is done under the best conditions. However, be careful not to transfer pollution. For example, improving transport but using packaging with non-recyclable materials has no benefit.

Responsibly Source Your Raw Materials

In an eco-design approach for a product, the choice of raw materials is a crucial step. These have a direct impact on the quality of the formula and on the effectiveness of your product itself. It’s important to choose raw materials that respect both your health and have no negative impact on the environment.

To best reduce your impact on the planet:

• Prioritize raw materials of plant origin: the processes require little energy and no chemical extraction.
• Avoid synthetic products derived from petrochemicals as much as possible: they pollute and are dangerous for both health and the environment
• Source locally: you thus avoid import costs, pollution related to transport, and you contribute to the local economy.
• Favor organic: you create formulas that respect the environment and are certified.

Designing products requires a lot of energy: prioritize renewable energies, carbon neutrality, and local businesses to minimize your environmental impact.

Manufacturing

A More Responsible Formula

Directly linked to raw materials, a product’s formula can be part of an eco-design approach in several ways. To reduce the environmental impact of your products:

• Offer healthy formulations: healthy raw materials, processed and transformed using environmentally friendly and health-conscious methods,

• Obtain certifications and labels: Ecocert, Cosmébio, Vegan and Cruelty Free from Peta association, COSMOS, NaTrue or Nature et Progrès reassure consumers about the quality of your product formulations while uniting around common values,

• Opt for concentrated formulas by reducing the number of ingredients,

• Design biodegradable formulas,

• Choose smart and ecological formats such as solid cosmetics that take up less space than liquid ones. More eco-friendly, recyclable cardboard packaging is sufficient. Additionally, transport and distribution are also simpler.

Eco-friendly Packaging

Infographic: cardboard, recyclable, reusable, lightweight, small

• Opt for sterile packaging that reduces the need for preservatives,

• Choose reusable, compostable or recyclable packaging: a very popular trend is to refill the product yourself without changing the packaging or without packaging at all! 900.Care, a brand based on co-creation of clean products, offers this type of product, shampoos and shower gels to be rehydrated or even chewable toothpaste, thus without packaging or with reusable packaging,

• Favor plastic, cardboard or paper with reduced or very low environmental impact. You can print with environmentally friendly inks (vegetable oil-based inks, etc.) and consider the impact of colors, effects, textures, formats and finishes that make up the packaging,

• Forget paper inserts inside the packaging in favor of printing instructions on the packaging itself!

• Think eco-friendly and smart and create packaging that maximizes the fight against product waste,

• Reduce the size and weight of packaging to facilitate the transport of your products.

Transport

Eco-designing a product also means thinking about its transport responsibly. Indeed, traveling kilometers to sell so-called “ecological” products makes no sense.

To minimize your environmental impact when transporting your products, consider:

• Optimizing the format of your products to reduce transport volume and weight, which directly impact the budgetary and environmental cost of your products,

• Collaborating with partners aligned with the same ecological values and commitments as you so that the entire logistics and transport chain is optimized for a responsible approach,

• Choosing a physical point of sale or an e-commerce site that also follows an environmentally friendly approach (heating, lighting, materials used, etc.). Also, you can improve your website’s performance to reduce its carbon footprint.

Educate About the Consumption of Your Products

To ensure that all your efforts are not in vain, you must also educate your consumers on the responsible use of your products. Providing education at the point of sale (in-store or online), or during your product launch, is essential to design an eco-friendly product from the beginning to the end of its life cycle.

• Be precise about the ecological characteristics of your product: formulation, possibility of refill or deposit, recycling advice…

• Indicate the necessary quantity for each use to avoid unnecessary waste,

• Inform about the end of life of the product: you can create incentives to mobilize consumers on the end of life of a product. For example, set up a promo code when empty products are returned to the store,

• Raise awareness about sorting, especially if you have created recyclable and biodegradable products. You can include instructions explaining the procedure at the end of your product’s life. Thus, you control the life cycle of the eco-designed product from beginning to end.