Edition #12 - Designing Today for Tomorrow’s Markets

Many organisations are already measuring their operational carbon emissions. But for product-based businesses, these emissions often represent only a small portion, sometimes less than 10% (McKinsey & Company, 2024), of the total footprint when the full product lifecycle is considered.

A Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) captures this broader view. It evaluates environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle of a product, from material extraction to manufacturing, use, and end-of-life. LCAs cover more than carbon emissions, including human toxicity and impacts on water, air, and soil. These insights are essential for prioritising product improvements and avoiding situations where one activity reduces carbon emissions but creates greater harm elsewhere.

Energy use is often concentrated in upstream stages such as material extraction and manufacturing, and downstream stages such as waste and recycling. These areas may remain invisible if you only track operational emissions. Lifecycle assessment helps reveal these blind spots and ensures product decisions are made with the full picture in mind.
A simple way to begin is to select one product and:

1. Gather product information: Use the bill of materials (BOM) or disassemble a product for reference.
2. Map the lifecycle: Identify key upstream, assembly, and downstream activities, including material extraction, manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life.
3. Identify environmental loads: For each stage, note major inputs and outputs such as energy use, emissions, and waste.
4. Link to impacts: Connect these with common categories like climate change, resource depletion, human toxicity, or water and soil pollution.

Talking with suppliers can also be valuable. Many may already be tracking some form of environmental data. There are also simple online LCA tools available to build understanding within your organisation. Starting this work now will prepare you for evolving regulatory expectations.

Regulation is increasingly shaping product and packaging requirements. Recent EU measures, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) (EU 2024/1781, 2024) and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) (EU 2025/40, 2024), set a clear direction:

• Products must be designed for longer lifespans, easier repair, and higher recyclability.
• Packaging must be minimised, reusable, recyclable, or compostable.

Similar rules apply to batteries, with requirements for durability, replaceability, substance restrictions, and carbon footprint tracking. These frameworks are likely to influence global markets, so treating them as a minimum benchmark rather than a compliance checkbox is wise. Designing ahead of regulation reduces risk and can uncover cost savings and competitive advantage.

Sustainable design goes further than making a product recyclable or reducing energy use. It requires considering materials, processes, and impacts across the full lifecycle. Many improvements can be made immediately through smarter design, including:

1. Reduce material usage: Conserve resources and lower costs through lightweighting or substitution.
2. Minimise part count: Simplify designs to cut waste, improve repairability, and make recycling easier.
3. Improve durability: Design products to last longer, reducing replacements and waste.
4. Design for repair: Make common failure points accessible and replaceable to extend product life.
5. Standardise components: Use shared parts (e.g., batteries, adapters) across products to reduce total material demand.
6. Reduce packaging and single-use consumables: Minimise size and layers, and favour reusable, recyclable, or compostable options.
7. Design for end-of-life recovery: Choose separable materials, avoid harmful coatings, and label for reuse or recycling.
8. Lower energy use, including digital services: Improve operational efficiency and reduce unnecessary data transmission, which drives energy use in servers and cloud storage.

Sustainability will continue to evolve. By asking better questions, assessing lifecycle impacts, and making incremental improvements, you can reduce risks, meet emerging regulations, and create products that are not only market-ready but also aligned with a liveable future.
 
Sources:
EU 2024/1781 (2024) Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products, Official Journal of the European Union. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj (Accessed: 17 July 2025).
EU 2025/40 (2024) Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj/eng (Accessed: 17 July 2025).
McKinsey & Company (2024) What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions? Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-are-scope-1-2-and-3-emissions (Accessed: 17 July 2025).