The Capgemini Research Institute’s latest report titled “Rethink: Why sustainable product design is the need of the hour” reveals that organizations that implemented sustainable strategies into their product-design processes have met net zero targets.
The report found 67% of organizations have seen a reduction in carbon emissions just by implementing sustainable product design strategies, with 73% witnessing an improvement in revenue growth. It says that design decisions have a significant impact on the environmental and social consequences of products.
Around 80% of the environmental impact of products can be attributed to decisions made at the design stage.
Product emissions can constitute for a major share of organizations’ overall emissions, and hence sustainable design strategies are key to reduce them. Still, only 22% of organizations have made sustainability a primary component of product design, and only 26% conduct regular environmental-impact and 25% conduct social-impact assessments while developing new products.
“In order to reach their carbon reduction targets and to deliver on overall sustainable development goals, organizations need to think beyond isolated design problems and consider the system as a whole, from the early stages of product design to selection of materials and end-of-life management,” Roshan Gya, Global Head of Intelligent Industry at Capgemini, said. “This necessitates a series of different approaches across the entire product lifecycle, including systems thinking, circular design thinking, and regenerative approaches. Organizations must also keep in mind that many sustainability initiatives are characterized by a short-term pain followed by long-term gain, such as up-front investments to avoid larger costs in the future.”
According to the report, regulatory pressure is a top motivator for 61% of the organizations currently adopting sustainable product design practices or planning to do so in the future. Companies that are not executing sustainable design in their processes are recommended to do so because regulations are set to get stricter in the future.
Moreover, the report shows that across all sectors 23% of companies that have embedded at least one sustainable design strategy have seen a decrease in costs, while 37% of organizations say costs have remained the same.
