Weighing in on Sustainability

By Curt McNamara, P.E.

How much does your house weigh? Sustainable design pioneer Buckminster Fuller was fond of asking that to architects. They had no idea. Things had always been done the same old way, and the weight did not mean anything to them. For Fuller, a house was an elegant design—engineered like a car using the latest approaches to "doing more with less." He even wanted to move them with helicopters!

Life-Cycle Analysis tools include "eco-indicator" numbers in production, use, and end-of-life phases that add up to a points total. The numbers can help companies gauge where their packaging stands in the realm of sustainability.

Your package is the house for your product. So... How much does it weigh? One might not weigh much. How about a pallet of them? A semi truck trailer full of them? Suddenly small changes can have big impact. How about its lifetime? Will you be making it for the next five years? What does that add up to? Suddenly you can see that small changes can have big impacts.

Weighty costs add up

That physical weight represents costs - in material, in transport, and in shelf space. One aspect of sustainability is this cost, but there are other costs for your company and the environment. These costs are the "footprint" of your package. The smaller you make the footprint, the lower the costs and the better for all. Sustainability doesn't cost—it pays. Your package footprint has several pieces:

• Where it comes from (materials)
• How it is put together (the forming process, printing, pre-fulfillment storage needs)
• How it gets to the end user (weight, volume, and distance = fuel use to get it there)
• Where it goes when it dies (incinerator, landfill, compost or recycling depot).

Low impact materials

You can save money and lower your impact at every step. In the creation stage you use lower impact materials. There are tables of data on life-cycle analysis (LCA) that will tell you about materials (Is PET is better than PVC?) and process (Is vacuum-forming better than injection molding?).

A word of caution is in order. It would be easy to go crazy about LCA! Many materials are complex, and you may see that the standard LCA tables don't have entries for them. While you can buy an LCA package with support, it is important to know that your approach and attitude are 80% of the battle. Asking your vendors about their impact has a huge influence. It's sort of like quality because once we start measuring, things appear huge—but then they quickly fall since we are paying attention.

That is what sustainability is really about - paying attention. It isn't about being perfect, it isn't about being drab, and it isn't about regulations dragging you down. It is about doing a little better every time - constantly increasing your standards, constantly lowering your costs, constantly being better than the competition. Think of the phrase "continuous self-improvement."

Throughout the life-cycle

At the end of life you can also improve. LCA gives points back for material that is recycled. It is your design that allows materials to be easily separated for recycling.

A good way to learn more about all this is to start a lunch discussion group. This will make you smarter and increase your own marketability—in your own company and outside (even if you are not an expert). If you have ideas and need support, find the opinion leaders in your group and give them info before the meeting. Feel them out and configure your approach to their biases. Let them share some of the glory.

Did I mention the marketing side? Your work will not go unnoticed. The package is the most obvious manifestation of the product. Your care will be obvious throughout the company, the industry, and the marketplace. We could say that sustainability is small steps leading to a big result with you—the designer or purchaser—setting the path.

Curt McNamara, P.E. is a product designer, member of the o2 Global Sustainable Design Network (o2.org), and faculty for Minneapolis College of Art and Design's ground-breaking Sustainable Design Certificate Program (online.mcad.edu). He can be reached at c.mcnamara@ieee.org.