Consumer goods and services innovations
FASHION EXCHANGE
Swapping unwanted clothes or other products with each other could lower our overall consumption of raw materials, without reducing our standard of living. Swapstyle is a web-platform where over 40,000 members freely exchange clothing, cosmetics, books and accessories. The environmental benefits of sharing or exchanging services depend on an overall reduction in material consumption per person, which has yet to be demonstrated. For example, people may spend the greenhouse gas savings made by exchanging clothes on other energy intensive or polluting goods.
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Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Swapstyle
ZERO-PACKAGING AND WASTE SHOP
Each person in the EU generates a massive 176kg of packaging waste a year . Many companies worldwide are taking action to minimise packaging. But food and drink shop In.gredients is taking things a step further: getting rid of it all together. In.gredients will soon open in Austin, Texas. It will only sell in season produce, by weight and without packaging. Customers will bring in their own containers or compostable containers will be available to buy. If consumers can adapt to the zero-packaging model, and retailers can innovate around potential obstacles such as hygiene, zero-packaging retail could be a significant step towards reducing waste and saving energy.
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Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle, biodiversity and natural resources
Innovators: In.gredients; Beunpackaged
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REDUCING CONSUMPTION THROUGH HIRING AND SHARING
If more people hired or shared material goods, rather than owning them, it would significantly reduce our use of resources, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing. An increasing number of innovative business models and websites are encouraging this shift, facilitating schemes as diverse as car-sharing and clothes hire (i.e. Zilok). There are also platforms to lend, borrow and trade goods from TVs, power drills, skills to spaces for free (i.e Netcyler and Ecomodo).
For schemes like this to benefit the environment, overall material consumption per person needs to fall. There is also a danger that consumers who rent rather than own may then spend the money they save on other energy-intensive or polluting goods. This is known as the ‘rebound effect’.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Zilok, Netcycler, Ecomodo, ZipCar; Neighbourgoods
‘CRADLE TO CRADLE’ PRODUCT CERTIFICATION AND DESIGN FRAMEWORK
‘Cradle to cradle’ is a design philosophy for creating sustainable products. It uses materials that can either be reused or recycled, or that decompose safely and naturally.
The non-profit Green Products Innovation Institute is developing Cradle to Cradle Certification. This will include standards such as transparent and traceable use of chemicals, reuse of materials, use of renewable energy, water stewardship and social responsibility. It is also launching a free public database and framework to aid sustainable design, with information on alternative processes, materials and chemicals.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle; water efficiency; energy efficiency
Innovators: McDonough Braunart Design Consultants, Green Products Innovation Institute
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AD-FUNDED SOLAR STREET LIGHTS
Micro-generation – the process of generating renewable energy at a local level – will be an important part of any future green energy mix. This innovative business model pays for solar-powered street lighting out of the revenues from advertising positioned below the lights. It suggests there could be opportunities for the renewable sector to connect with advertising agencies, and to explore alternative innovative funding ideas to support micro-generation.
Benefits: energy generation
Innovators: Shuchi Energy Ad Promotions, a joint venture between Sunwatt and Shuchi, based in Hyderabad, India
USING WASTE TO CREATE NEW PRODUCTS
Every product has a story to tell. A jacket that has been made from hot air balloons or a luxury handbag made out of old fire hoses - our waste is increasingly being used as raw material to create new products. This process is called upcycling which helps to reduce thousands of tonnes of waste going to landfill. Some organisations such as TerraCycle, are also educating communities on the environmental impact of our consumption and encourages concious buying.
Benefits: reduce,reuse, recycle
Innovators: Worn Again, TerraCycle
TRANSFORMING STONE TO PAPER
TerraSkin is using construction waste to make paper. Instead of trees, the production uses calcium carbonate, found in marble and limestone scraps which are ground to a fine powder. The process considers sustainability at every stage of the product’s life-cycle, and the paper is cradle-to-cradle certified. It requires no trees, water or toxic bleach and uses less energy and causes fewer CO2 emissions to produce.
There are many other materials being used to produce tree-less paper – such as sugar cane, bamboo, hemp, kenaf (a fibre similar to jute) and even elephant dung!
Benefits: reduce, re-use, recycle
Innovators: TerraSkin, Smock, Mr Ellie Pooh, Vision Paper
‘TOP RUNNER’ PRODUCT STANDARDS RACE
Just as athletes work constantly to improve their personal best, Japan's Top Runner programme challenges companies to keep improving their energy efficiency. The programme sets minimum efficiency standards for 23 categories of machinery, equipment and vehicles, from TVs to air-conditioning units. Officials regularly test all the available products, and the best-performing model in each category is labelled the Top Runner. That model then becomes the new minimum standard which other manufacturers must meet within a given timeframe. Then a new Top Runner is found and the race begins again.
The programme fosters industry collaboration and competitive dynamics, rewarding the leaders and showing up those that lag behind (products that fail to meet standards receive a negative label). This principle can be applied to other environmental benefits, such as water efficiency.
Benefits: energy efficiency
Innovators: The Energy Conservation Centre, Japan
INTERACTIVE TOOLS TO HELP PEOPLE MONITOR AND REDUCE ENERGY USE
These online and interactive media tools display and analyse household energy use to encourage energy-efficient behaviour. Interpreting information from utility smart meters and energy monitoring devices, they help customers understand their highest areas of energy use and predict costs. There is also potential for interfaces to become more sophisticated and reward good behaviour.
The demand for these tools is set to increase with rising energy prices and incentives for utilities to improve energy efficiency among their customers. Media tool providers have also partnered with utilities, smart metering and monitoring device manufacturers to offer a complete package.
Benefits: energy efficiency
Innovators: Onzo, Google PowerMeter
WASHING MACHINES THAT USE 90% LESS WATER
Washing clothes accounts for around 13% of UK household water consumption. Waterless washing machine technology has not yet reached the market, but has the potential to make enormous improvements in household water efficiency by using 90% less water than conventional washing machines. It also uses lower levels of electricity and detergents – reducing energy consumption and water treatment costs.
Benefits: water efficiency
Innovators: Xeros
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PLANT-BASED PLASTICS
Most people associate oil with petrol that fills our cars, but it’s also a major component in everyday materials – such as plastics used for packaging, furniture and consumer goods. By using polymers based on natural and renewable resources such as plants, it has the potential to significantly game-change how plastic - based products are made today. Not only do they offer a more environmentally friendly option at manufacture, they also can be biodegradable.
Emerging policies to reduce demand of oil-based products and decreasing supplies will force a rethink of entire value chains in the petro-chemicals industry.
Benefits: carbon reduction, biodiversity
Innovators: Amyris , Natureworks, Reluceo
TURNING TRASH TO CASH
People are encouraged to recycle by rewarding them with points that they can redeem at over 2,400 local and national stores. RecycleBank partners with local authorities and currently serves over one million people in the UK and US.
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead has encouraged household recycling go up to 35% more weight per collection by taking part in this initiative. The approach has also received recognition from the World Economic Forum and UNEP, as a successful social innovation that encourages people to waste less.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Recyclebank
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
The EU and countries including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil and Australia have implemented regulation compelling manufacturers to recycle a proportion of their products’ waste and packaging materials. If they don’t do this, a fine is imposed which is more than the cost of recycling. Legislation like this has huge potential to reduce waste, greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. The Korean government estimates that 6,069,000 tons of waste were recycled thank to its ‘extended producer responsibility’ scheme from 2033-2007, leading to carbon emissions falling by an average of 412,000 tons year on year.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: The Korean Ministry of Environment
POLYLOOM WOVEN PRODUCTS FROM WASTE PLASTIC
Repurposing plastic bags into useful products cuts landfill waste and can be a step towards a closed-loop economy – where waste is treated as a resource. The Indian Centre for Environment Education has created the ‘polyloom’, which allows small, local businesses to weave waste plastic into mats and handbags to sell. The polyloom helps deal with Indian cities’ waste management problems, while creating local employment.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Indian Centre for Environment Education
PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO BE REMADE
Innovative tools people can use to remake, repurpose or ‘hack’ products to create something new at the end of their life are being developed. For example, the ‘Open Hardware’ wiki site shares a list of open source technology and hackable products that (in theory) enable anyone to build products using second hand parts, from solar trackers and LED lighting to cooking stoves. This could equip people to repurpose unwanted material goods, rather than discarding them and buying new products – saving waste and energy. However, critics of this approach argue that there’s no proof it cuts material consumption overall.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Open Hardware
DESIGNING CONSUMER PRODUCTS FOR REMANUFACTURING
Remanufacturing products at the end of their life can be a transitional step towards the ideal of a closed-loop economy, in which products are designed to be returned for remanufacturing, or profitably repurposed in a continuous cycle – cutting waste and saving energy. Innovative manufacturers are leading the way. Ricoh, an office products firm based in Tokyo, offers a range of ‘Greenline’ copiers, printers and scanners that have been remanufactured from parts used before. Kingfisher, a UK DIY and home improvement retailer, announced in August 2011 that it was developing a drill with recyclable parts that could be returned to the store for remanufacturing.
Benefits: reduce, reuse, recycle
Innovators: Ricoh
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