Page 103 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

82 Chapter Five

• Dow Chemical has established community advisory panels
to improve communication between plant managers and local
neighboring communities.
The availability of modern information technology is a key enabler
for the types of collaborations described above. Sustainability report-
ing has gone digital, and many companies are issuing abbreviated
versions of hard copy reports, with much more detailed information
published on their websites. Likewise, information about DFE goals
and product designs can be shared across time and space through a
variety of mechanisms, ranging from electronic meetings to sophisti-
cated product data management systems. Global companies are learn-
ing to integrate their global design teams through electronic means
and are becoming increasingly comfortable at sharing information
with their supply chain partners and consultants in order to analyze
existing operations and design improved solutions.
One critical stakeholder group that is often overlooked is com-
pany employees. In their haste to communicate externally, some
companies may neglect internal communication and alignment. As a
result, employees may be skeptical about the business relevance and
authenticity of a company’s sustainability commitments. For a DFE
program to be credible and successful, the engagement and enthusi-
asm of employees—both managers and the workforce—are essential
[8]. This means involving a variety of functional groups in under-
standing customer expectations, exploring alternative technologies,
driving environmental innovations, and taking credit for the resulting
competitive advantages. By promoting internal collaboration, engag-
ing employees and recognizing their DFE-related achievements, com-
panies can create a “multiplier effect”—DFE stories are transmitted
via informal communication networks, thereby enhancing the com-
pany’s reputation and helping to attract and retain talent [9].

References
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New World of Business (New York: McGraw-Hill, New York, 2009).
3. National Research Council, Improving Engineering Design: Designing for
Competitive Advantage (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1991).
4. D. Rainey, Product Innovation: Leading Change through Integrated Product
Development (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
5. A. Khurana and S. R. Rosenthal, (1997), “Integrating the fuzzy front end of new
product development,” Sloan Management Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, 1997, pp. 103 –20.
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7. K. Yang, Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Product Development (New York:
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8. J. Fiksel, R. Axelrod, and S. Russell, “Inside Out: Sustainability Communication
Begins in the Workplace,” green@work, Summer 2005.