Page 174 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Design Rules and Guidelines 153

• Shift to a service-based economy (see Section A.3, Design for
Servicization)
In addition, nations need to invest in the restoration and renewal
of natural capital through improved agricultural practices, reforesta-
tion, and proactive conservation.

Climate Change Mitigation
The paramount environmental issue facing most businesses today is
climate change. Driven both by stakeholder expectations and rising
energy costs, companies are hastening to assess their carbon footprint
and develop climate protection programs (see Chapter 3). Some miti-
gation of GHGs can be achieved immediately through energy conser-
vation and more careful operations management, but the gains will
be incremental. Energy conservation is attractive because it is both
easy to implement and results in direct cost savings. According to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sponsors the Green
Lights and Energy Star programs (see Chapter 3), every kilowatt-
hour of electricity use avoided prevents the emission of approxi-
mately 1.5 lb. of CO , 5.8 g. of SO and 2.5 g. of NO .
2 2 x
However, to fundamentally change the unsustainable trajectory
of industrialized economies will take more than conservation—it re -
quires disruptive innovation. Thanks to a flood of venture capital, a
ho st of new technologies are emerging for reducing dependence on
petroleum and generating energy from alternative, renewable sources
(see Chapter 18). Many companies see an opportunity to gain com-
petitive advantage through early adoption of energy-saving technol-
ogies. Some companies, particularly in the energy-related industries,
are discovering new growth markets and building new businesses
around climate change mitigation or adaptation. In all cases, compa-
nies need to build an awareness of energy implications into their
product development processes (see Section A.1, Design for Energy
and Material Conservation).

Greenhouse Gas intensity Reduction
Energy conservation is certainly the first step in climate protection. A
complementary strategy is substitution of renewable energy sources,
such as solar and hydro power, for nonrenewable sources, such as
fossil fuels. Natural resources are considered renewable if the rate
at which they are replenished is sufficient to compensate for their
depletion. However, as discussed in Chapter 9, life-cycle assessment
studies have indicated that the full environmental impacts of some
†
renewable sources, such as biofuels , may be greater than those of

† Renewable fuels based on biomass are effectively “borrowing” carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and then releasing it again through combustion, so there is
no net increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.