Page 64 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

External Drivers: The Voice of Society 43

consumers in purchasing “green” products and to encourage
manufacturers to design and produce them. It applies to 41
product categories, and about 450 labels have been awarded.
In addition, Part 3 mentions a number of established labeling
pro grams that are associated with particular industry sectors, such
as EPEAT for electronic products (Chapter 11), Marine Stewardship
Council for seafood products (Chapter 15), and Forest Steward-
ship Council for paper products (Chapter 16). The Carbon Trust has
launched a carbon footprint and labeling initiative to help com-
panies measure, reduce, and communicate the life-cycle GHG emis-
sions of products and services. They are collaborating with the
British Standards Institute, which has developed PAS 2050, a specifi-
cation for a common approach to GHG life-cycle assessment. Already,
some retail products are beginning to display carbon labels.
While customer expectations may be one motivation for DFE, it
is a mistake to view DFE as synonymous with green marketing. In
particular, many DFE practices relate to the efficiency of resource
usage in manufacturing and distribution, in which case the benefits
will accrue mainly to the producer, not the consumer. Thus, DFE is
valuable as an integral part of product and process design, whether
or not marketing managers decide that they want to convey an envi-
ronmental “message” about its benefits to their customers.

Voluntary Codes and Principles
As businesses have moved toward adoption of environmental and
social responsibility principles, many have chosen to endorse exist-
ing codes of conduct or corporate citizenship principles developed
by nongovernmental organizations. (See the sidebar below, which
lists the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies {Ceres}
principles as an example.) Most of these codes include language
about a commitment to design products and processes with attention
to their life-cycle environmental impacts. The following is a partial
list of well-known codes.
• Natural Step System Conditions
• Global Sullivan Principles
• Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies
(Ceres) Principles
• UN Global Compact
• IISD Bellagio Principles
• Hannover Principles for Sustainable Design
• UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility: Global
Principles