Addressing climate change: Circular Product Design
Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. It not only poses challenges to our environment, natural resources and human life but also to the global economy. When we talk about climate change we immediately think of plastic pollution, CO2 emissions by fossil fuel-based vehicles and Thermal power plants. This immediately divers the focus to plastic ban, Electric vehicles and renewable energy alternatives like solar, wind power etc. Unfortunately, there is very less focus on redesign of the products and services that we use which is the biggest source of waste which finally ends up in landfills. Electric vehicles & clean energy can reduce emissions/ carbon footprints by 55% while 45% of reduction is possible by designing products with circular approach. This part still remains mostly untapped which according to WBCSD is a USD 4.5 Trillion opportunity.
We are living in a Linear Economy which is basically about taking resources (like minerals, oil etc.) from nature, make products out of them, use them and dispose. The waste thus disposed is the biggest threat to our environment. Circular Economy presents a different approach to address this issue. It is about seeing the system as a closed loop.
Circular Economy
“We are trying to change a system, not one business. We need to change the way people think, the way things are designed, the materials that are put into them,” says Ellen MacArthur, Ace Sailor & Founder Ellen MacArthur Foundation. A shift to circular economy is difficult without designing the product with a circular approach. A challenge to such design is the immense requirement of prototyping & testing to ensure the product (through its entire life cycle) is environmentally friendly, has minimum carbon footprint and doesn’t end up in landfills. For example:
- In Metallurgy industry, design metals/ alloys with minimum Energy Intensity (Energy required to extract, refine & process), minimum wastage, reusability etc.
- In Appliances/ Smart phone industry, design products with Maximum Repairability Score (a scale on 0–10 measure how easy is to repair a product)
- In the Electronics industry, design safer alternatives to existing Lithium-Ion batteries for example.
- In the Apparel/ Fashion industry design clothes which have minimum environmental impact, and its fibers & yarns could be reused.
- In the Automobile Industry, design components and parts which could be re-engineered & re-manufactured, and recycling is the last option.
- In the food industry design logistics & delivery system such that food reaches the plate before the expiry through smart logistics & dynamic pricing model.
There are numerous similar use cases across industries.
Circular Economy is not recycling of waste but designing the waste out through innovation. If the products are designed with circularity principles in mind, waste could be reduced to minimum.
