One of the tools we learn about in Environmental Science that overlaps with Business is the Life Cycle Analysis. It is commonly used to assess a product or project throughout its entire lifespan from the procurement of materials to the disposal of the product or completion of a project to help determine all of the environmental impacts it may cause. Environmental consultants use it all the time to weigh the costs and benefits of alternative projects. Likewise, businesses can use it to look at how sustainable their products are and to assess where inefficiencies lie in their supply chain.

Recently, I’ve felt like I’ve had my world turned upside down through what these Life Cycle Analyses end up revealing. Many of the products that I had once thought of as environmentally friendly have turned out to be the very opposite. Green washing claims, eco labels, social norms and companies boasting minor green achievements have all blurred the lines into what is believable and credible. For example buying locally grown foods at my grocery store makes me feel better about my purchasing habits. Yet I recently found out that out of season fruits that have to be grown in a greenhouse actually requires far more energy than it does to ship food from California. Reading the Sustainable Materials Management Coalition and learning that those thin non-disposable plastic packaging slips are actually more sustainable than the recyclable cardboard boxes was an astonishing revelation for me. Conventionally we think of any form of plastic as being unsustainable, yet the reality is that using the recyclable packaging actually requires a greater amount of resources and makes shipping less efficient. But when it comes down to it, its not just about whats most sustainable.

Companies continue to use these cardboard boxes because of they want to avoid any backlash that would be received from concerned but uninformed consumers. Like wise, in one of my other classes we read an article describing the results of various LCA studies. While they pointed to positive examples like how aluminum is one of the best re-useable materials available as it has a 90% reclamation rate, they also highlighted occasions where sustainability was passed over in favour of other priorities. In particular they went into detail about the debate of plastic juice bottles vs the carton boxes. The company behind Tropicana orange juice wanted to find out which of these 2 option were more sustainable so they performed rigorous studies to evaluate the entire life cycle of both options. You probably already know the results of their findings. The carton boxes beat out the plastic packaging in almost every category and so Tropicana continues to use their carton boxes. They continued this trend towards sustainability up until their competitor started selling orange juice in big plastic bottles. It turns out that consumers would choose the plastic bottles because they could see the actual orange juice, making it more tangible for them. As Tropicana started to lose out on market share, they abandoned their more sustainable packaging in favour of the see through plastic bottles. While not much can be done to change the result, this unfortunate conclusion serves as a reminder that businesses must ensure that quality is not compromised. At the end of the day we need to really consider the entire life cycle of the things we use despite whatever sustainable claims companies make.

In my last blog I talked about the importance of designing better products and how biomimicry can help us accomplish that. Here, I’ll be looking into another aspect of making better everyday products. As more companies are transitioning from a cradle to grave mentality towards a cradle to cradle line of operations the importance of modular design as a driver for sustainability continues to grow. With our current ecological footprint, we need to find ways to minimize our waste and to incorporate processes in our systems that finds new value in other outputs from our supply chain that would normally be thrown out. This shift towards the circular economy is a trend that can not be ignored any longer. It is crucial not just to improve on a company’s environmental impact but to facilitate a culture of innovation.

A look at Interface’s history and the So Right, So Smart video can provide us with convincing evidence of the benefits of this modular mindset. Instead of producing entire rolls of carpets, Interface revolutionized the industry by producing tiles that could be combined together.In doing so they not only reduced what was going to the landfill, they were able to significantly reduce their costs by removing the excess trimmings that would be cutoff when fitting the carpet to a specific project. Efficiency was improved as installation speeds increased and the tiles became universal to fit any pattern layout.

Modular design has also changed how consumers access technology that would normally be beyond financial reach. The newest versions of smart phones like the iPhone Xand Samsung Galaxy 8 can cost upwards of a thousand dollars and traditionally only last two to three years. Something so ubiquitous and accessible is a significant investment for even university students. Unfortunately, this high price point acts like a barrier for the underprivileged and its weird to think about how many people don’t have one of the most basic items as a result.

Essential is a company leading the way by utilizing a modular design to change the way we buy phones. The base model of the phone comes at a reasonable priced figure and provides all the basics someone is looking for in a phone. However, these same customers are free to purchase additional “mods” that augment the phone. This ability to personalize a custom phone to meet individual needs at whatever price point they can afford is a strategy that will help to break down social barriers. This strategy is a unique twist on the good, better, best business model. When ever you walk into a store you’ll often notice that the store will have 3 different variations or brands of the exact same item but with 3 different levels of prices. The lowest priced brand is by all accounts a good product and does the job when solving a customer’s needs. The middle one is of a little better quality. While the highest priced brand goes the extra mile and is generally considered the best of the three. Why doesn’t the store just pick one of these brands to put on their shelves? They decide to carry all the 3 brands of the product so that customers can have the option to choose the product that fits within their budget. By choosing a modular design, Essential is able to target all 3 of the good, better, best segments at the same time. The potential of modular design extends far beyond profits and expanding market share. As we can see with these phones, modular design can help to tackle social issues by making newer technologies and products more accessible for everyone.

One of the things that I noticed we all seemed to struggle with as a class is how we grapple with the idea of creating things that are just going to be thrown out into a landfill. Even though we all want to make things that are more efficient, produce less waste and have a lower environmental impact, consumers are always looking for something new. I think that we all agreed that we need to shift our focus towards creating goods that are multi-use, have a longer life cycle and are even regenerative. In my mind, the best way to start this transition is to approach things from a design perspective. As Thomas Watson Jr. eloquently put it, “good design is good business”.

In one of my other classes – Environmental Design 231: Thinking by Design – we look at a lot of examples of putting ourselves in a mindset that allows us to design better products. One of the company’s that often gets pointed out is IDEO. This cutting edge design firm is constantly challenging themselves to think of creative product designs that aren’t only easier to use but provide customers with viable solutions to problems they didn’t realize they had. By directly targeting one of the core C’s of marketing and focusing on Customer Wants and Needs IDEO has made a name for itself designing products that are intuitive and that people want to use over and over again.

One thing that they described was looking to Nature as a source of inspiration. Over the span of millions of years, a countless number of species have all adapted and evolved to do one thing: survive. Highly tuned to become the most efficient organisms in their surroundings nature has created some of the most remarkable case studies that we can learn from. The concept of biomimicry that these designers use is exactly that. It involves looking at something in nature to inspire an idea and then applying it in a design to make something more useful or efficient. Michael Pawlyn hosted a TED talk about biomimicry and went into detail describing how nature has specifically influenced architecture.

One of the examples that stuck out to me the most was how architects looked at the Namibia Beetles in a desert environment where they were trying to combat desertification. They realized that this one beetle was able to thrive in a blistering area where there was essentially no water by becoming cooler than its surrounding and causing condensation all because of matte black colour. The tiny hydrophilic bumps and grooves on its skin would then help to funnel the water down to its mouth. Just by standing in place and st

retching out its wings, this beetle was able to create its own water out of thin air. The architects then designed a greenhouse that uses sea water to cool down the surrounding temperature (allowing for plants to grow more easily) and also filters the sea water into freshwater. This created a regenerative cluster that quickly created a lush green area surrounding the greenhouse in a previously barren desert.

As an environmental scientist, this particular topic resonated with me on a deeper level. Combining insights into nature with the design process is an inspiring idea for me that I believe will drive us to create better and more sustainable products.

One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about since joining this class back in September is how Sustainability Marketing should be viewed as building a relationship. From building community roots in the creating shared value article to shifting our focus from the standard 4 P’s of Marketing towards the 4 C’s. This idea of a relationship between companies and consumers as the future of marketed has remained a focal point throughout the entire course. There are countless examples of real world businesses applying this idea to increase their presence in the market and to create innovations where none existed. Here in Vancouver we can look at the telecommunications giant, Telus, to see the impact they have within the community and how they leverage this into a competitive advantage.

One look at at the organization’s business operations and it is easy to see how sustainability is one of the core pillars of their brand. They continually advocate for an increase in “work from home programs”, they build up their portfolio of LEED certified buildings and enforce higher supply chain standards. These not only help to lower overhead costs, they also improve employee efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. As a particular example, by allowing their staff to work from home Telus avoids the costs necessary to power and maintain an office while also drastically reducing the greenhouse gases released from employees commuting to work. Instead of getting stuck in traffic for an hour workers under this flexible structure now also have more time to focus on their actual jobs. In 2015, the company was named as one of the top 100 most sustainable corporations on the Global Knights 2015 list. That year Telus ranked 37th, a vast improvement from their previous ranking of 70th in 2014.

While most companies would be happy to call it a day and pat themselves on the back for this kind of sustainability achievement, Telus continued to take their efforts one step further. Free wi-fi on public transit busses and billion dollar investments to improve their telecommunications infrastructure may just be simple win-win acts whose benefits to the local area come as a byproduct of a giant corporation reinforcing its position in the market. But this is just scratching the surface of how Telus gives back. Aside from their actual day to day operations I was surprised to discover how much they give back to their local communities. A quick dive through the company’s list of past initiatives within just this past year paint a picture of a company that has deep roots in the community. Their impact is vast and widespread, supporting a multitude of issues ranging from promoting the arts to social justice issues like tackling homelessness and supporting Indigenous families. Telus even stepped in recently and put in a $150,000 sponsorship to help keep the Vancouver Santa Claus Parade alive.

Through their sustainability initiatives and community outreach programs, its clear that Telus has  approached their business as a way to create shared value. Truth be told, while I think that the lessons I’ve learned in this class are encouraging signs of how business can have a positive impact there was always a voice in the back of my head that would question just how much companies benefit from these efforts. But looking more and more into how Telus operates, the happier I am knowing that I use them as a provider and I’m actually more inclined to continue supporting them. Its now clear to me the value that businesses and consumers receive when a strong community relationship is built.