Changing from petroleum to wood-based materials: critical review of how product sustainability characteristics can be assessed and compared

This paper reports on a literature survey on available approaches for the assessment of product sustainability, with a specific focus on assessing the replacement of non-renewable petroleum-based materials with renewable wood-based materials in absorbent hygiene products. The results are contrasted to needs in a specific material development project. A diverse number of methods exist that can help in assessing different product sustainability characteristics for parts of or whole product lifecycles. None of the assessment methods found include guidelines for how to make a case-specific interpretation of sustainability and there is a general lack of assessment parameters that can describe considerations in the comparison between the use of wood or petroleum as main raw material. One reason for this is lack of knowledge and/or consensus on how to describe and assess impacts of land and water use, e.g. on ecosystem services, different types of resource depletion and social impacts

Guiding the development of wood-based materials towards more sustainable products

In order to stay in business in the long term, companies need to develop more sustainable products. This creates a demand for ways to influence product sustainability at the early stages in product development. This has been studied through literature surveys and action research carried out within a materials development project, with the aim of developing wood-based materials to replace petroleum-based materials while ensuring a more sustainable final product. An analysis of available sustainability impact assessment tools relevant for the material development project showed a lack of ready-made assessment parameters for comparing different types of limited resources, like petroleum, land area and water, and that approaches to establishing relevant sets of assessment parameters that provide for the specific circumstances of a project are missing. A team-learning process for establishing a case-specific set of product sustainability assessment parameters was developed. The set of parameters is intended to guide through the product development process as well as be a basis for a sustainability comparison of a new product with a current product. The process emphasises that in order to develop more sustainable products, the team working with material or product development must be aware of which surrounding world and future-oriented factors that may have significant impacts on the specific product’s sustainability performance. The process suggests that a relevant set of parameters needs to be developed and then translated and integrated into each team member’s everyday work. Various activities were performed within the project to provide input to the development of the process as well as to provide input to the assessment itself. Experiences from such activities emphasise the challenges involved in interacting with the development team, e.g., in terms of motivating the team and providing meaningful information to the team

Assessing Sustainability and Guiding Development towards More Sustainable Products

Companies need to develop more sustainable products that fit into future more sustainable markets. For this reason, the integration of sustainability considerations is needed in the early stages of product development, where a major part of the sustainability performance of a final product is determined. The aim of the research presented in this doctoral thesis is to better understand both enablers and obstacles in developing sustainable products.This research is based on three empirical studies. In the first study participatory action research was applied in a material research project aiming at developing wood-based materials to replace petroleum-based materials, while ensuring a more sustainable product. A specific focus was on how to facilitate action towards more sustainable products by visualising what affects a product’s sustainability. The insights from the first study were applied to the second study, an investigation of the connection between ecolabels and clothing design at three Swedish clothing companies. The research revealed a weak connection, because present ecolabel criteria mainly focus on considerations at the production stage.During the above-mentioned studies it became increasingly apparent that the business organisation has an important influence on companies’ ability to develop more sustainable products. A third study examined two companies to attain a better understanding of how company management systems affect work practices regarding sustainability in product development.The research revealed that technical knowledge on products, production and sustainability is a necessary condition, but by itself not sufficient to drive development of more sustainable products; action competence in a broader sense is needed. For a company or organisation to achieve action competence, collaboration and team learning are necessary, since many different skills must be utilised

Guiding the development of wood-based materials towards more sustainable products

In order to stay in business in the long term, companies need to develop more sustainable products. This creates a demand for ways to influence product sustainability at the early stages in product development. This has been studied through literature surveys and action research carried out within a materials development project, with the aim of developing wood-based materials to replace petroleum-based materials while ensuring a more sustainable final product.An analysis of available sustainability impact assessment tools relevant for the material development project showed a lack of ready-made assessment parameters for comparing different types of limited resources, like petroleum, land area and water, and that approaches to establishing relevant sets of assessment parameters that provide for the specific circumstances of a project are missing. A team-learning process for establishing a case-specific set of product sustainability assessment parameters was developed. The set of parameters is intended to guide through the product development process as well as be a basis for a sustainability comparison of a new product with a current product. The process emphasises that in order to develop more sustainable products, the team working with material or product development must be aware of which surrounding world and future-oriented factors that may have significant impacts on the specific product’s sustainability performance. The process suggests that a relevant set of parameters needs to be developed and then translated and integrated into each team member’s everyday work. Various activities were performed within the project to provide input to the development of the process as well as to provide input to the assessment itself. Experiences from such activities emphasise the challenges involved in interacting with the development team, e.g., in terms of motivating the team and providing meaningful information to the team

Naturalizing sustainability in product development: A comparative analysis of IKEA and SCA

The aim is to analyse ways that sustainability can be successfully integrated into product development in large firms. This is done by a comparative study of two large firms, IKEA and SCA, during the time period 1990–2006. These were both among the pioneers to introduce sustainability into operations. The study is based on 24 interviews and one author’s experience as an insider researcher. The analytical framework visualizes the relationships between what is explicitly expressed, in writing or speech, and what tacitly guides behaviour, and what is actually practised in product development. Although both firms have substantial experience working with sustainability and are role models, they chose very different strategies to integrate sustainability into product development. Their approaches reflect the logic of their company cultures and management systems. This indicates that sustainability practices must be adapted to fit the logic of a firm’s existing management system

Assessing sustainability already in product development

Since companies need to develop more sustainable products to stay in business in the long term, there is a demand for ways to assess and compare product sustainability already in product development. This is studied through action research performed within the “wood based diaper” material development project (WooDi) aiming to develop a wood based material to replace a petroleum based while ensuring a more sustainable product. Approaches for environmental improvement in product development focus primarily on optimisation of the existing product system, e.g. on replacing parts or processes representing large environmental impacts. In some cases, broader system effects and effects of a changing surrounding system is taken into account e.g. by consequential LCA studies. Such approaches will result in marginal improvements compared to the present situation, and cannot fully take advantage of truly innovative ideas that are based on completely different solutions or the fact that a more sustainable future society might put very different demands on products compared to the strictest environmental requirements of today. Based on what was found in relevant literature, most often lists of predetermined parameters are being used without critical reflection on their importance in light of the specific situation. There is a specific lack of parameters describing the sustainability impacts of a shift from fossil to biomass resources in a life cycle perspective, e.g. related to competition for resources. As a result, an approach for establishing relevant product sustainability parameters is presented, emphasising the need to bringing in the diverse knowledge and experiences of the product development team members as vital for a successful result. The parameters are intended to guide product development as well as to be a base for a sustainability comparison of a new product with a current product

Consequences for wood resource use for incontinence diapers in Europe 2010 to 2050

Increasing life expectancy results in an ageing society in parts of the world. The old of tomorrow are also expected to have higher comfort demands. One likely consequence is an increase in the need of such products as disposable incontinence diapers, which are today partly based on cellulose from forestry. A calculation of the potential increase for heavy incontinence care (assuming the use of disposable incontinence diapers) was made based on the demographic trends for Europe and on the yield from forestry performed under Nordic conditions. The calculation is using a parameterisation known from literature: I = i * m * u * P. It expresses the impact (I, in our case, forest area in ha) as a product of four factors that humans have the ability to change, in our case, i = ha Nordic forest area / kg material, m = kg material / service, u = service / population in Europe, and P = population in Europe. The 'service' is to keep a customer with heavy incontinence dry for a year, assuming that the same fraction of the population above 50 years as today will need heavy incontinence protection. Under these assumptions, the forest area needed for heavy incontinence care in Europe will increase with about 75% until 2050. According to the current work in the WooDi research project, aiming at producing a wood-based diaper, if the petroleum-based material in the absorbent core in the diapers were to be replaced by wood-based, this would increase the needed forest area to about 136%, assuming a 1:1 replacement ratio by weight which seems to be a low estimate. This is still a small share of the total European forest area (0.2%). However, such an increase in wood demand for only one product is not without problems, since forests to a large extent are already utilised, e.g. for timber and pulp and paper production, and since there is an expected increase in demand for bio-based fuels and materials for replacement of fossil-based products, thus competing for either the yield from the forests or for the land area. At the same time, there are rising concerns regarding biodiversity and other ecosystem services in connection to forestry