Support for integrating environmental and circularity considerations into early product design and specification decisions, where material choices, functional requirements and system context determine long-term environmental impact and future improvement options.
Sustainability and resources
Sustainable product development
Embed sustainability and circularity into your product development to reduce environmental impact and align strategy with recognised best practice.
Companies face increasing pressure to minimise the environmental footprint of their products and align with evolving regulatory requirements. Up to 80 per cent of a product's environmental impact is determined in the design phase, making early integration of sustainability and circularity essential.
Structured integration into development
Sustainable product development services provide systematic, holistic support from concept to implementation by combining environmental assessment methods, legislative insights and practical guidance. We assist with reviewing existing practices, identifying optimisation opportunities, prioritising environmental trade-offs, defining relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and ensuring the organisational anchoring. While we build on existing tools and knowledge, we also acknowledge that one size does not fit all. Therefore, we aim for lean, efficient solutions that take into account your company's specific industry and conditions. The service is part of our expertise area Sustainability and resources.
Challenges
When sustainability is not integrated early, design choices become fixed, making later changes more complex and costly.
Environmental impact locked in early causes redesign delays
When sustainability is not addressed during concept and specification stages, high-impact design choices become embedded, making later improvements costly, time-consuming and technically difficult.
Unclear sustainability trade-offs impair design decisions
Without a structured way to compare environmental impacts, teams struggle to prioritise designs and concepts, leading to indecision, rework and sub-optimal design choices.
Regulatory requirements are hard to translate into design actions
When sustainability is not anchored in processes, roles and incentives, design decisions remain ad hoc, making it difficult to apply eco-design principles consistently across projects.
Lack of measurable indicators weakens documentation and reporting
Evolving eco-design and circular economy rules create uncertainty about documentation and product requirements, increasing the risk of late-stage changes or misaligned design decisions.
Benefits
Lower your product's risk of adverse environmental impact
Integrate holistic sustainability insight
Understand product impact across lifecycle stages to prioritise interventions and reduce environmental burden.
Improve design quality
Support development decisions that lead to more durable, resource-conscious and well-considered products.
Align regulatory practices
Ensure development practices align with current and emerging requirements to reduce the risk of late-stage changes.
Get structured support through your process
Move from ad hoc decisions to process-driven sustainability integration in product design.
