Lecture 3 - Concepts & Definitions of Sustainability in Products & Manufacturing

Q#1: What are the temporal and spatial dimensions in the Brundtland definition of sustainable

development?

Q#2: How would they impact product innovation, design, manufacturing, and marketing strategies?

How about their impact on product development process?

: From the report can be deduced that sustainable development must be made effective immediately to A#1

have results by the year 2000 and beyond. (Year 2013 and still working on it). Brundtland report dates back

to March 20th, 1987 and it clearly indicated that scientists had brought to “our attention urgent but complex

problems bearing on our very survival” such as warming globe, desertification of soil, ozone layer

disappearance and so on. As stated on page 4: “the time has come for higher expectations, for common

goals pursued together, for an increased political will to address our common future”. And, as Citizen

Engineers that we are willing to be, we need to understand that we can’t toy with our future any more. It’s

time to change our mind, and make sure that all of us are on the same page with Nature & Sustainable

Development, that we are on the same wavelength to fix what we have not done better before.

Spatial dimensions are also crystal clear: the Earth. As the report indicates on page 4, the aim is “to

persuade nations of the need to return to multilateralism” [7] “multilateral solutions and a restructured

international economic system of cooperation” [7] “these challenges cut across the divides of national

sovereignty”. It is quite obvious since the problem has become global, it requires a global answer. Otherwise

the problem can’t be fixed. Page 5 shows that the problem is patent by many ways in many places, and page

6 lists many tragedies occurred while the Commission was working as a team to fight against the problem,

such as African famines, leak at the pesticides factory at Bhopal (India), nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (ex-

USSR), debt crisis,

To sum up, as Mrs. Brundtland, aged 74 (Baerum, Norway) said “we became convinced that major changes

were needed, both in attitudes and in the way our societies are organized”.

: Sustainable development changes applied to both temporal and spatial dimensions should generate A#2

patent results demonstrable and even quantifiable at least in four different fields:

Patent registration differentiates between creation and improvement. Day after a. Product innovation:

day it is more difficult to create anything really brand new. On the contrary, there is a huge

investigation field about improving what currently exist. Let’s dedicate part of R&D resources to

improve things. As Mr. Tim Roughgarden associate Professor in the Computer Science Department

(and M.S. and E.) at Stanford University says: “Can we do better?” Yes, indeed. Product innovation

can’t just be a creative department to make newer products, to increase sales, to compete with rival

companies. For example, being able to update the O.S. of our phones, tablets or computers and so

on implies we have no need to change physically our electronic devices by newer ones, what

generates less waste to recycle. Product innovation has to be intimately linked to marketing

strategies to detect market opportunities. Product should be created bearing in mind these four steps

and a lot more (colours, batteries Ion Lithium, screens, plasma, Ag and Au connections7).

Why don’t we design products to work with eco-materials which minimize the impact created b. Design:

on the Nature when the product is eliminated? Product concept development implies more than

make something look really fantastic, it also should be environmentally friendly=sustainable today

and tomorrow

Produce reducing the ecological impact derived from the process. Simplifying supply c. Manufacturing:

chain by means of synergies. Delivery terms and conditions including the return of the empty box to

the company, paid by them (they will earn more reusing the boxes than making them again). . Some

chemical products must be used under certain conditions, what may cause a deeper impact on the

environment or surroundings of the company, for example aluminum solid state vs. aluminum

powder. Some other companies have not updated their chemical processes and still use products

such as mercury.

It is not only about marketing mix (8 Ps) it also includes Lauterborn's four Cs d. Marketing strategies:

(consumer, cost, communication, convenience) and Shimizu's four Cs (commodity, cost,

communication, channel). Sale is the art of making people desire what they need. On the contrary,

marketing should tell us what do we have to do to make things better and when. It is not about

bumping up sales ratio but to sell what is really need in its due course.