Regenerative Product Design for Sustainable Products

Understand cause and effect of your value chain and products on the natural capital...

Regenerative Product design - The goal is to focus on more recyclable materials (less extracted materials) and designing out waste

True sustainable design of products and services starts early in the product design phase. It is very important to understand the whole aspect of the product lifecycle and to understand the impact of the product on the environment. It is crucial to connect the dots between the engineering (e.g. design for modularity), sourcing (e.g. where to source, how to supply and how to reverse the process), manufacturing (e.g. where to produce and how to operate) and distribution processes (e.g. take back, sharing and subscriptions) and to visualize cause and effect of all these activities on natural capital. A key sustainable design pattern is the design for circularity in products. It shifts with the wrong idea of taking, making and disposing. The circular design approach is based on the concept that product materials are continuously repurposed. Products and materials are broken down and reused for other purpose but with minimal negative impact on the environment.

So it differs from regenerative product design. Here the focus is on design principles that enable a product or service to contribute to business models that renew and replenish themselves. This ultimately means the materials and energy that go into a product or process can be reintroduced into the same process or system, requiring little to no inputs to maintain it. At the heart of regenerative design, there’s a strong connection to the place in which a product or process is extracted, produced, used and disposed of at end of life.

So the idea is quite simple, but where to start. Companies need to look at their products from two new angles - focus on more recyclable materials (less extracted materials) and designing out waste. This thinking must be at the core of re-engineering existing or designing future products. The goal is to minimize waste and the environmental impact.

What about the responsibility of the consumers/users? Regenerative products can build trust (into brands), transparency (consumers know what they buy) and communities where consumers/users can share thoughts ore come up with ideas for additional improvements. Regenerative product design transforms consumers into users with a higher purpose - to help to reduce the impact on the environment.

🌎 Understand the impact of your product design and connect the dots across the value chain how to re-engineer products using more recyclable materials and less waste while redesigning/disrupting business processes and business models.

🌎 Leverage Smart Technology to create Responsible Producer Networks that are based on trust, resilience, reuse and sharing practices.

🌎 Invest into Responsible Consumer Platforms to provide transparency and promote recycle and take-back models.

Regenerative Product design is becoming increasingly important in today's world as businesses strive to create more sustainable and eco-friendly products. By designing products with the entire lifecycle in mind, companies can reduce waste, minimize their impact on the environment, and create products that can be recycled or repurposed at the end of their useful life. In addition, regenerative product design can lead to cost savings, increased brand loyalty, and a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As consumers become more environmentally conscious and demand more sustainable products, regenerative product design will continue to play a critical role in driving the transition to a more sustainable future. Therefore, it is essential for companies to embrace regenerative product design and incorporate it into their overall sustainability strategy to meet the needs of the present and future generations.

I believe it is time to revolutionize the way we do business. It is time for a Purpose-driven Wellbeing Economy. But to achieve this goal we to speed the adoption of Sustainable Digitalization in industrial organizations to optimize the way how business is done. Smart Technology is one key enabler to get there. What do you think?