Green for green

For many companies, a visit from a ‘green advisor’ is a bit like having a Jehovah’s Witness camped on the doorstep. But it does not have to be like that. “Our main target is to save people money,” says Jenni Rosser, who heads the cleaner design group at Envirowise. “We do it through environmental improvement.” The group – which is funded by Government – has been tasked with spreading the environmental message to industry. But it is measured on purely practical terms. For every £1 of funding it receives, Envirowise must save industry £10 – hence its reason for shying away from the vagaries of saving the planet and towards the practicality of saving money. As with everything environmental, these moves are driven by legislation. But uncommonly, Rosser says that embracing environmental measures proactively is a good way of avoiding tougher legislation. A European law called the Energy Using Products Directive (EuP) came into force in August. It specifically affects companies selling electrical products. And while no ‘daughter directives’ are currently planned, this could change “should market forces fail to develop”. “This is really a framework for eco-design of products,” says Rosser. “It provides an outline for implementing measures for the future.” One of its advice schemes is Design Track – a one-day visit that helps companies to identify how to design products ‘cleaner’. “It’s about finding out about one product you want to look at,” says Rosser. “If you sell a million units per year, then removing one screw could have a big effect on cost.” The sessions involve getting designers to sit around the table and work out how a product. And it can even help energy-saving companies. Savawatt, which designs control systems that reduce the electricity used by motors, realised that it could practice what it preached and reduce its own consumption. Following a Design Track visit, it decided that it could: redesign its electronics from analogue to digital for greater efficiency; reduce the use of materials and components; and simplify the design for easier assembly and disassembly. “Generally, we look at waste hierarchy,” says Rosser. “It’s better to design it out at the start rather than be able to dispose of it an the end. We would try to design out waste as we go along.” Different products are assessed in different ways. A washing machine, for example, uses most of its energy while it is being used. But for a mobile phone, the most important factor is the disposal at the end of its life. “In this case, you would look to make it easier to dismantle and recycle,” says Rosser. It is always a risk to expect an entire marketplace to follow an unwritten directive, but Rosser is confident that the carrot approach can work as effectively as the stick. “As long as the majority see the benefits, the big implementing measures will not see the light of day,” she says.