Innovation factor

Introduction:

One of the issues at stake with eco-design lies in the fact that the approach itself is innovative as a project (it requires the questioning of the product and service design and development practices within the company), as well as in its methodology where cross-sectional methods and collective intelligence are of the essence.
Relying on a cross-sectional team combining the different competences of the company is a key success factor for any eco-design project: design, engineering, marketing, Purchasing, Technical department, etc.

How?

Embarking on an eco-design approach, a voluntary approach resulting from a strategy adopted at top company level, means developing fresh, broader thinking on the products or services developed and implemented by the company, and therefore seizing an opportunity to explore original improvement options.
The eco-design approach is therefore a source of innovation and marketing differentiation.

As part of an eco-design approach, which invites a project team with totally complementary skills to the table (engineering, purchasing, finance, marketing, design, etc.), the company goes beyond the mere desire to improve its products: it launches a genuine reflection on the very function of the product, with a view to developing new functions (in accordance with evolving usage but also with ecological constraints, notably those encountered by the users), new services. In most cases, this new organization turns out to be an internal motivation tool which boosts reflection on products.

With whom?

Of course, innovation exceeds the limited scope of the company as, more than rallying the personnel around a new ambitious project, eco-design requires the mobilization of suppliers and even sometimes customers, so that everyone can progress together via transparent and creative cooperation. Optimizing the offer (service or product), facilitating product maintenance, reducing the energy consumption of services: by focusing on these new issues, eco-design addresses the need for companies, in particular SMEs, to anticipate the emerging environmental expectations of the market.