The European Union is preparing new directives to encourage sustainable product development and promote circularity in the form of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. The intention is to make almost all physical goods on the EU market more environmentally friendly throughout their life cycle. Think of being able to repair the product, reuse parts and/or materials, and/or reduce energy consumption. From Demcon, we think this is important; we want to go along with this. We also want to respond to market and customer needs that arise in this area. The Sustainable Design competence group investigates how we can meet these requirements. They develop and introduce tools such as the qualitative Environmentally Conscious Design (ECD) and the Quickscan LCA & Full LCA tools. With these tools we want to make conscious design choices per project and product type to reduce the final footprint. By using these tools and learning dynamically from them, we are already integrating sustainability into our design.
adjusting our ways of working.
By 2024, awareness of sustainable design (SD) within Demcon has further increased. Sustainable design actively integrated into both business operations and projects of the various Demcon companies. With this, we are thinking more and more consciously about the impact of our activities. In addition, SD is becoming an increasingly regular part of conversations with clients. Furthermore, we achieved the following results in 2024:
our goals for 2025.
Our ambition is to make Sustainable Design an integral part of the product development process. This starts with creating awareness throughout the organization and our customers and collaboration partners and ends with incorporating improvements into our designs to reduce the ecological footprint. This implementation is ensured by integrating sustainable benchmarks into our quality management system.
We have already taken a big step in creating awareness, and by 2025 we aim to include 100% of employees in this through our own set-up of training courses. In 2024, we worked hard to analyze the ecological footprint, and the tools we developed for this can be applied to even more projects in 2025. The Sustainable Design Guidelines, which form the basis for engineers, will be further expanded in 2025 with the knowledge gained.
Integrate sustainable thinking into the project plan of new assignments.
Further improve tools (ECD template, Quickscan tool, LCA tool).
Create awareness and space among all employees.
Train employees in sustainable design.
To achieve these objectives, we will implement the following projects:
We have appointed engineers as Sustainable Design Owners, who together form the Sustainable Design competence group. They are responsible for engaging our engineering groups, integrating the sustainable design methodology into engineers' existing practices, and making engineers aware of its importance. They are also responsible for connecting with industry, developing analysis tools, and identifying and updating regulations related to sustainable design.
When a product is in the detailed design phase, a more in-depth carbon footprint analysis can be performed. By creating a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of all the components of a product and adding up the impact of these components, the impact of the entire product can be visualized in a user-friendly way. The results can be arranged to highlight key areas of concern and can be used to apply the Sustainable Design Guidelines.
At different stages of product development, there are different needs. Early in the process, when there is only an idea or concept, it can be useful to estimate the carbon footprint without performing a full LCA. This estimate can be made using the quick scan tool in Solidworks Sustainability. With this, ideas or concepts can take shape and a report can be produced with a few clicks. This report provides a qualitative comparison that can help in making an informed concept choice.
We are affiliated with the Mechanical Engineering course of Saxion, academy Life Science, Engineering and Design (LED). On behalf of the business community, we provide input for the educational program of this course. When the evaluation of the course advised us to take up the subject of sustainability in a more future-oriented way, we joined in. Since 2022, we provide the guest lecture 'Sustainable Product Development' twice a year. This guest lecture is about finding the balance between the technical solution, the life cycle of the product and the responsible use of raw materials. We provide tools to make different choices in this regard.
To prepare us for future sustainable design regulations, an overview and timeline of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) framework has been created, and where Demcon is within this framework. This gives us insight into the actions to be taken in the coming years.
To move forward with CSV together with our industry partners, we have joined the Brainport Sustainability Network. In this network, challenges and progress are discussed with the aim of learning from each other and finding a common way forward. Topics covered include: collective employee transportation, reducing packaging waste in the supply chain, contributing to customers' circularity and engaging colleagues in sustainability ambitions.
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To take the sustainable design guidelines to the next level, a framework has been developed in which solutions can be defined. This is a living document that will be expanded in the coming years with all new insights. By continuously recording improvements, these are incorporated into the development and planning phase of a new product.t