Sustainability in Design: The Coca-Cola Company - Term Paper Example

Name: xxxxxx Tutor: xxxxxx Title: Sustainability in Design Institution: xxxxxx Due Date: xxxxxx Product sustainability Introduction Designing a sustainable product is a big challenge in the modern society. However, a number of companies are striving to endlessly enhance the sustainability of their products due to high consumer demand for healthy, safe and green products. The design for sustainability outlines the approaches for making the social, environmental and economic sustainable improvements to products through the application of the elements of life cycle thinking (Ehrenfeld, 2008). Improving the social and environmental performance of products sold in the market is a natural way undertaken to make a positive contribution to the sustainable development. It is also perceived to be a stimulus for developing some new product ideas and innovation in order to enhance the customer convenience and confidence as well as reinforcing trust in the brands developed. Therefore, a holistic approach to the product sustainability involves implementing the whole product lifecycle. This ranges from concept and design, through customer use to the final disposal of packaging and waste product. This implies that the life-cycle approach to sustainable product development is a product journey as illustrated below (Brezet and Hemel, 1997). It is highly considered that both the development and use of the consumer products may have major impacts on the environmental, ethical and social performance. However, such impacts can be efficiently and cost-effectively managed at the design and development stage. Understanding the Product Life Cycle (Linear) Understanding of a product lifecycle is the initial step taken in developing a framework for the sustainable products. This is because the environmental and social impacts take place during the production, use and disposal of the product as illustrated below (Vidal, 2008). Product Life Cycle Energy/materials Wastes Re-use Recycle/Remanufacture From the illustration, it can be observed that the life cycle for most products is basically linear which begins with a design process, for instance, the stages of raw materials extraction, the manufacturing process, packaging/distribution, consumption/use and end with disposal within a landfill. However, the re-use, recycling as well as re-manufacturing approaches are generally limited. In each stage, there is use of material, energy and the labor force as inputs and wastes as the outputs. This shows that the waste can be in energy, material form or negative social and economic impacts on local communities (Vidal, 2008). Therefore, the environmental and social impacts of the entire product cycle result from diverse forms of wastes. The various decisions made at the design stage as well as throughout the product development process causes ramifications for the product’s life cycle impacts. This suggests that extraction and processing of the raw materials may turn out to be hazardous to the workers, harm the local communities and degrade the environment. On the other hand, packaging, distribution as well as consumption or use of products requires large amounts of energy and materials. At the final stage of the product’s useful life, it is apparent that its disposal (Manzini & Vezzoli, 2002). Solutions to sustainable packaging deliver around two significant colors according to the Accenture report. This includes black which delivers reduced costs and green which means reduced environmental impacts. Therefore, sustainable packaging largely relies on the best engineering, energy management, the materials science as well as life cycle thinking in order to reduce the environmental impact of a given product through its developed lifecycle.  The science and engineering work that works around the sustainable packaging discovered and tested various attributes, such as reducing packaging as well as maximizing the use of some renewable or reusable materials, use of lighter weight, less toxic or materials that reduce the negative end-of-life impacts and optimizing the material usage that includes the product-to-package ratios associated with sustainable production (Desjardins, 2007). Most companies emphasize on the importance of the 6 R’s of the sustainable packaging of refill, recycle, repurpose, reduce, renew and reuse. For instance, Wal-Mart’s 7 R’s of the Sustainable Packaging, includes Remove the Packaging, Reuse Packaging , Renew(able), Reduce the Packaging, Recycle(able), Revenue or economic benefits, and  Read or education) as well as the 10 R’s of the eco-strategy of Replenish, Re-explore, Replace, Reduce, Reconsider, Recall, Redeem, Review, Register and Reinforce are also applied in sustainable production (Ehrenfeld, 2008). A typical piece of packaging for the Coca-cola brand The Coca-Cola Company has focused on improving its packaging material efficiency per the liter of its coke brand product sold by 7% by 2015 compared with the 2008 baseline. The company has a long history of the designing packages with environmental protection in mind, for instance, examining the environmental impact of their packages. In addition, the company lays the framework for its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology that is widely used today. Coca-cola Company focuses on its coke brand life cycle management which has greatly helped the company to have sustainable use of the high value recyclable materials as well as reusable packages. Research indicates that about 85% of the coke’s global beverage volume is distributed in the primary packaging that is made from the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, glass, steel and aluminum. This means that the material is considerably 100 percent recyclable. However, the remaining 15% of the beverage volume is largely distributed through the highly efficient bulk packages systems, for example, the refillable steel tanks (Coca-Cola Company, 2008). Currently, the Coca-Cola Company is advancing its sustainable design efforts by an initiative referred to as e3 that focuses on enhancing efficiency, life-cycle effectiveness as well as eco-innovation. For instance, through the use of state-of-the-art-computer design application, the company has managed to effectively reduce and improve the impact resistance of its most recognizable package known as glass contour bottle. Coca-cola continues to drive some new innovations around its bottle closures (Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Recently, the company rolled out a short-height closure which enables it to reduce plastic use from the closure and bottle by about 5%. In addition, the coca-cola company with its coke brand has driven material reduction developments through the advancement of closures without liners. Throughout its system, the company tailors its packaging so as to meet the local economic, environmental and social needs. This implies that in least developed markets, coca-cola company relies more heavily on the refillable bottles so as to offer greater affordability to its customers as well as prevent wastes. However, in other instances the company adjusts the amount of the material used within the PET bottles which is based on the local temperatures in order to reduce the packaging costs while maintaining the product quality (Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Approximately 85% of our unit case volume today is delivered in recyclable bottles and cans. The recovery of these containers and their materials for reuse is critical to our sustainability aspirations. Our target is to recover directly 50% of the equivalent bottles and cans sold worldwide. Through reuse, coca-cola company is working to advance some technologies that allow it to use greater amounts of the recycled materials in its packaging. The Coca-Cola Company is largely using the recycled content PET in over 17 markets across the world. As a result, the recycling plastic for production reuse, yields more financial benefits, it requires less amounts energy in comparison to producing bottles with the virgin materials and reduces the waste as well as greenhouse gases. Through Recycling Plants, the company invested in the creation of PET recycling plants which produce bottles from the recycled content within Australia, Mexico and the Philippines, in Switzerland as well as in the United States (Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Redesigning of the Coke packaging using new techniques In order to reduce its carbon footprint as well as make it less detrimental throughout its life cycle, the Coca-Cola Company will redesign its Coke brand. Since Coke involves a variety of packaging, the new framework for packaging will be focused on its plastic bottled products. For instance, the plastics used within the Coke’s packaging are obtained from a resin referred to as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate). Due to dire environmental consequences that result from the usage of plastic packaging, Coke has been forced to develop a more sustainable guidance on how to control the awful environmental consequences. In this guidance, explanations of the existing practices of Coke based on the perspective of sustainability paradigm such as environment, ethics and business is considered. This will include the analysis of the current method implemented by Coke to reduce its packaging carbon footprint as well as address its validity (Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Research indicates that Coke focuses on three main areas in reducing packaging emissions. This involves reducing its weight of packaging, using the recycled content in packaging and recycling to ensure that the company uses the recyclable materials. Reducing the packaging weight is a Coke method considered to be important in the reduction of emissions as well as in the representation sustainability. The major aim of reducing the weight package is reduce the amount of energy consumed in the manufacture of bottles and minimize the amount of wastes that are generated from the packaging (Coca-Cola Company, 2008). Technically, it has been discovered that less waste is generated in form physical weight per unit of soda. Nonetheless, using the resin continues the fact that any of the bottles, irrespective of their weight are not biodegradable. This implies that this method of bottle weight reduction does not implement the idea of bio-mimicry. Using the recycled content, Coke claims that plastics take long to decompose incase they are thrown away. As a result, the company has recently focused more on the recyclable content used in the production Eco-efficiency. This is in order to increase the productivity of the natural resources, while use making use of fewer natural resources. Since recycling is a short-term solution to the human’s sustainability issues (Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Desjardins (2007) argues that the commonly applied environmental guidance to the 3Rs of reduce, reuse, recycle as well as do more with less, effectively addresses the faced problems with the current practices without necessarily getting at bad designs which underlie and cause such problems. Therefore, use of the recycled PET within the production of new bottles is considerably not eco-efficient because the practice continues to perpetuate the application of fossil fuels in the production of plastic and its use. On the other hand, recycling of the waste and encouraging the consumers to increasingly recycle soft drinks packages, has made Coke to invest significantly within the recycling at the six manufacturing sites found in Great Britain (Desjardins, 2007). Suggested guidance for Improvement The suggested guidance involves a strategy for improvement which focuses on the production of a superior alternative plastic. A shift from the habit of Coke’s use of PET plastic resin for its packaging of products is the main focus in the redesign of the packaging framework. This is because a number of the plethora advantages are associated with the use of the suggested PLA (Polylactide) plastics, a type of plastic developed by Innovative Nature Works Company. PLA (Polylactide) plastics are distinctive from the widely used PET that is not biodegradable and heavily relies on oil so as to produce the 450 billion pounds of the required plastic every year. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, a systems analysis tool that accounts for the entire environmental impacts related to product is used to determine the PLA plastic’s environmental production effects. This is achieved through the support of NatureWorks, covering the entire stages product’s life cycle, from the extraction of the required resources to the final disposal of the product. Illustration of the LCA phases Coke will be able to reduce its carbon emission through the use of superior plastic, and The LCA results emphasizes on the application of life cycle of the product approach which represents more of a cradle-to-cradle mindset. This means that the NatureWorks’ PLA plastic is obtained from the resources that can be easily renewed on the annual basis. Therefore, a considerably smaller amount of the fossil fuel resources is used and the major resource used is the field corn. In order to track the product’s marginal effect of using the less fossil fuel, a consideration is paid on the steps and resources necessary for production that ranges from all the farming inputs, through tractor fuel and seed, to the NatureWorks biopolymer production system that is completely transparent. Therefore, unlike the PET plastic that is commonly used in Coca-cola, NatureWorks PLA plastics ensures a reduction in the use of carbon emissions through the direct application of less fossil fuel resources. As a result, other dangerous emissions such as sulphur oxides and nitrogen as well as metals and some volatile organics are also reduced (Life Cycle Assessment, 2009). Conclusion The coca-cola company through the support of Nature Works will use the energy certificates known as “a.k.a wind power so as to keep away from the inevitable use of the fossil fuels for energy. This is to minimize the greenhouse emissions during the production process as well as support development of the renewable energy production. The general findings of this Life Cycle Assessment indicate that the NatureWorks PLA plastic suggestion refers to the cradle-to-cradle production as the cradle-to-factory-gate instead. The peer-reviewed and the published LCA data shows that Nature Works biopolymer does not require much fossil resources and it emits considerably less greenhouse gases compared to the traditional plastics. Thus, it will no longer need to involve much time and money in its efforts to lighten the commonly used bottles. This implies that by using PLA plastic, will allow the company to significantly reduce the carbon emissions as well as the associated wastes through a reduction in the fossil fuel usage. From this discussion, it can be examined that since Coke will no longer involve in the burning of fossil fuels in order to produce bottles, there will be reduction in the emissions from production. This will cause a reduction in the amount of waste disposed. Bibliography Brezet, H., van Hemel, C., 1997, Ecodesign: a Promising Approach to Sustainable Production and Consumption; Paris, France, UNEP and TU Delft. Coca-Cola Company, 2008, Package design. Retrieved August 25, 2011 from, Coca-Cola Company, 2009, Carbon footprints for individual products. Retrieved August 25, 2011 from, Coca-Cola Company, 2009, Corporate responsibility report: waste, packaging and recycling. Retrieved August 25, 2011 from, Desjardins, J.R., 2007, Business, ethics, and the environment. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. Ehrenfeld, J., 2008, Sustainability by Design, New Haven, Yale University Press. Manzini, E & Vezzoli, C., 2002, Product Service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions, Paris, France, UNEP and TU Delft. NatureWorks, LLC., 2009, Life cycle assessment. Retrieved August 25, 2011 from, Vidal, J., 2008, Sustainable’ bio-plastic can damage the environment. Retrieved August 25, 2011 from, Read More