| When you’re ready to implement sustainability in your company I recommend you to start with developing a vision with values. You can read more about these steps in the previous blog article. (Blog article January 2015) Ones you have your values, goals and strategies clear you can start with the processes. Changing the material of your product could be a practical first step in your design process. |  PSB supporting insole |
There are different ways to approach a change of material in your product. Let’s take a look at a product I worked on with PSB. PSB wanted to start making insoles from natural materials, as environment friendly as possible for their price range.
- A regular insole is mostly made of PU foam. What PSB could have done is search for a PU foam but made of a biodegradable material. This limits the material possibilities as you only search for a substitute.
- They choose to make a list of characteristics needed for the insole and search for materials that have those characteristics. For example the fitting insole: flexibility, moisture absorption and form retaining.
 PSB fitting insole with cork |  PSB insole with leather |
Unfortunately after a long testing period the cork was not durable enough. I went to Lineapelle (International leather fair) and suggested other material solutions. They now work with leather leftovers pressed together with natural rubber. The supporting insole is also interesting (see picture at the top of this article). It is made from coconut fibre with naturalrubber, hemp and organic cotton, that is quite a difference from PU foam too isn’t it? For more info: www.psbinsoles.eu
PSB made my job a lot easier, because I could search for materials that had a specific list of characteristics instead of a one-on-one substitute that most of the time does not have the exact same qualities.
Some companies make it themselves unnecessary difficult by searching for a direct substitute material, for example:
A water-repellent fabric made with long-chain C8 fluorochemical finishes (PFOA) has a really high water repellency standard but there is evidence that PFOA causes developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals and is found both in the environment and in the blood of the general U.S. population[1]. EPA is working with the industry since 2010 on a voluntary stewardship program to phase out PFOA by 2015. More and more companies in textiles apply for this program. It is strongly recommended to stop using PFOA as a finish and multiple companies experience difficulties in finding a substitute. However… this (toxic) finish is so good that in daily life we do not need such high water repellency standards and other less extreme finishing will do fine too. We do not all climb a mountain (although possibly a metaphorical one) These companies could make a list of product characteristics and search materials with these characteristics in mind instead of one-on-one substitutes and then there will be a lot of different options.
A reminder for yourself: Next time you start with product innovation, write down the characteristics that are needed for your product and search for materials with those characteristics instead of one-on-one substitutes.
PSB made my job a lot easier, because I could search for materials that had a specific list of characteristics instead of a one-on-one substitute that most of the time does not have the exact same qualities.
Some companies make it themselves unnecessary difficult by searching for a direct substitute material, for example:
A water-repellent fabric made with long-chain C8 fluorochemical finishes (PFOA) has a really high water repellency standard but there is evidence that PFOA causes developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals and is found both in the environment and in the blood of the general U.S. population[1]. EPA is working with the industry since 2010 on a voluntary stewardship program to phase out PFOA by 2015. More and more companies in textiles apply for this program. It is strongly recommended to stop using PFOA as a finish and multiple companies experience difficulties in finding a substitute. However… this (toxic) finish is so good that in daily life we do not need such high water repellency standards and other less extreme finishing will do fine too. We do not all climb a mountain (although possibly a metaphorical one) These companies could make a list of product characteristics and search materials with these characteristics in mind instead of one-on-one substitutes and then there will be a lot of different options.
A reminder for yourself: Next time you start with product innovation, write down the characteristics that are needed for your product and search for materials with those characteristics instead of one-on-one substitutes.
[1] http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pfoa/pubs/pfoainfo.html
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