Eco-design opportunities for critical material supply risks

Abstract

A number of recent publications point to the important role of eco-design approaches in risk mitigation for critical materials supply. The core of eco-design is life cycle thinking – usually as some form of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach together with a set of generic guidelines such as checklists, etc. There has however been little appraisal of the extent to which eco-design offers opportunities in the context of critical material supply risks. It is this gap that this paper will tackle. Through research with 30 companies in The Netherlands, a small number see the phenomena of critical materials as an opportunity to seek competitive advantage via new product designs. There is also evidence that those companies see opportunities via an eco-design based approach but there are some issues that need to be addressed before such eco-design approaches could be more successful and used widely.