Helping Consumers Assess Environmentally Conscious Products More Easily

Consumers always select products based on quality and performance. Kiyoshi Sanehira, Corporate Environment Management Division, points out the emergence of green consumers: "Surveys conducted by Toshiba indicated that, in the case of appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners, more than 40% of consumers also consider eco-consciousness, an important selection criterion."
Linking the goals of affluent consumer lifestyles with a healthy global environment necessitates product evaluations based on clarifying a product's value and its contribution to the environment in a single measure. Toshiba has developed its unique eco-efficiency indicator called "Factor T" to meet this need. Eco-consciousness measures are now factored into product design processes across Toshiba so that environmental friendliness is built into products from the earliest stages. Ultimately, Mr. Sanehira hopes that consumers will base product purchases on measures such as Factor T.

Increases in Product Value Measured from Customer Perspective

The basic equation defining eco-efficiency is simple. The problem is that making calculations of concepts such as product value and environmental impact are complex in nature. Many companies have therefore adopted a simplified approach. Toshiba's development team decided to aim high. Yoshinori Kobayashi, the Corporate R&D Center, says: "Our aim was to develop an essential eco-efficiency indicator that could capture sufficient data while permitting detailed analysis of both concepts."
The team chose quality function deployment (QFD) methodology to try to capture product value in numerical form. This approach bases the value of a product on the views of customers on its design and functions by rating the importance of various features in product selection. Toshiba Group has been using QFD methods for many years as a tool for quality control. For environmental impact, the team turned to the Japanese version of the LIME^Note1 method, an approach that is based on the effects of a product on the environment measured over its entire life. Toshiba already has a wealth of data on the life cycle effects of products from its LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) database. The value attached to life cycle impact as derived from quantitative data was also combined with subjective measures based on the views of people regarding different kinds of environmental impacts.

Note1:

LIME(Life-cycle Impact Assessment Method based on Endpoint Modeling) Developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology through an LCA technology development project run by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Eco-efficiency and Factor

Eco-efficiency indicators measure the value of a product relative to its environmental impact (the goal being to raise the former and reduce the latter).

The smaller the environmental impact and the higher the value of the product, the greater is the eco-efficiency. High eco-efficiency corresponds with a product that contributes to ecofriendly prosperity. Typically, new products are evaluated against old (benchmark) products. Hence, higher factor values are better.

Incorporation of Factor T into Product Design Processes

Shuji Hatanaka, Refrigerator Technology Department, says, "Our environmentally conscious product development themes have included protecting the ozone layer, preventing global warming, resource conservation and efforts to reduce the release of chemical substances." Since its advent, Factor T has been readily incorporated into product design programs. Mr. Hatanaka stresses the benefit of the introduction of Factor T: "Target values for the indicator are assigned for each product, from which the designers extract the separate product value and environmental impact components. One of the most significant benefits of using the Factor T approach is that it helps dictate the order in which various issues must be solved. It thus helps to define design priorities as well as the development timetable." Besides allowing the benefits of final products to be measured, Factor T is also proving effective in aiding innovative and valuable product ideas to come to fruition.

Potential Utility for Consumers in Product Selection

Toshiba is currently conducting questionnaire surveys in Japan to assess the utility of Factor T for consumers. Although over 70% of respondents agree that a factor-based approach is useful, many also point out that the inability to compare Toshiba products with those of other manufacturers detracts from using Factor T for actual product selection. Mr. Sanehira speaks with great enthusiasm, "While Factor T was primarily designed to facilitate the development of environmentally conscious products that would meet the needs of consumers, Toshiba also hopes to encourage customers to use the indicator when making a purchase. The company is promoting a dialogue within the industry to try to develop a consensus on how to integrate these types of indicator." As part of its Environmental Vision 2010, Toshiba Group has set itself the target of raising the eco-efficiency of its products to 2.2 times the FY2000 level by March 2011. Toshiba plans to extend the Factor T concept from consumer appliances to other categories of products such as industrial equipment. Toshiba is targeting 70 out of 100 product groups for application. Individual Factor T target values have now been established for over 30 products. Toshiba plans to designate products that exceed target values in terms of environmental performance factors as "Excellent Environmentally Conscious Products." The challenge to develop environmentally conscious products based on customer input continues across Toshiba Group.