Design for Sustainability methods are unlocking next-generation products with a lower environmental footprint 

The early bird catches the worm. And the earliest stage of product development has the biggest impact on sustainability. It is estimated that 80 percent of a product’s carbon footprint is already determined during the early design stage. While the exact figure might vary, it is undisputed that sustainability must start with design. That is why engineers and designers need to connect on insights and technologies that help to reimagine products and accelerate progress for sustainability at every step in the value chain, as no company can achieve that alone.

Why are companies not prioritizing sustainability in their product design, even though it plays a crucial role in addressing sustainability challenges?

Fabian Becker: We believe this is not due to a lack of willingness to act. Rather, at this early stage of development, sustainability often competes with more established metrics like cost and performance. Take this example: you’ve identified a way to reduce a product’s carbon footprint by 10%, but it would increase costs by 5%. Would you go for it?

Beyond trade-offs like these, a holistic understanding of the entire value chain is essential. Thus, designers and engineers are now expected to consider not only their product’s immediate features but also the full product life cycle. This includes the carbon footprint of raw materials, energy and water consumption during use, and recyclability at the end of the product’s life.

Questions like “what does the PPWR mean for my product?”, “what about the Right to Repair?”, and “are all materials in my product recycling compatible?” arise.

To truly prioritize sustainability in product design, companies must empower their teams with the right knowledge, tools, and incentives to make sustainable choices not just possible, but preferable.

Why is an adhesive provider getting involved in its customers’ design process?

Fabian Becker: As global leaders in adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings, we bring deep materials expertise to the table. Being material agnostic, our technologies work across metals, plastics, paper, and more. This flexibility makes us a natural fit for innovative designs, where our solutions can be seamlessly integrated into new concepts. We are constantly developing next-generation technologies such as debonding-on-demand, biodegradable adhesives, and recycling-compatible formulations. These innovations enable more sustainable design possibilities.

Positioned at the end of the chemical industry’s value chain, we offer a unique perspective on how materials perform across the entire product lifecycle. Adhesives may have a small footprint themselves, but their impact is far-reaching. They can support the shift from plastic to paper, improve energy efficiency in production, reduce material use, and enable recycling at end-of-life.

Our role is to complement the expertise of our customers’ designers and engineers. Through our Design for Sustainability partnerships, we move from being a supplier to becoming a strategic innovation partner.

What exactly happens in a Design for Sustainability partnership?

Fabian Becker: To offer close value chain collaboration, we have launched RE-CREATE at Henkel Adhesive Technologies. RE-CREATE is our Design for Sustainability program in which we co-create products with our customers and partners to design more sustainable products right from the start. We bring together designers, chemists, engineers, sustainability experts, and innovation leads from across the value-chain to co-create products and refine them using tools and methods specialized for sustainability. 

RE-CREATE consists of three consecutive phases. The first, the LEAD UP phase, lays the foundation for the entire journey. It begins by thoroughly understanding and breaking down the sustainability challenge into its root causes, e.g., what are the emission hotspots in the bill of material, or what hinders the product from being recycled at end-of-life. Next, the right experts are identified and brought on board, based on identified root causes – e.g., recycling incompatible materials could require experts on alternative materials and a recycler to join the project. Finally, relevant insights and inspiration are gathered to inform and guide the problem-solving process – e.g., do we see other industries that had similar challenges and were able to solve them, or are new materials and technologies out there that can address the identified root causes? 

The WORKSHOP is an intense one-to-two-day exercise where the experts come together, and ideate on potential solutions, based on the previously gathered insights. In this step, we make use of several AI tools to foster both productivity and creativity. We dive deep into researching materials with a lower material footprint, developing debonding guidelines, running CO2 simulations, looking at welding versus adhesives bonding solutions and discuss recycling certifications. However, a workshop does not necessarily result in concepts that are immediately ready for implementation. 

This is what is done in the FOLLOW-UP phase. The developed ideas get enriched to concepts and are then assessed with regards to their sustainability performance. This is done iteratively, with the goal to reach a certain level of granularity and select a winning concept, that will be jointly brought to market. 

Sometimes, the final design can vary from traditional applications involving adhesives. That is OK for us, because it is not about optimizing for the use of a specific material or technology. Design for Sustainability is about relentlessly pursuing the most effective solutions to achieve the urgent climate, and circularity goals our world demands. Adhesives have an enormous capacity to extend product lifetimes, save energy and water, enable repairs and support recycling. But adhesives – like every material or technology – should be applied when they serve the purpose of the design.

What do you think the future holds for Design for Sustainability?

Fabian Becker: I expect companies to put an increasing emphasis on integrating sustainability into their product design processes. Many have set bold targets and made public commitments, so they need innovations that live up to those statements. This requires transformative ideas, which will only arrive if they gather fresh perspectives and embrace new ways of thinking.

Trust and openness are at the heart of this step-change. No individual person or company can achieve the necessary progress for sustainability by acting alone. Instead, new forms of partnership are the key to unlocking deeper interactions and more significant progress. Our RE-CREATE program provides big opportunities for customers to bring Henkel’s expertise into the specific point in their process where it can make the biggest difference. That is why I am convinced that this form of partnership for sustainability has an exciting and impactful future.