Sustainability aspects in a Stage-Gate® model for product development
 

Below is a graphical representation of the ABB Gate model followed by a more detailed description of each sustainability action. 

At Gate 1: Sustainability aspects, requirements, assessment and objectives

The Gate 1 meeting decides whether the sustainability objectives have been defined in a well-founded way or not. A template used in ABB to support this process can be found in Sustainability plan () . The following three measures have to be taken before the Gate 1 meeting:

1.) Identify sustainability requirements 
The following examples of sustainability requirements could be relevant to consider:  

• Laws and regulations, like restrictions in use of hazardous materials and substances (see EU Legislation).  
• The customer valuation of sustainability aspects is very important to identify and understand. Examples of requirements could be to limit use of hazardous materials or to increase the energy efficiency of the product.  
• Standards could sometimes put environmental related requirements on the product or product development process (as example ISO/TR 14062). 
• Sustainability risks, like 
     - the risk for leakage of oils or other chemical liquids to the environment from batteries and transformers for example. 
     - the risk for explosion or fire for products containing gases or inflammable liquids. 
     - the risk for spreading toxic substances to the environment when hazardous materials are used.  

2.) Assess the sustainability aspects 
The next action is to quantify the sustainability aspects for your type of product and identify the major impacts or significant aspects to judge what feasible sustainability improvements  to make in the project. Typical significant sustainability aspects for ABB products are energy losses during operation of the product and use of hazardous materials. The LCALight tool is useful to conduct this assessment.

3.) Define sustainability objectives 
All conceivable improvements identified in the previous step can not always be accomplished in your project depending on economic, technical or other types of practical constraints. You must therefore judge what sustainability objectives are realistic to accomplish in your project. The identified requirements and customer valuations are of course an important basis for this decision. Also think about sustainability marketing material already at this stage. Compile the decision into concrete and measurable objectives.

At Gate 2: Sustainability plan

In the Gate 2 assessment it is checked whether the sustainability plan have been established in a well-founded way or not. Therefore you have to make a resource and time plan to accomplish the defined sustainability objectives. The resulting sustainability plan is a very important document since it serves as the "main thread" throughout the whole project. Do not forget to communicate the plan to the project group members and other concerned. An example of a sustainability plan template used in ABB can be found in Sustainability plan().

At Gate 3, 4 and 5: Execute Sustainability plan

In the Gate 3, 4 and 5 assessments it is checked whether the sustainability plan is executed properly. The actions to be conducted in the project can be roughly divided into two groups.

• Develop designs with minimal use of hazardous materials and substances.  
• Reduce total weight and material use.  
• Improve energy efficiency for the product.  
• Improve the products recycling properties by not mixing materials, for example.  
• Lengthen the product life time by improving reparability and facilitate upgrading, for example.  
• The LCAlight and LCClight tools could also be useful for quick assessments and comparisons of different material or design alternatives. 

2.) Development of marketing material: 

• Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). 
• Recycling and scrapping instructions. 
• Material declarations. 
• Safety Data Sheets (SDS)

At Gate 6, 7: Follow-up and documentation

The final step is to document experiences. Preferably, this could be done by using the filled out templates in the enclosures in combination with some concluding remarks.

Experiences