ESG Strategy

Our 6 point ESG guide is for brands looking to choose the right ESG design strategy. We also introduce helpful tools and strategies to allow you to measure your impact.

(10 minute read)

With planet health now an urgent priority, sustainability is finally front of mind for business leaders looking to make an impact and remain profitable.

Nevertheless, a clear disparity remains, with only a quarter of companies having any business-wide Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) KPIs in place.

So, how can sustainable innovation and strategic design close the gap between ambition and action? 

It’s widely recognised that around 80% of the ecological impacts of a product are embedded at the design phase. It’s an empowering position for designers – but one that puts teams under the spotlight to make the right decisions early on in the process.

We have added this fourth lobe to the classic design-thinking Venn just to help our clients zero in on the need for ‘responsibility’.

To make ESG management decisions that drive impact, create a competitive advantage, and avoid ‘greenwashing,’ it’s essential to use real, objective data points.

That means setting goals that are clear, ideally overtly connected with the company’s overall brand strategy and specific to its industry, size and location. 

Inevitably, such goals can be intimidating without a concrete plan in place.  Breaking down your sustainable design and innovation plan into smaller objectives can help you achieve your ESG target efficiently.

Conduct a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) across your product portfolio. This data-driven approach examines the entire product lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal or recycling, and allows the product team to highlight the hotspots for improvement. 

Equipped with this information, you’ll be able to optimise your design strategy accordingly.

Inevitably, factors such as business size, industry, budget and existing infrastructure will determine the potential impact of each sustainable design strategy on your business and the environment. 

Some strategies may have a larger impact than others, and what may seem a small change for a budding start-up can have a colossal impact for a global corporation.

Breaking down your sustainable design and innovation plan into smaller objectives can help you achieve your ESG target efficiently. 

A short-term plan (1-2 years) could focus on objectives that can be achieved quickly, such as reducing the use of non-renewable materials or increasing the use of recycled materials. 

A medium-term plan (3-5 years) should serve more significant objectives, such as switching from single hardware sales to a Product as Service approach, which in turn will lead to designing for disassembly, repair, and remanufacture.  

Finally, a long-term plan (5-10 years) should focus on more long-term objectives, such as developing regenerative design practices, transforming your business model to promote circularity and achieving net-zero emissions

While the appetite for a circular economy is high, it’s important to keep in mind that full-scale business transformation isn’t always necessary to achieve a substantial impact. Setting a high-impact strategy as a long-term business goal will allow you to lay the foundations for a more sustainable future, step by step.

In the meantime, mapping out your product lifecycle will enable you to identify more short-term solutions that can deliver quick but considerable wins for your brand and for the planet. 

Finally, as with all design conduct pilot studies to measure impact potential, gauge customer response and analyse cost implications.