Sustainable Design and Engineering

Challenge

Designers (including engineers, architects and scientists among others) are at the origin of the components that make up our physical environment. Whether it be through the buildings, infrastructure, transportation vehicles and electronic devices that we use on a daily basis, designers exert a major influence on several of the objects that surround us.

 

In this sense, the designer is an important actor who exerts a major leverage effect on sustainable development. The systemic nature of the challenges relating to sustainability thereby requires designers to align their technical (e.g., functionality, ergonomics, aesthetics) and budgetary objectives on the social and environmental systems surrounding the lifecycles of the products and services they design. Thus, economic, political, societal, scientific, communications and legal systems must be taken into consideration during the design stage, in addition to the ecosystems that may potentially be affected, negatively or positively, during a product’s or service’s lifecycle.

Objective

There are many organizations that incorporate sustainable development directly into their design activities and these organizations share a common desire to take advantage of the resulting new business opportunities. From the onset, obtaining credible product or service certifications is an excellent way to constitute a reliable sustainability baseline. However, certain certifications are difficultly adaptable to all of the products and services developed by designers. It is for that reason that certain leading organizations implement their own sustainable development performance assessment systems and programs in the optic of enhancing and improving the performance of their investments.

 

Initial benefits are often generated through the optimization of production and operating costs. For example, improving how the natural resources used are managed can lower energy consumption, and therefore resulting GHG emissions, and lead to a more optimal management of waste and water consumption. The circular economy replacing the old systems that consume a lot of resources and generate generous quantities of non-recoverable waste is another example of an approach that makes it possible to close the system by optimizing the transformation of outputs into inputs.

 

Leaders in this area are now going even further and trying to eliminate their environmental footprint altogether. Others improve or even regenerate the environmental ecosystems in which they conduct their operations. By improving the efficiency of the social and environmental systems surrounding the lifecycles of the products and services they design, leading organizations discover new ways of generating profit by lowering their costs.

Brundtland Minds Solutions

Our experts will:

  • Provide your design teams with methods incorporating :
    • Multicriteria decision support tools that take into account the technical, economic, social and environmental aspects of your investment projects;
    • Tools for monetizing technical, economic, social and environmental factors;
    • Tools to conduct economic, social and environmental analyses of the lifecycles of your products and services.
  • Accompany your decision makers during the integration of sustainable development notions into their decision-making processes.

Benefits

  • Improved image and reputation of your organization with its target clientele sharing these values;
  • Improved attraction, retention, engagement and performance levels among your employees, partners and suppliers sharing the same values;
  • Improvement of your performance as perceived by potential investors, with respect namely to governance and risk management;
  • Engine for innovation to meet clients’ expectations; and
  • Possibility of influencing and shaping the future of your industry sector.

Our Services

Rather than using a vertical organizational structure, Brundtland Minds operates a network of specialized independent consultants who work together and thereby maximize the expertise made available to clients at highly competitive rates. At Brundtland Minds, consultants are free to choose the projects for which they possess substantial experience and know that they will be able to make a fundamental difference. In addition, the human and authentic approach put forward by Brundtland Minds facilitates the establishment of a relationship and a sound climate of cooperation in which our experts can achieve excellent results in close collaboration with your work teams.

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Brundtland Minds acts as a catalyst for value creation by implementing collaboration and research platforms between the actors of a single industry or supply chain, thereby enabling you to take advantage of new business opportunities to strengthen your organization’s existence while contributing to the collective resolution of global systemic issues.

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All of our consultants have been selected for their ability to communicate in simple terms the often complex and systemic notions regarding the concept of sustainable development. For all types of audiences, our experts have the know-how to develop the knowledge and skill levels of your internal and external stakeholders by rendering such notions tangible and actionable.

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