Eco-design “indispensable and applicable everywhere”

Originally intended to limit pollution and save energy and raw materials, eco-design is now demonstrating its virtues in terms of innovation and the improvement of manufacturing processes. The Technopole Pays Basque is supporting this growing importance at its Créaluz site.

We knew it had a positive influence on brand reputation. But it also boosts employee commitment. Eco-design, the approach that is committed to taking account of environmental issues in the design, development and bringing to market of a product, good or service, is now “indispensable and applicable everywhere,” according to Vincent Collet. “What we want,” explains the founder and director of the specialist agency Think+, based at Izarbel technology park, “is for business to develop through the environment, and create value from the environment, while at the same time limiting its impacts.” 

As an industrial and environmental engineer, he insists on the systemic nature of eco-design, recalling that it takes account of five stages in the life cycle of a product: raw material, manufacture, logistics, use and end of life. “This will help us anticipate many pressures and constraints,” he maintains, “and therefore create opportunities for product development or business strategy.”

Production costs falling

According to a study by Ademe, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, published in 2017, with contributions from the Think+ Agency, eco-design can lead to lower production costs (by up to 20% in certain cases), and can systematically increase the use value of products, increase turnover (from 7 to 18%), and give a lead over the competition.

Think+ is developing this vision of eco-design in all types of sector and with all types of company, start-ups or large groups. Local businesses such as Vracoop, a company that facilitates the sale of products loose and without packaging from the Créaluz technology park, or Etxe Berri, a building company based in Mauléon. And beyond our borders too, with Bombardier Produits Récréatifs (BRP), the Quebec giant in snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and watercraft. “When we worked with BRP in 2016,” remembers Vincent Collet, “the 40 engineers were not concerned about the environment, but I showed them that with better design with a view to recycling they could make the vehicles lighter, change certain materials, and improve assembly and after-sales service… And now they are making all the body shells recyclable!” When eco-design leads to improved skills in the workforce…

From eco-design to eco-innovation

Eco-design has the wind in its sails. And its flagship in the Basque country goes under the name of Créaluz. This Technopole Pays Basque site established itself in the Jalday area of Saint-Jean-de-Luz last November. It is dedicated to sustainable innovation for the ocean (ID Océan), and includes a business incubator and a prototyping workshop. “We want to support all the industrialists in our area to take account of environmental and societal issues in their activity,” states its Director, Aline Frésier. Our role is to raise awareness, mobilise, inspire and create partnerships for the technical or financial support of project leaders with expert structures or organisations such as Ademe, the network of Solutions for Environmental Transition in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Soltena, ndlr), the CCI Bayonne Pays Basque, the CCI of the Landes, etc.” The prototyping workshop makes it possible to rapidly trial product concepts to validate eco-design solutions. 

The Créaluz bridge

In addition to Vracoop, Créaluz has recently enabled a second company, Made Nature, a business dedicated to eco-designed sports products (see elsewhere), to take off. The site is becoming a natural and practical bridge between eco-design and eco-innovation.

With its approach of continuous improvement, eco-design essentially involves designing with common sense! “This means reducing the elements in the product that are not necessary,” continues Aline Frésier, “in order to meet the precise use required by the client or the consumer; quality that is exactly appropriate in one of the keystones of eco-design.”

The eco-design approach is an essential tool in environmental transition, involving real thought about the whole life cycle of the product, and now making it possible to examine and better control the value chain, product positioning, and the company’s values and direction. 

Made Nature, promoting eco-responsible sport

After some ten years working for sports brands like Salomon and Fusalp, then in the field of recreational fishing, seven years ago Fanny Champlon decided to specialise in support for digital marketing, while stating her wish to work for the protection of nature. “I realised that sports articles, which are frequently used in a natural setting, are often produced in ways that do not respect the environment. They are often technical articles that do not use natural materials, but are made of petrochemical materials.” So recently she decided to create a marketplace for her website devoted to eco-responsible sport. Since last March, Made Nature, that’s its name, has been offering sports products online that are designed in an eco- responsible way, from clothes to bags and even 3D printed surfboards! “There is a growing trend for brands to offer this type of product,” she explains. 

The Made Nature site states that it guarantees ‘products designed in eco-responsible materials: natural materials like wool and wood fibres, materials certified organic such as cotton, recycled materials, etc.’ It offers products from two local brands: Katxi Klothing (sportswear) and Otxangoa (watersports and outdoor equipment). Fanny Champlon then had the idea of organising a festival in the Basque country dedicated to eco-responsible sport, as well as designing certain products in partnership with the brands. Thanks to the Créaluz prototyping workshop, Made Nature found the ideal setting for its development in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.