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With 11 years` experience as a consultant, Edwin's unique background and experience in both ecology and business gives him unparalleled understanding of how products can become truly sustainable --giving your brand a vital boost to enable its survival deep into the 21st century.
Edwin's latest book, The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products, is proving to be a contemporary classic, introducing everyone from students to CEOs to the delights and nuances of sustainable product development.
He has trained over 6000 people in environmental management and sustainable product design, and given talks all over the UK, as well as in France, USA, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands. He was a founder member of the Professional Speakers Association.
A key step was taken when Edwin developed the cyclic| solar| safe methodology for assessing the environmental performance of products and processes. This ecology-based approach has simplified the way people look at sustainability while also presenting a radical product-focused perspective that challenges standard thinking on eco-efficiency.
Edwin's background is as a biologist at Bristol University and after working in the aerospace industry he spent 8 years working at The Environment Council, developing programmes involving thousands of UK businesses to enable them to realise the benefits of improved environmental performance.
As part of his personal educational mission, Edwin has also developed a set of free web-based educational resources which people in 36 countries are using to learn about sustainable design. Visit it at www. biothinking. com
All products to be 100% SUSTAINABLE by the year 2100
BioThinking International provides an extensive range of consulting services for sustainable product development and manufacturing. The term `n-dimensional hyperspace` is taken from ecology, where it is the definition of a niche. Our core theme is based on understanding that products are organisms inhabiting a constantly changing ecosystem. Finding the right niche is clearly vital, but you have to look beyond the basic dimensions of timing, market sector, price point and so on. Only when we add in overlooked dimensions such as environmental impact, social concerns, and local economies do can we fully understand the product niche and how we can maximise its potential.
INTEGRITY: FUTUREPROOFING BRAND VALUES
"Integrity" is a service that can be applied to existing products, new ones, or the results can be used as a brief for a concept or flagship product that can inspire and inform the rest of your range. Techniques we use include:
Issues Identification Workshop, identifying environmental and social impacts across the whole life cycle of your product. Perception of external stakeholders such as customers, campaign groups and trends in upcoming legislation are all considered, as well as trends in other industry sectors.
Issues Quantification, analysis and risk assessment, including product scoring.
"Earthstorming", where we create solutions and concepts, using various methods, including drawing on our database of over 1000 eco-innovations and also using nature itself as inspiration.
Story-Led Prioritisation, where the innovations and new design features are as-sessed for their iconic value and marketing potential, as well as their cost and environmental benefits. This also explores branding potential, story promotion, and market potential.
SP100 --100% product visioning --developing concept products that are 100% sustainable, to depict the most desirable, future state of a product or organiza-tion, and inform and inspire future product development.
BIOTHINKING FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Our proprietary methodologies are used to gain insights into process design, sales channels, customer process, competitive strategy, and ways to increase market share. Following the principles of natural ecosystems, we can closely identify a product's niche, and explore previously ignored dynamics in product performance, such as:
DEPTH CHARGE
"Depth Charge" is about Capacity Development within your organisation, a menu of services that will recharge your team's capabilities: Gaining internal support by writing project proposals and business plans -- Edwin has written several internal project proposals for client companies, averaging over £3 million apiece, and all of which went ahead. Themes have included: identifing market opportunities, developing new business models, and justifying spend on capacity building.
Hot groups --"lively, overachieving, dedicated groups, usually small, whose members are turned on to an exciting and challenging task". The process of creating and nurturing such voluntary, informal groups of high achieving individuals has a low success rate but huge benefits for all involved. Edwin can help inspire, cajole, subvert and generally keep the corporate structure from interfering with the flowering process. Hot groups are ideal for tack-ling the cross-functional and somewhat counter-revolutionary nature of sustainable product development.
Status monitoring for each product area --database development for shar-ing and reporting progress on the greening of the product portfolio, e. g. tracking the percentages of green and supergreen products, and develop-ing indicators and measures.
Purchasing --getting the right type of materials into the organisation is essential for achieving sustainable mass flow. Edwin has worked with pur-chasing departments on the revision of policies, training, new product iden-tification, and mamy other factors including raw materials sourcing, supplier assessment, and supplier search,
BIOLEARNING CENTRE
Edwin offers an extensive range of educational opportunities for your organisation:
Talks --Edwin is an inspirational and enthralling speaker. A database of over 1500 product images forms the basis for lectures and workshops. He has found that showing pictures of product examples is the fastest way for people to grasp sustainable product design concepts and has built up an unparalleled collection of images and examples.
Books --sowing a few copies of Edwin's latest book, The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products, into an organisation or design department is an ideal way to plant the seeds of total product thinking. Following up with a talk will get them to germinate ...
Digital Media --access Edwin's thinking via his website at www. biothinking. com. Tailored distance learning material can be produced, and an audio CD and a trainer's slide package is in development.
Workshops --half-day or one-day introductory workshops are an excel-lent way for a group, design team or management board to explore the issues, identify opportunities and develop implementation strategies. Also available --the three-day Masterclass.
Universities and Design Schools --Edwin is a prolific Visiting Lecturer and
has run 2 or 3 hour sessions for dozens of design courses around the
UK and abroad.
Corporates
Marks and Spencer Ongoing support and facilitation on textile recycling
TRW Lucas Aerospace Introductory training workshop for jet engine design team
Natural Collection Ongoing support in product choices for mail order catalogues for Greenpeace and FoE
British Airways Training for purchasing department
Kyocera Assessment of UK environmental product legislation
J Sainsbury plc Training for purchasing department
Tetrapak Facilitation of workshop on EU Regulations
Woolmark Sustainability workshop and Strategy formulation
Public and Voluntary Sector
ITDG Research on topics for sustainable design education at Secondary level
Science Museum Sourcing of sustainable products for exhibition
Westminster City Council Rewriting of purchasing and project management policies
Environment Agency Assessment of operational impacts; Plan for ISO14001 implementation
Eden Project Development of educational product icons
University Lectures and Workshops
Royal College of Art,
Central St Martins,
Cambridge University,
University of Hertfordshire,
Surrey Institute of Art and Design,
Goldsmiths College,
Leeds Metropolitan University,
Lund University (Sweden),
Bournemouth University,
London College of Fashion,
Loughborough University,
Kingston University,
Open University,
Thanks very much for your very enjoyable and informative training with us the other day. Everybody said that it got them thinking. See you next month for a repeat event.
You're the greatest! Thanks Edwin for your dedicated and informative work.
Your web page has been a great inspiration to my design ethos, keep it up!
Your case studies are wonderful and your Story of a Sustainable Day is brilliant!
You'll be pleased to hear that we've had universally positive feedback from the first SPD workshop, with more people that usual commenting that they found it an enjoyable and stimulating day.
Give Edwin Datschefski a call now: