Innovation Watch: Rethinking design

Sustainable and circular design is one of the most critical levers that companies in the Sustainability Leaders community use to progress their ESG strategies. Findings from our most recent Sustainability Planning Guide show sustainable design is the third-highest investment priority for businesses, and the highest for manufacturing and consumer companies.

The advantages of a sustainable design approach are clear. Eco-design programmes can not only reduce the footprint of products and services themselves, but also have a cascading effect on the end-to-end value chain, necessitating changes to sourcing processes that also impact sustainability upstream in the supply chain.

Last week, we gathered eco-design practitioners during our working group on the topic to discuss strategies and use cases. The examples of sustainable and circular design shared during the call were inspiring and wide-ranging, from first-of-their-kind recyclable products, to innovative manufacturing technologies and new packaging materials.

But the group also discussed some of the challenges businesses face in implementing their eco-design plans. Of these, market readiness was perhaps the most prominent. One company shared that, after changing its product design to be more environmentally friendly, it experienced a significant loss of sales in certain markets. Another told the group that after adopting recyclable materials, consumers were not regularly disposing of these products correctly.?

That isn’t to say that all companies experience these issues – several members spoke about the tangible financial benefits of their eco-design launches – but it is a key consideration in certain markets. Companies must strike a balance between waiting for the right market conditions to exist, and communicating to the market and creating the right conditions themselves.

The correct balance might often be a mixture of the two but, as one participant observed, it’s important not to be dissuaded from circular design because of setbacks. “It’s not just about making the technical change,” they said. “It’s about following up with the market and working with it to ensure the product can be successful at scale.”?

If you can do that, the product’s potential to deliver myriad environmental and financial benefits is huge.

PS –?Our Sustainability Planning Survey 2025 is now open, providing a fantastic opportunity for leaders to sense-check their plans and validate their thinking. Click here to take part in the research .

UK green lights lab-grown pet food

Having secured approval from UK regulators to use its lab-grown meat in pet food, Meatly has become the first cultivated meat producer to gain clearance to sell its products in any European country .

The London-headquartered company, which has received backing from specialist investor firm Agronomics and retailer Pets at Home, will be permitted to produce chicken cultivated from animal cells and sell it to pet food manufacturers.

While the company says it will take up to three years to scale up production, it expects to start selling its products by the end of 2024.

Meatly produces chicken meat by cultivating cells from an egg and providing the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids they need to grow within a controlled environment. Founded in 2022, Meatly claims its has reduced its production costs less than ￡1/litre to produce.

Research firm Kantar has stated 1.2 billion packets of pet food have been sold in the UK this year, while Agronomics estimates dogs and cats account for around one-fifth of the global meat consumption.

Meatly, which was founded in 2022, claims its cultivated chicken will use less land and less water than traditionally sourced chicken, and does not contain antibiotics.