Extending pollution prevention programs to incorporate DFE

Many companies have established Pollution Prevention (P2) Programs to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations and thereby gain competitive advantage. A number of these companies have simultaneously developed Design for the Environment (DFE) programs to incorporate environmental considerations into their products. While companies have been successful at P2, they generally have been less so at making DFE programs viable. This paper describes a DFE model which links a company's existing P2 program to its DFE program. In this way, the same P2 techniques that make internal P2 programs successful can be used as the basis for a DFE program. Since P2 programs are prevalent throughout industry, this model capitalizes upon a technique common to supplier and customer to communicate the positive environmental attributes of products.