The document discusses how sustainable development principles from the Brundtland report should be applied to product innovation, design, manufacturing, and marketing strategies. It states that sustainable development must address both temporal and spatial dimensions. Temporally, sustainable solutions are needed immediately and their impacts should be demonstrable by 2000 and beyond. Spatially, sustainable development must address problems on a global scale. The document then provides examples of how incorporating sustainability could impact each area of product development: 1) Product innovation focuses on improving existing products rather than new creation to reduce waste. 2) Design uses eco-friendly materials to minimize environmental impacts. 3) Manufacturing simplifies supply chains and uses processes that reduce ecological impacts. 4) Marketing strategies inform

1. Lecture 3 - Concepts & Definitions of Sustainability in Products & Manufacturing
Q#1: What are the temporal and spatial dimensions in the Brundtland definition of sustainable
development?
Q#2: How would they impact product innovation, design, manufacturing, and marketing strategies?
How about their impact on product development process?
: From the report can be deduced that sustainable development must be made effective immediately toA#1
have results by the year 2000 and beyond. (Year 2013 and still working on it). Brundtland report dates back
to March 20
th
, 1987 and it clearly indicated that scientists had brought to “our attention urgent but complex
problems bearing on our very survival” such as warming globe, desertification of soil, ozone layer
disappearance and so on. As stated on page 4: “the time has come for higher expectations, for common
goals pursued together, for an increased political will to address our common future”. And, as Citizen
Engineers that we are willing to be, we need to understand that we can’t toy with our future any more. It’s
time to change our mind, and make sure that all of us are on the same page with Nature & Sustainable
Development, that we are on the same wavelength to fix what we have not done better before.
Spatial dimensions are also crystal clear: the Earth. As the report indicates on page 4, the aim is “to
persuade nations of the need to return to multilateralism” [ ] “multilateral solutions and a restructured
international economic system of cooperation” [ ] “these challenges cut across the divides of national
sovereignty”. It is quite obvious since the problem has become global, it requires a global answer. Otherwise
the problem can’t be fixed. Page 5 shows that the problem is patent by many ways in many places, and page
6 lists many tragedies occurred while the Commission was working as a team to fight against the problem,
such as African famines, leak at the pesticides factory at Bhopal (India), nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (ex-
USSR), debt crisis,
To sum up, as Mrs. Brundtland, aged 74 (Baerum, Norway) said “we became convinced that major changes
were needed, both in attitudes and in the way our societies are organized”.
: Sustainable development changes applied to both temporal and spatial dimensions should generateA#2
patent results demonstrable and even quantifiable at least in four different fields:
Patent registration differentiates between creation and improvement. Day aftera. Product innovation:
day it is more difficult to create anything really brand new. On the contrary, there is a huge
investigation field about improving what currently exist. Let’s dedicate part of R&D resources to
improve things. As Mr. Tim Roughgarden associate Professor in the Computer Science Department
(and M.S. and E.) at Stanford University says: “Can we do better?” Yes, indeed. Product innovation
can’t just be a creative department to make newer products, to increase sales, to compete with rival
companies. For example, being able to update the O.S. of our phones, tablets or computers and so
on implies we have no need to change physically our electronic devices by newer ones, what
generates less waste to recycle. Product innovation has to be intimately linked to marketing
strategies to detect market opportunities. Product should be created bearing in mind these four steps
and a lot more (colours, batteries Ion Lithium, screens, plasma, Ag and Au connections ).
Why don’t we design products to work with eco-materials which minimize the impact createdb. Design:
on the Nature when the product is eliminated? Product concept development implies more than
make something look really fantastic, it also should be environmentally friendly=sustainable today
and tomorrow
Produce reducing the ecological impact derived from the process. Simplifying supplyc. Manufacturing:
chain by means of synergies. Delivery terms and conditions including the return of the empty box to

2. the company, paid by them (they will earn more reusing the boxes than making them again). . Some
chemical products must be used under certain conditions, what may cause a deeper impact on the
environment or surroundings of the company, for example aluminum solid state vs. aluminum
powder. Some other companies have not updated their chemical processes and still use products
such as mercury.
It is not only about marketing mix (8 Ps) it also includes Lauterborn's four Csd. Marketing strategies:
(consumer, cost, communication, convenience) and Shimizu's four Cs (commodity, cost,
communication, channel). Sale is the art of making people desire what they need. On the contrary,
marketing should tell us what do we have to do to make things better and when. It is not about
bumping up sales ratio but to sell what is really need in its due course.