 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Project Mission, Vision, and Approach
The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, in partnership with GreenBlue, a non-profit institute based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has formed the Sustainable Children’s Products Initiative to promote the sustainable design and development of children’s products. The Initiative engages a diverse group of stakeholders in this discussion and provides information that can spark innovative, environmentally sound solutions.
As a compass to guide our work, we have created an ambitious vision of a sustainable children’s product that draws from the vision for sustainable packaging developed by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of GreenBlue.
Sustainable children’s products are:
- Made from materials that are safe and healthy throughout their lifecycle
- Manufactured using clean production methods, under humane working conditions
- Meet market criteria for cost and performance
- Maximize the use of renewable and recyclable materials and are designed for disassembly, recycling and remanufacture
- Optimize the efficiency of materials, energy and water use in production and consumption
- “Appropriately durable” - products designed for long term use can be repaired and reused and products designed for one time use are biodegradable
- Sourced, manufactured, used, and recycled using renewable energy
Few products meet this definition today. It is our long-term goal that the design of children’s products will continually improve and eventually meet most if not all of these criteria.
Our approach to carrying out our mission is to:
- Engage stakeholders in this dialogue through individual outreach, informal work groups and formal conferences
- Conduct research about alternatives to materials and chemicals of concern that are currently used in children’s products
- Develop tools and resources to assist participants in the design and development of sustainable children’s products
- Document successes through case studies of leading manufacturers and retailers who have created environmentally friendly children’s products
- Create an information clearinghouse on the materials, chemicals and processes that could be used to design and make sustainable children’s products
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
