Sustainability in product development is no longer an option; it’s becoming a business essential. Consumers are paying more attention to their own carbon footprint and ditching brands that don’t follow suit. Brands who are demonstrating sustainability improvements in their products & services, supported by real evidence, are seeing rewards in increased market share and premium positioning. This panel is filled with the experts who make design and business decisions that actually make an impact. From holistic thinking and addressing the triple bottom line, to life cycle analysis and the nitty-gritty of materials & manufacturing best practices, they discuss the opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs associated with implementing sustainability in product development.

We’ve Answered Your Questions!

Since we weren’t able to get to all of the great questions you had for us during the panel, we put together a Q&A doc to share some more knowledge and continue the conversation.

If any other questions come to mind or you’d just like to chat about sustainable product design, feel free to reach out at: sustainability@synapse.com

Moderated By

Martine Stillman

Vice President of Engineering

Synapse Product Development

In her 15 years at Synapse, Martine has specialized in mass-production hardware, largely miniaturized and body-worn applications. She is passionate about sustainability topics and has been instrumental in starting Synapse’s Sustainability Steering Committee, including training the Synapse team on sustainable design practices, and working on the creation of a custom LCA (life cycle assessment) tool.

Conversation With

Lise Laurin

CEO & Founder

EarthShift Global

Lise is a pioneer in Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). She founded EarthShift in 2000, adopting these methodologies to support North American industries’ early efforts at sustainability. Lise continues to develop and leverage EarthShift Global’s training, simplified LCA tools and S-ROI tools to build organizational capacity and drive large-scale change. Her unique skillset and knowledge base has put her in demand globally by companies, organizations and governments alike.

Daniel Fitzgerald

Director of Product Sustainability

Stanley Black & Decker

Dan is responsible for identifying, defining, and facilitating all strategies and action plans associated with improving the sustainable performance of products across the corporation. He leads the “Innovate with Purpose” pillar of the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, which includes goals to develop products that address unmet societal needs and to improve the impacts of products across their lifecycle.

Charissa Rujanavech

Director of Technology

Maui Greens

Charissa previously led the Recycling Innovation program at Apple, leading the design and deployment of the automated disassembly iPhone recycling systems, Liam and Daisy. She also led closed loop material projects for critical materials such as rare earth magnets and tungsten. She has a Master of Environmental Management from Yale, a Bachelors of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from CU-Boulder and has worked in sustainable materials and production for Nike and Patagonia.

Will Harrison

Mechanical Engineering Tech Lead, Sustainable Product Engineering Lead

Synapse Product Development

Will has worked across a broad range of markets in his time in product development consultancy, from beverage dispensing appliances, to consumer electronics, to industrial sensors and robotics. His drive to make sustainability central to product development has been realized in leading a team within Synapse to develop sustainable design tools, and co-authoring the ebook that will be shared after this panel discussion.