Assessment of Progressive Product Innovation on Key Environmental Indicators: Pampers® Baby Wipes from 2007–2013

Abstract

Abstract:Companies are increasingly conducting life cycle assessments (LCA) of their products to understand potential product impacts on the environment, prioritize areas of innovation to create more sustainable products, and determine valid claims. This case study shows the results of product innovation by comparing an older (2007) and new (2013) version of a common hygiene product in Europe and the U.S. The standard methodology follows the ISO 14040/44 Guidelines for LCA. Results are reported for the impact indicators with high relevance for the product category: primary energy, global warming, particulates, agricultural land occupation, fossil fuel depletion, and solid waste generation. Generally, raw material supply chains for product and packaging contribute most (up to 82%) to the calculated environmental impact indicators. Improvements vs. the 2007 baby wipe range between 4% and 14% in Europe and between 15% and 36% in the U.S. The improvement is driven by a new substrate technology that provides more surface area for cleaning, which results in lower use of resources. This case study illustrates three key environmental drivers behind this innovation: the corporate focus on R&D capability to design for environmentally improved products, the increased interest from retailers and consumers requiring accurate and relevant information on the performance and OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2014, 6 5130 sustainability of products, and the company's interest in deeper technical understanding of contributions from upstream material and process innovations on a product's environmental profile.

Sustainable Innovation, Management Accounting and Control Systems, and International Performance

“…To implement these strategies successfully, organizations need to have an accurate vision about the current competitive situation to persuade costumers about the features of the sustainable products [49]. Nowadays, retailers and costumers demand relevant information on sustainability of products [50]. This allows organizations to obtain valuable and timely feedback about the evolution of those key features (e.g., customer service or distribution) [13].…”

Sustainable Business Model and Corporate Performance: The Mediating Role of Sustainable Orientation and Management Accounting Control in the United Arab Emirates

“…Meanwhile, the factor that drives SIO still remains empirically unexplored. Some studies opined that SIO is being driven by internal resources [8,16,46]. The study of Varadarajau [14] highlights size, globalization, and reputation and slack as the firm-related factors that drive SIO.…”

“…Meanwhile, the literature on the relationship between SIO and financial performance suggests a positive relationship in the long term [11,14,46]. An observation was made by Berrone and Gomez-Mejia [56] that the relationship between environmental innovation and financial performance might not be linear, which implies that achieving acceptable environmental performance could take more time than expected, thereby increasing outcome uncertainty.…”

Quality assessment of baby wet wipes

“…5 In both substrates, the fibers have a serrated cross-section as a result of the coagulation conditions of viscose fibers 63 and round polyester cross-sections with effective diameters of 17.2 μm and 14.2 μm, respectively (Figure 2). According to Hoof et al, 64 the special mix of round and shaped fibers provide more airy fluffiness of Pampers ® wipes, round fibers allow absorbency, thick trilobed fibers allow air fluffiness, and micro-fine trilobed fibers allow opacity. On the other hand, the presence of a large number of pores in spunlace (S2) samples provides more capillary channels to transport liquid and explains their high absorption capacity.…”