Product Innovation & Life Cycle Assessment

How are you integrating sustainability at the product level?

"Five Winds is our "go to" consultant for everything product stewardship related."

Al Ianuzzi, Johnson and Johnson

Sustainability is affecting product considerations from almost every direction - resulting in the rapid growth of an unprecedented number of tools, labels and product-based approaches. We can help you understand how these apply to your product, sector and supply chain. Then, by applying that knowledge, we help you to implement targeted projects to improve your performance and communicate it successfully in the marketplace. We also have extensive experience leading trade association-level improvement and communication projects that require extensive coordination of members and other interested parties to drive product and material sectors forward.

Understand your products through a sustainability lens
Five Winds International works with our clients to understand and decode emerging product sustainability requirements in the marketplace. Because we approach both simple and complex value chains with a life cycle perspective, we are able to define and solve your challenges faster and with deeper, more effective solutions. Our assessment process will uncover strategic risks, opportunities and environmental issues associated with your value chain, products, operations, buildings and services. Our goal is to provide business value beyond the target project by supplying you with a deeper understanding of product sustainability that is directly applicable, both practically and strategically.

Improve your ability to respond to market pressures and demands
Our global expertise in product innovation and life cycle assessment (LCA) enables our clients to spot trends and stay ahead of emerging issues. We are able to do this because we participate at a leadership level in organizations like the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Life Cycle Initiative, the GHG Protocol, and others. While responding to the pressures your business is experiencing could be as simple as developing your first carbon footprint or a go-to-market strategy for sustainability claims on your product, it can also be as complicated as designing a product scorecard for your development group, implementing a comprehensive eco-design program across the organization, setting up a supply chain management program, or communicating detailed selection criteria with your supply chain to help drive innovation upstream. At Five Winds International, we specialize in helping our clients navigate the transition from "reacting to market pressures" to "shaping the market" with respect to product sustainability.

Succeed in product sustainability!
We have a wide variety of proven tools and approaches that save our clients time by focusing resources on approaches that have demonstrated success elsewhere, adding the customization required to make the solution as effective as possible in your specific organization. Developing the capacity for sustainable product innovation and driving product stewardship programs requires a commitment to continual improvement. We have demonstrated experience in helping organizations to put these programs in place, manage the organizational change required for them to be successful, and effectively communicate the results to stakeholders. Whether this is a corporate sustainability report, a formal communication such as an EPD (environmental product declaration), or the development of self-declared claims, Five Winds has experienced staff with a portfolio of success stories from around the world to share with you. 

Case Studies:

We helped a leading supplier stay ahead of the curve with an eco-labelling tool. (learn more)

We helped a company develop a product scorecard to establish and measure product sustainability claims. (learn more)

Cabot Corporation used Five Winds' life cycle based Product Alignment Strategy to identify downstream sustainability risks and opportunities and create a targeted strategy for one of its major product lines. (learn more)

We helped InterfaceFLOR become the first North American carpet manufacturer to receive a third party verified EPD. (learn more)

We have developed a tool for assessing organizations' readiness to design and produce greener products as part of a strategy to improve strategic advantage. (learn more)