“It is estimated that up to 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined in the design phase. It is from this moment that it is necessary to guarantee the sustainability and circularity of the products, in order to reduce the environmental impact as a whole, starting from the procurement of raw materials”. Start here Roberto Liscia, president of Netcomm, to explain the importance that the ‘binomial’ made up of digital and sustainability can assume to reduce the environmental impact and rethink business models, processes and products from a green perspective. To put the context, Netcommthe Italian digital commerce consortium that brings together over 450 companies, claims that the circular economy (or regeneration) market in Europe could be worth up to 100 billion euros in 2030, creating around 500,000 new jobs and saving 21 megaton of CO2 emissions.
Not only that: the new regulatory framework proposed at European level and the “digital product passport”according to the forecasts of the European Commissionby 2030, thanks to the incentives for the eco-compatible production of products with a view to the circular economy, will guarantee savings of 132 Mtoe of primary energy, equal to approximately 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas, almost equivalent to import of Russian gas into the EU.
“There are several digitally-enabled solutions that make it possible to reduce the environmental impact of products right from their design – he continues Smooth – 3D printing, for example, offers interesting prospects for the development of increasingly ‘bottom-up’ solutions, customizing products according to customer needs. Online platforms facilitate the reuse of products, components and materials, for example by giving a second life to electronic devices; data play a fundamental role, in particular to contribute to predictive maintenance and potentially more efficient repairs”. And again: “The Digital commerce can also act as a bridge between digitization and the growth of sustainable practices in the retail sectorenabling greener consumption and reuse, more efficient use of resources, and optimization of logistics through new technologies.”
The digitizationhe argues Netcommcan also support remanufacturing which involves interventions at the end of a product’s life cycle (for example, disassembly, repair or replacement of parts, reassembly) to bring it back to the market; and remanufacturing in turn leads to a reduction in the demand for new products, thus saving energy and materials that would otherwise be used in production. The European remanufacturing market is currently valued at 30 billion eurosa significant figure, even if still negligible compared to the entire manufacturing sector (2%).
“Even the institutions, at European level, are working to ensure an approach that takes into account the importance of sustainability right from the design of products. The proposal for a new European regulation on the eco-design of sustainable products, published on 30 March 2022, will allow to improve circularity, energy performance and other aspects of environmental sustainability of EU products”, he concludes Smooth.