Waste is a major detriment to quality of life worldwide. The World Bank estimates that consumers will generate 2.2 billion tons of waste per year by 2025.
But waste isn’t only a consumer problem. Waste is a manufacturer problem. It is a distributor problem. Waste is a problem for everyone, and organizations across the world are beginning to look for ways to reduce waste throughout the product lifecycle.
Conventionally-minded business analysts have long believed that companies have no commercial incentive to lengthen the life cycles of products because this would reduce their revenues, but this isn’t true. Changing cultural attitudes towards sustainability are turning sustainable business practices into opportunities to generate value. These benefits are not unique to big-name manufacturers like Lego, who has promised to exclusively use sustainable materials by 2030. It can be a major value driver for any business, in any industry.