Sustainability management in product development projects – the ABB experience

This article describes how ABB worked with environmental considerations when they developed their new capacitor. The sustainable development priorities are now integrated within their mainstream product development process model. The fact that ABB started a mandatory use of their GATE Model, including the sustainability considerations, verifies that ABB considers it to be a commercially sound methodology. The studied project resulted in a product with considerably better environmental performance than the traditional technology. One key factor is that the sustainability interest was truly advocated and supported by the management of the project.