Eco-innovation using meso eco-ideation stimulation mechanisms (ESM)

The environmental consequences of mass production and consumption require us to completely rethink the way we design, produce, and consume. More than ever, in order to remain sustainable, companies need to eco-innovate, i.e., successfully develop and market products or services with strong environmental ambitions. Designing environmentally friendly products is becoming crucial, but current eco-design methods lead to limited environmental gains, and the methods and tools developed to support the eco-innovation process remain unsatisfactory for manufacturers. In order to bring products and services with high environmental ambitions to market, beyond eco-design actions, an eco-innovation dynamic must be implemented. To do this, companies must integrate consideration of the various dimensions of the system (environmental, social, technological, stakeholders) into their design process from the early stages, as well as a specific approach to generating "eco-innovative" ideas, known as eco-ideation.

It is with this approach in mind that we have focused this article on the development of a set of eco-ideation stimulation mechanisms (ESMs) that are both educational and precise, exploring systemic dimensions related to sustainability. These mechanisms make it possible to move beyond the technical scope of the product alone and innovate more broadly and more strongly towards new sustainable economic models.

In the first section, after reviewing the context of eco-innovation and eco-ideation, the concept of mesomechanisms and the various dimensions to be explored in eco-innovation are described. In the second section, the structure of a mesomechanism for stimulating eco-ideation is presented, along with its application to the seven dimensions identified for eco-innovation and the presentation of the associated fact sheets. The third section illustrates a case study of an MSE sheet applied to a vacuum cleaner. A discussion on the use of these sheets, and more generally on future developments around the MSE concept, concludes this article.