The future has many names.
For the weak, it means the unattainable.
For the fearful, it means the unknown.
For the courageous, it means opportunity.

” Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist

Today, global companies recognise their responsibility to minimise their impact on the environment.
Their long-term development strategies undeniably promote sustainability through innovation at all levels of their operations. Appliance makers definitely have their part to play in this, and there are several ways they can contribute.
To start with they can reduce their impact by making their industrial footprint lighter on the environment: using less water, and more energy from renewable sources, implementing less polluting industrial processes, all are traditional, proven and tested methods. Also, in the case of cooling products, systematic and widespread use of ozone-friendly refrigerant gases is now the norm.
Among the recent trends, adhering to international pledges to protect the planet has become quite popular.

Carbon Neutrality is one such concept, a smart and very effective mechanism by which producers offset their emissions of CO2 by voluntarily contributing to conservation projects, typically reforestation. Ideally, in the end, the balance of CO2 produced, and CO2 neutralised equates to zero, and companies come out with a clean green slate and conscience.
Yet the industrial phase of an appliance’s lifecycle accounts for less than 4% of its impact on the environment, with 80% of it deriving from usage during the product’s lifetime, principally energy consumption. In other words, it occurs when the appliance is in the consumers’ homes. The approach here is to build less energy-consuming appliances, which also need to be almost entirely recyclable and easy on raw materials since the latter account for just above 15% of their environmental impact.

The answer lies in the design (is not all about looks !), and in the educated choice of the most impactful innovative technologies: designing better appliances that use less energy thanks to technology advances and by simply being more focused on energy-saving issues.
In the case of refrigerators, the use of lower-consumption AI inverter compressors helps avoid fluctuations in temperature, which results in improved energy performance.

So does the use of LED lighting. Consumer education is also part of the equation and can be achieved through efficient communication (i.e., user manual and other educational interactive tools). How to best use your appliance, how to properly store food to avoid waste and reduce shopping trips, and many other subjects around the main appliances in the house. Altogether they account for a good 25% of a household’s environmental footprint, with heating and cooling representing nearly 50%.
Under this perspective, nature-inspired design can certainly help make a difference, both by imagining appliances that appeal to consumers with a gentler, more natural approach to good living and by more than considerably improving their environmental footprint.
Design can also play a critical part in reducing the amount of high-impact components, such as plastic elements.
Designing appliances with more full-metal parts dramatically helps reduce the use of plastics, and at the same time resonates with consumers and makes the appliances more recyclable and more durable, which in turn lightens the burden on the environment.
A win-win situation, and a clear sign that the solution lies in our hands, or rather, in our pencils.

Copyright HOMA 2022- Issued By Homa Marketing dept. and Homa R&D dept. on January 2022