Sustainable Product Innovation: The Importance of the Front-End Stage in the Innovation Process

With an overpopulated planet, hungry for electricity and resources, sustainability will be one of the biggest challenges in the future. Present production and consumption patterns are causing serious environmental and human problems and cannot be sustained in a world with rising human aspirations. The challenges and opportunities for sustainable innovation are immense, and the time horizon is shrinking. Going green isn’t just about saving the planet; it’s about finding a dynamic equilibrium between human and natural systems, between saving the environment, making profit and enhancing all stakeholders’ quality of life. Companies, designers and engineers can play an important role in this transition process towards a sustainable and smarter society with an improved ‘quality of life’. The very early phase in the product innovation process, the so-called front-end of innovation (FEI), is the stage of the innovation process where product strategy formulation, opportunity identification, idea generation, idea selection and concept development take place and decisions about new product development are taken [1]. These first phases in the engineering design process have the largest impact on the end result of the project [1, 2] and the highest payback to one’s investments [1]. Accordingly, the front-end of innovation is often described as being the root of success for any company hoping to compete on the basis of innovation [2]. Notwithstanding the logic behind integrating sustainability in the early stages of an innovation process, in practice it is flawed. Front-end innovation is a hot research topic, but there is still little research done on its relationship to design for sustainability. This chapter addresses the existing knowledge in the field of sustainable product innovation and its relation to the front-end of new product development. The research in this chapter aims to contribute to the understanding and implementing of sustainability in the early stages of an innovation process. A short overview of the used research method is presented in the first part. Secondly, the concept of the front-end of new product development is introduced by its different definitions. The section also describes the importance of the FEI, different types of innovation processes and the functions, activities and characteristics of the Front End. The third part looks to the concept of Sustainable Product Innovation (SPI) together with its drivers and barriers. Furthermore, it reflects on the current practice of the use of Sustainable Product Innovation tools. Next, the importance of integrating environmental considerations in the Front-End stage is presented. Different research results, insights and challenges are discussed in the penultimate part in order to identify successful patterns. At the end of this chapter, a summary is presented.