Walter Stahel on Sustainability Solutions

Stahel Discusses Corporate Sustainability and System Solutions

Dec 20, 2008

Swiss architect Walter Stahel, author of The Performance Economy, and founder/director of The Product-Life Institute, recently talked with Suite101 writer Susan Murray.

Suite101: What are your thoughts on some of the latest ideas deemed "fixes for the planet," for example, LED Light Bulbs, Kite Sails for ships, and Plastic Solar Cells?

Walter Stahel: Technology has always been the driver for resource efficient solutions. But the most efficient are jumps in technology, e.g. your three examples. LED white is a great improvement; the problem is to adapt it to, e.g. street lighting. Kite Sails are good if there is wind, if you are going with the wind, and if there is no storm – which may be in 25% of all cases. Plastic solar cells again enable us to achieve the desired result with the least resource input.

Corporate Sustainability Requires Corporate Strategy Changes

Suite101: In a performance economy, corporate sustainability is now viewed as a competitive advantage. What are the first steps a corporation should take when beginning their move to sustainability?

Walter Stahel: The problem is that you have to change the corporate strategy. You cannot do it in small steps – if you change from driving on the left to driving on the right, you have to do the change in one go – or otherwise you create havoc.

Countries Making the Shift to Sustainable Economies

Suite101: Which countries are currently successfully making the shift to a more sustainable economy or at least on their way to a successful shift?

Walter Stahel: Technology driven countries like Japan (hydrogen society) in the medium term, and countries with less stranded capital and locked-in technology problems, such as China and India, in the longer term.

Where Cradle-to-Cradle Works

Suite101: Where do you think the world stands today at making the cradle-to-cradle concept work? Where is it working? Where is improvement needed?

The concept works for investment goods (where manufacturers use system design, not product design, product-life optimization, not manufacturing optimization), for aircraft, jet engines, elevators, textile leasing. You will find most examples summarized in the third chapter of my book, The Performance Economy. I shall write a second revised edition with additional examples in 2009 that should be published by Palgrave in early 2010.

System Solutions, Not New Product Design

Suite101: More and more people are now buying a car because it is fuel-efficient or cheaper to maintain, not because it has higher acceleration or it looks good. They are basing their decision less on emotion and more on function and the return on investment. Do you see this as a shift towards a performance economy? Are hybrid cars, such as the Aptera and others, a more suitable fit in a performance economy?

Walter Stahel: Again, system solutions (not new product design) are the optimal choice. But the system to optimize is the Regional and Urban Planning Policy – if you build new developments around railway stations, you need less cars.

Cars are the example for emotional products with males! Buying function might work with women car owners – but not in the case of clothes. ROI (Return on Investment) works for investment goods. Hybrid cars are over-resource intensive (two engines!). Electric cars (plug-in or fuel cell) are much more resource efficient!

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