What is sustainable product and services innovation?
Sustainable product and service innovation is the development and implementation of new or improved products and services that prioritize environmental sustainability throughout their entire lifecycle. This type of innovation is often in response to the growing awareness of the need to address global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and more.
What is greenwashing, and is your brand guilty of it?
Greenwashing is deceptive marketing used by businesses to make their products appear more environmentally friendly or sustainable than they are. Greenwashing is problematic because it can mislead consumers who genuinely want to make environmentally responsible choices. It can also make it difficult for consumers to distinguish between genuinely sustainable products and those that are pretending to be eco-friendly.
Greenwashing can have devastating consequences for brand equity, even when it is unintentional. Third Partners safeguards your brand’s reputation and gives decision-makers peace of mind. We integrate with sustainability teams, brand managers, and marketing teams to develop authentic product and brand differentiation opportunities based on science, market insight, and creativity.
Outcomes from Sustainable Product and Service Innovation
Clear and Data- Backed Messaging
We craft science-based messaging that is clear, backed by data, and substantiates the environmental impacts of your products.
Leverage Circular Practices
We embrace circularity, renewable materials, renewable energy, and sustainable supply chains to reduce your environmental footprint.
Modernize for New Opportunities
We modernize your products and services to capture opportunities tied to emerging environmental and social megatrends.
Meet Stakeholder Expectations
We help you stay ahead of expectations from buyers, regulators, and consumers by aligning your offerings with evolving sustainability demands.
How We Support Your Product and Service Innovation Goals
Sustainable Services Innovation Case Study: HuFriedy / Steris
In 2021, HuFriedy, a global leader in dental instrument manufacturing, was acquired by the publicly traded medical equipment company, Steris. Facing greater standards and expectations for sustainability performance and disclosure, HuFriedy came to Third Partners for strategic support. Third Partners designed and delivered a year-long, custom ESG training program tailored to high priority issues for the dental supply industry. In that time, we also developed a market research survey to engage customers, identify sentiments and prioritize key issues. Additionally, we provided data-driven benchmarking of HuFriedy’s ESG performance against peers. Our work helped HuFriedy motivate leaders to generate solutions to improve company operations, identified dentists’ perspectives on sustainability and interest in specific sustainable product features, and coached team members to align their work with the parent company’s materiality assessment.
As a follow-up to the yearlong internal engagement work, Third Partners designed and led a custom full day on-site operations and product sustainability innovation workshop. Participants included senior managers in product, brand, and operations. Following the workshop, leaders began implementing several optimizations that will result in measurable gains in resource efficiency, responsible sourcing, and end-of-life performance for products and packaging. Waste reduction and renewable energy procurement opportunities were also identified during a site walkthrough audit of the manufacturing floor.
