Buzz Products

Background

Buzz is a creative product agency providing design-driven product solutions to companies across many industries. Some of their clients include Qantas (creating, for example, in-flight care packages, see image), L'Oreal, Hungry Jacks, Air New Zealand, News Limited and Fosters.

Buzz manages the entire process of product creation from brief to delivery. A design approach enables Buzz to create many different products, applying an integrated approach to sourcing, production and logistics.

Objectives

Buzz's aim was to offer clients sustainable product options, with a focus on design, materials, manufacturing processes and transportation.

Educating clients on the business opportunity of sustainability has been a key component of Buzz's success. Open and honest communication has ensured Buzz remains credible in the constantly changing "green" space.

Actions

Form a sustainability committee

Employees sharing a passion for sustainability came together at Buzz to form a Committee.

Research, educate and empower

Employees researched the topics of sustainability, global warming, and climate change. They were also encouraged to talk to clients about the project.

Consult the experts

Buzz enlisted environmental consultant GerrardBown to educate the committee on the areas where Buzz could reduce their impact.

The Carbon Reduction Institute assisted Buzz in becoming carbon neutral, proposing offset providers and projects to become involved in. They also helped Buzz focus its effort on areas of its operations where it could make the most impact.

Create a clear vision

An Environmental Charter was created to guide the organisation towards sustainability. The charter defines the scope, commitments and implementation approach, ensuring Buzz achieved a sustainable approach to business.

Reduce, measure, and capture

Buzz measured and reduced its carbon footprint through initiatives that focused on energy, water and waste in the office.

Emissions that Buzz could not eliminate were offset via the purchase of carbon credits.

Design for a sustainable future

The team committed to making sustainability a key part of good design; reducing materials and packaging, considering the end of life/disposal of products, and constructing a "black ban" list of materials that were not to be used in product manufacture.

Buzz's product development process is driven by the following sustainable design principals:

• Clean - free from toxins both in the production stage and end use stage
• Efficient - minimise material use and resource consumption in manufacture and logistics
• Recyclable -reclaim the materials and inputs at the end of the product's life
• Renewable - using materials derived from sustainable methods.

Enlist suppliers

Buzz established additional criteria that suppliers were expected to comply with, to achieve Preferred Supplier status. As a large proportion of products are sourced from China, this part of the process was particularly challenging. Buzz worked with the manufacturers to specify preferences for particular materials, subsequently educating them on the sustainability impacts of material selection

Offer clients the option of carbon neutral products

In collaboration with the Carbon Reduction Institute, Buzz created the Buzz Lifecycle Emissions Calculator. This measures the carbon footprint of any client project, enabling projects to be certified carbon neutral and subsequently marketed accordingly to clients.

Roll out

An awareness campaign was used to communicate the sustainability credentials of Buzz's products to clients, and the business case for sustainable products.

Results

Buzz has achieved the following:

• Shared staff ownership for sustainability in the workplace.
• Carbon Neutral status for its Australian operations.
• Sustainable design principals employed in the design studio.
• Creation of the Buzz Lifecycle Emissions Calculator, used to calculate carbon footprint of individual projects.
• Collaborating with clients such as Qantas and Air New Zealand, encouraging them to incorporate sustainable design and materials in their products.