Radio Flyer says it has put greater than 1 billion “wheels” on the highway. More and more, its toys — together with the enduring little pink wagon — have gotten extra sustainable.
The 106-year-old firm has systematically eradicated nearly all polyvinyl chloride (PVC) throughout its $150 million (gross sales) product portfolio, which additionally consists of scooters, tricycles, electrical bikes for adults and toy quad runners offered in collaboration with electrical automobile firm Tesla. Annually it sells “hundreds” of a seaside wagon made with recycled plastic and different reclaimed supplies.
Robert Pasin, Radio Flyer’s chief govt and grandson of founder Antonio Pasin, stated the corporate reached these milestones by embedding environmental sustainability metrics in its product improvement and design processes.
A shift in considering is crucial for long-term survival, he stated. “The factor I’d say to different CEOs after I speak to them is that whether or not you prefer it or not, [sustainability] is the place customers are headed, and loads of them are there,” stated Pasin, whose official title is chief wagon officer. “They wish to know this stuff, and so they’re going to demand that they know the place the merchandise are from, the way it’s made. That’s simply the pattern.”
About 60 % of customers surveyed in 2022 ranked toys, alongside meals and clothes, because the class the place they count on elevated company motion relating to sustainability — primarily within the type of selecting pure supplies equivalent to wooden as an alternative of plastic. In the meantime, the trade makes use of roughly 40 tons of plastic for each $1 million in income, making it probably the most plastic-intensive shopper sector on the earth, in keeping with knowledge from the U.N. Setting Programme.
Radio Flyer stands out for — and affords classes in — tips on how to incorporate environmental concerns in all phases of product improvement.
Create new habits for everybody on the firm
Sustainability is entrance and middle at Radio Flyer headquarters in Chicago, the place the corporate put in geothermal heating and cooling to chop pure fuel consumption in half. Rooftop photo voltaic panels generate greater than 60 % of the power wanted to run the operations there.
However the clearest alternatives for reductions lie in materials selections and product design adjustments.
Greater than 97 % of Radio Flyer’s greenhouse fuel emissions come throughout manufacturing. The corporate’s science-based targets are to cut back absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions 33 % by 2030 from its 2017 figures; it goals to chop Scope 3 emissions by 28 % per ton of product throughout the identical timeframe.
“All people within the firm has targets for the 12 months, and everyone who touches merchandise has targets round sustainability, making our merchandise extra sustainable,” Pasin stated. “That stated, I believe habits are much more vital than targets. Habits of reviewing each product, each materials in each product and saying, ‘What can we substitute it with?’”
Begin on the product design part
One vital device for getting designers and engineers to assume in another way is a scorecard developed with consulting agency Pure Methods and made obtainable as an operational dashboard, stated Eric Selner, govt vp of product improvement, gross sales and operations at Radio Flyer. The corporate baked life-cycle opinions into design and improvement to normalize the concept environmental concerns — supplies, water utilization, manufacturing processes and power — must be core to all choices. “You’ll want to make it straightforward for the engineers to do the work to ladder as much as these targets,” he stated.
Materials opinions begin on the idea part when components equivalent to a toy’s dimension and what shall be used to make it are nonetheless malleable. Carbon footprint estimates are generated for every various, so groups can research the implications of substitutions in actual time, Selner stated. Radio Flyer has been a part of the Chemical Footprint Challenge since 2016, which it consults to know the well being impacts of supplies alongside carbon footprints.
“You’ll be able to see how the product you’re designing compares to different merchandise we’re making,” Selner stated, referring to Radio Flyer’s device. “You’ll be able to see the class common. You’ll be able to see your product, your product with substitutions. Then, most vital, you possibly can see the place all of us want our merchandise to be to satisfy our science-based targets.”
Radio Flyer’s final aim is to chop the carbon dioxide emissions equal depth of merchandise to a median of 4.3 kilograms or much less, in keeping with its sustainability roadmap. The corporate doesn’t disclose the present common, but it surely does provide a number of illustrations of the place its design method has made an impression.
Take into account supplies, product dimension and manufacturing
One instance is a choice to exchange plastic with cloth within the physique of the 3-in-1 EZ Fold Wagon, chopping the burden by 7 kilos and lowering the emissions by 24 %. The device additionally guided a redesign of the Massive Flyer Sport tricycle, making it 2.2 kilos lighter and figuring out a neighborhood manufacturing supply to lower transportation emissions. And it helped determine supplies substitutions for the Radio Flyer Trip-On, the place it has reduce the carbon footprint in half. “One fewer pound of the whole lot is best,” Selner stated.
Different sustainable product suggestions
Benefit from perks provided by clients. Radio Flyer experiences its emissions to Walmart by means of the retailer’s Challenge Gigaton initiative and has been acknowledged as a Giga-Guru, boosting its credibility with customers and serving to it determine new product classes such e-bikes, which it entered in the course of the pandemic.
Beware bioplastics, a minimum of for now. Present choices could be costly and brittle, which is usually a problem for merchandise meant to be sturdy and long-lasting. To that time, Radio Flyer ships “hundreds” of substitute components to assist clients repair merchandise yearly, together with many lengthy out of guarantee.
Use contract negotiations to encourage suppliers to vary. The corporate’s awards and pricing embody standards equivalent to whether or not companions use renewable power. It’s clearly less complicated to do that when the connection is rising, Selner stated.
Take into account B Corp certification. Radio Flyer was the primary toy firm to earn this recognition, which assesses environmental, social and governance practices. Pasin stated the method was onerous within the brief time period however price it for long-term strategic insights. “I spotted we had been doing so many issues that may qualify us as a B Corp that we might most likely get it with out altering rather a lot, which felt actually good,” he stated. “That stated, the [self-assessment] gave us a report card of stuff that we would have liked to enhance.”
How is your organization embedding sustainability into product improvement? Electronic mail your greatest practices and case research concepts to [email protected].
