Eco-design & eco-manufacturing of NodOn products

Whether we are ordinary citizens, committed activists or manufacturers, we are all now aware of the climate emergency around us.
It is therefore essential that this climate emergency – often illustrated by compliance with the Paris Agreement, even though it is not ONLY about CO2 – be a decisive factor in the strategy of every company in 2023, all the more so for a manufacturing company like NodOn.

As a reminder, for the industrial sector the Paris Agreement means:

• A 35% reduction in our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030
• An 80% reduction in our GHG emissions by 2050

Produce better, produce usefully and produce less

In the coming weeks I will have the opportunity to write an article on the specific subject of “producing usefully” at NodOn (energy saving, energy awareness, energy efficiency in buildings, etc.), but today I would like to focus on the first subject: “producing better”.

Let’s be clear from the outset. Producing better is not an end in itself, but a first step towards producing usefully (and then towards producing less). It is not about giving “business as usual” a coat of green paint and congratulating ourselves on having solved the climate emergency because we have taken two or three actions. Our path towards a virtuous, contributive industry is still a long one.

At NodOn, we have been asking ourselves how to “produce better” for some time, notably driven by the “Design For Tomorrow” programme led by our parent company, Altyor.

This programme consists of identifying levers for action, from a design and/or production point of view, in order to reduce the environmental impact of a given product. We can then speak of eco-design and eco-manufacturing.

To apply this at NodOn, we began by carrying out numerous LCAs – Life Cycle Assessments – to understand where the most significant environmental impacts lie.

In this article, we will mainly address points 1, 2 and 4. Point 3 will be the subject of a dedicated article.

The use of raw materials

Making products means using raw materials (very often virgin materials, and therefore high in GHG emissions). On average, raw materials account for 70 to 90% of the GHG emissions linked to a product. Within these emissions, we mainly find:

Electronics

To date, electronics remain the poor relation of our “produce better” strategy. We have certainly identified ways of reducing the environmental impact of electronics (favouring certain component packages, reducing the number of components, avoiding unnecessary functions, etc.), but our scope for action is still too limited. The best option to date is still to maximise a product’s lifespan as far as possible (and therefore to carefully calculate and maximise the MTBF – Mean Time Between Failures, a figure representative of lifespan), and also to manage the different life cycles intelligently (through refurbishment) – see the section below. We are continuing to work on these topics with the Design For Tomorrow team.

Plastic

Many of our products are made of plastic. To reduce the environmental impact of our products, we decided to switch 100% of our eligible production to recycled plastic during 2023. This delivers an average reduction of 10 to 20% in GHG emissions for an equivalent product.

You have probably noticed that I am talking about “eligible” production here. What does that mean?
Unfortunately, some of our products (micromodules, Smart Plug, etc.) use so-called “flame-retardant” materials, and European certification does not currently allow us to use recycled plastic for this type of plastic. We are nevertheless actively working on this issue, and we are confident of finding a solution by 2024.

Packaging

NodOn belongs to the generation in which everyone wanted “Apple-style” packaging. It looks nice in the shop and it is fun to unbox, but it serves no purpose!
After a whole period of “premium” packaging, in 2022 we chose to change our strategy completely. Our packaging must now be minimalist, simply protect the product and be easily recyclable (by using a single material for the packaging: recycled cardboard).

We agree: using recycled plastic and minimalist packaging is not going to save the world. Here I am only talking about “producing better”.

Transport / logistics

As you are no doubt aware, most NodOn products are still manufactured in China – in OUR factories, admittedly, but in China nonetheless.
Transport is therefore an important factor to take into account. The findings of our LCAs are unequivocal: if products travel by sea, the environmental impact is low or even negligible (compared with other, more significant factors). However, if products travel by air, the impact is colossal! We therefore decided to take 3 actions:

• Reduce, and eventually eliminate, air freight from our supply chain mix
• Reduce the size of our packaging as much as possible so as not to transport air
• Bring some production back to France, to our Orléans factory, whenever possible. We have already started this process, and some of our products, notably our sensors, will be assembled in France by the end of the year.

Product refurbishment

Despite paying particular attention to the quality of our products and our customer support, some products still come back to us. And most of them are fully functional (purchase error, misunderstanding of the product, etc.). Failing to give these products a second life is an economic mistake, but also and above all an ecological one.

To address this, we have set up a product refurbishment line in our factory in France. This line will soon produce the first series of “refurbished” micromodules, which will be sold to our customers at an attractive price.
And when I talk about producing less earlier in this article, this is what I mean in particular. Before putting ever more new products on the market, let’s make sure that the ones already out there are being used!

That’s it for this first article on eco-design / eco-manufacturing at NodOn.
This approach is part of a (much) broader project to transform NodOn (and Altyor) into a Société à Mission (mission-driven company) during 2023. The aim of this project is to guide our strategy along 4 lines:

• Our responsibility: eco-design, eco-manufacturing, circular economy – we are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our products as far as possible.
• Our contribution: offering products that contribute significantly to the ecological transition, particularly through energy savings in buildings.
• Leading by example: creating a responsible industrial movement by inspiring, uniting and training our ecosystem
• Our fulfilment: enabling every NodOn employee to thrive in their role

We will continue to share articles on these topics and our projects throughout the year.

To conclude, let’s be clear: we are not beyond reproach, and this article is not meant to show how virtuous we are! But we believe in the power of organisations and companies to change things from within. The actions listed above are just a small illustration of the great project we want to carry out tomorrow, together.