Eternal lifecycle

Product makers are starting to think more and more about the complete lifecycle of the products they’re making.

The key thing that’s new, is they’re now thinking about what will come of the product at the end of it’s expected usage period. After the original purchaser has finished using it.

Minimeis, a Norwegian company that makes the coolest product ever – a carrier for carrying little kids on your shoulders – has written a detailed but very humble sustainability program on their website.

One great feature of it is what they call their Eternal Lifecycle Program.

In it, they stipulate that the high-quality product should outlast many childhoods, so they encourage passing it on to family or reselling it. And if for any reason you can’t move it on (either it needs repair or you just can’t find any takers) by 2024, they aim to have a “Repair and Redistribute” program, where (I believe) they’ll either take or buy back your old product and make it good for resale.

This is by far my favourite line:

We have mapped out our ambitions above. There is a long way to go, but we will get there!

A long way to go… if that sounds like a burden, perhaps a change of perspective can help.

Instead, if you see it not so much as a burden, but as an innovation playground, you’ll come up with brilliant commercial ideas (like Eternal Lifecycle Programs) that can popularise your product, open up new income streams, and make you a sustainability leader in your space.

Minimeis was one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions in 2019.