Hands-on workshop helps Thales engineers to internalize ecodesign thinking

Thales Netherlands is a subsidiary of Thales Group involved primarily in naval defense systems like sensors and radars. Although reliability and top class performance is essential to support armed forces in situations of threat, the company also aims to deliver systems that are eco-friendly by design.

New ISO14001 standards trigger ecodesign

In order to boost internal awareness on ecodesign within the engineering community of Thales Netherlands, Environment, Health & Safety, one of the key areas of expertise of Philips Engineering Solutions, was invited to organize an Ecodesign workshop. The initiative was partly triggered by Thales Netherlands’ desire to gain certification for the new ISO14001:2015 standard.

The new standard requires that companies consider the environmental impacts of their products and services all along the life-cycle and influence these impacts, where possible, through their design activities.

Practical ecodesign tooling

The workshop focused on a representative product manufactured at the site in Hengelo to make the exercise more tangible: the SMART-L radar system. The engineers identified white spots in the current design practices by using the Ecodesign Strategy Wheel and a Circular Economy Scorecard.

Together with the results of the LCA screening performed by the Environment & Safety team, these tools helped the engineers in brainstorming ideas to improve the environmental and circular performance of the radar system. Ideas ranged from disruptive innovation to use the rotating radar as an energy generator, like a windmill, to practical ideas like providing user instructions and dashboards visualizations on available eco-modes of operation.