Electrolux

Electrolux, the appliance manufacturer, was initially reluctant to embrace the Natural Step principles. The company faced the prospect of losing a multi-million dollar contract when a major customer which had been working with The Natural Step (TNS) turned it down because Electrolux products violated TNS's four 'system conditions' for sustainability.

With no choice but to acknowledge the validity of TNS, Electrolux addressed the challenge of how to align the company's operations with the laws of nature. With hindsight, the company belives its billion kroner-plus investment in Natural Step initiatives the best financial investment it has ever made.

Electrolux pushes beyond traditional notions of recycling to examine the 'value chain' throughout a product's life cycle - the value added or lost at each stage of production, use, and disposal or recovery. This prepares the company for a future in which product take-back is the norm.

Innovative metrics, including a 'recycling value index', guide the company's decisions on the trade-offs between higher production costs and greater recycling value.