Brady's DfE Indicators and Example Products

In 2012, Brady completed a pilot process of the DfE program and tools that led to updating the sustainability indicators. The pilot tested Energy Use, Materials of Concern, Materials Source, Material Consumption, and End of Life Waste as key environmental indicators for Brady products. The pilot demonstrated that Materials Source and Material Consumption were highly correlated and therefore measuring these individually indicators did not produce meaningful results. Both the indicators are more accurately demonstrated as an environmental metric when measured by a life-cycle metric like Carbon Footprint. The design strategies of reducing material, lightweighting, and choosing more sustainable materials sources are still strategies of DfE; however, the outcomes of these strategies are measured in a common unit of carbon footprint.

DfE Indicators	Description	Metric
Energy Use of Product	Energy consumed by printer systems during use or standby.	% MJ (megajoules) decrease in energy use while in Active State, Ready State, Off Mode, Sleep Mode or Standby.
Materials of Concern	Materials for which there is evidence for probable serious effects to our health and/or the environment.	% decrease by mass of materials of concern in the product.

Carbon Footprint	Improvement in overall life-cycle footprint, measured in carbon equivalence.	% decrease in CO2-equivalence.
Consumer Waste	Waste sent to landfills during the life cycle of the product.	% decrease in waste sent to landfill. OR % decrease in product use or end of life impact.

The table below displays examples of products that have achieved improvements in the indicators outlined above. As the DfE Program is implemented, all new products will apply tools that evaluate the opportunity to improve these metrics in new product development.

Product Examples	Product Image
BMP 51 and BMP 53 Label Makers Design change – Optimized electrical design to reduce energy consumption and improve battery life Benefit to customers – Allows running the mobile printer longer (i.e. print more labels), increases the time before replacing batteries, meets the product requirement specifications for label output on one charge Benefit to Brady – Optimized technical solution to market to customers
Permasleeve® ZH Design change – Flame retardant heat shrink sleeve for the Mass Transit Market in Europe, redesigned to have zero halogen content Benefit to customers – Product that meets safety performance standards without materials of concern (i.e. Halogens) Benefit to Brady – Replaced a product that did not meet standards in a target market
ReForm® Sorbents Design feature – Made from a minimum of 80 percent recycled newsprint and other cellulose material vs non-cellulose petroleum-based ingredients Benefit to customers – Added absorbency allows the customer to absorb more fluid - up to 50% more - which is more cost effective and creates less waste going to landfill while cellulose-based raw materials keep the price stable Benefit to Brady – Steady and predictable raw material costs and source of supply vs. volatile petroleum-based raw materials
PermaSleeve® Global Sleeve Liner Design change – Converted liner from vinyl to paper for entire product line Benefit to customers – Gives customers the ability to run all our sleeves on the same printers and software (efficiency), reduces cost, and the paper liner is recyclable at the end of life while the vinyl liner its replacing was not Benefit to Brady – Improved customer loyalty and satisfaction

Brady Sustainability Report

Brady's DfE Indicators and Example Products