Driving sustainability for home appliances

Consumers are more attuned than ever to environmental protection and their role in contributing to a more sustainable existence. This extends to purchasing decisions for consumer goods, with research indicating that new generations of buyers are factoring sustainability, in a big way, into their spending.¹ When the environmentally conscious consumer is ready to buy, they are generally willing to pay more for products that conserve resources like energy and water. But that's not all: Buyers also want brands that have been produced using sustainable materials and production protocols. 

This is true for many types of products, and perhaps even more so for large expenditure purchases like appliances.

For appliance manufacturers, developing sleek, beautiful, high-performance ranges, refrigerators, and microwaves that are energy-efficient is not new. They've been doing this for decades, proudly displaying energy star ratings to prove their commitment and the product's environmental benefit. And, while longevity, durability, and energy conservation are critical for post-purchase sustainability, pre-production component sourcing, supplier metrics, and design and manufacturing protocols are playing a more vital role in an appliance's overall carbon footprint and, by extension, its consumer appeal. 

Today, many appliance manufacturers have set clear goals such as eliminating harmful materials, striving for carbon-neutral production footprints, ensuring zero-waste-to-landfill manufacturing, increasing renewable energy usage, and improving the recyclability rate of products. Upcoming regulatory efforts such as the right to repair are set to accelerate the prospects for extending product longevity and delivering circularity.

Collaboration with aligned suppliers is essential to achieving appliance sustainability objectives, ensuring that products are responsible in use and in design, component sourcing, and manufacture. Henkel, a leader in sustainable practices and design for sustainability protocols, provides a competitive advantage for appliance manufacturers, lending its operational results to Scope 3 emission targets and delivering appliance assembly and operational materials that are sourced and produced sustainably.

Henkel's Respect the Planet, Rethink Design campaign, launched in early 2024, is a testament to the company's long-standing commitment to sustainability. As part of this effort, Henkel is demonstrating how its sustainable practices and consultative expertise can influence customer design considerations. The programme's four sustainability pillars, outlined below, guide the company's product development initiatives, facilitating the design, manufacture, and reliable performance of appliances that prioritise environmental and economic sustainability.

Among other innovations, Henkel materials like bio-renewable hot melts used for low-pressure moulding encapsulation are made from renewable raw materials and can replace other conventional processes – like potting and injection moulding – that generally require more energy and materials. Energy consumption reduction is also achieved through thermal management technologies that dissipate operational heat for greater efficiency, UV-curable structural adhesives that do not require heat curing, and low-temperature metal pretreatment coatings and cleaners used in the manufacture of appliance exteriors. In addition, Henkel uses renewable energy to power several of its manufacturing sites, while simultaneously transitioning away from fossil-based materials and towards biomass-based, renewable carbon alternatives.

The longer the lifetime of a product, the greater its sustainability value. The ability to reuse and repair specific parts, refurbish products that may be designated for landfill, and recycle components instead of discarding them, is a core tenet of environmentalism and a central part of Henkel's operational and development initiatives. Innovations like formed-in-place foam gasketing materials used for product sealing and ingress protection enable easy access to appliance parts for ongoing maintenance and repair. The company is also actively developing debonding adhesive technologies to enable reliable bonding for structural integrity, while allowing disassembly through specific debonding activation mechanisms so parts can be reused, refurbished, remanufactured, or recycled.

Henkel is proactively addressing substances under discussion, and reducing or eliminating hazardous raw materials and vapour-producing chemicals in the reformulation of its products. Flame retardancy and high-temperature resistance are also built into the company's materials, ensuring product safety during use.  The Henkel appliance portfolio consists of instant and structural adhesives with no CMR labels; low VOC conformal coatings with no tin used; non-chrome metal pretreatment cleaners and conversion coatings; and label-free thread-locking and thread sealing adhesives.

And last but by no means least is the adherence to practices that revere nature and strive to preserve and regenerate natural resources. Top amongst these resources is water, which is essential to all life and a critical enabler of industrial manufacturing. By reducing water consumption and recycling wastewater, Henkel's manufacturing operations help protect what is precious while developing material solutions that enable its appliance customers to do the same. Henkel has helped make steel and multi-metal conversion coating processes vastly more water-conserving with solutions like thin-film cleaner coater innovations that have demonstrated water- and energy savings, as well as formulation innovations that reduce rinsing requirements.

Together, these four pillars form the foundation of Henkel's manufacturing and product development objectives and ensure the company delivers materials that adhere to these principles.

Henkel believes that partnering with modern appliance designers and manufacturers is most impactful when engagement and transparent discussions occur at the beginning – in the design phase. This is where goals can be reviewed, sustainable solutions integrated, and long-term environmental and economic objectives put into motion.