Pollution Prevention Review / Spring 1997 / 33 Case Study: Olland Industries CASE STUDY: OLLAND INDUSTRIES CCC 1079-0276/97/070233-13 © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. A Netherlands manufacturer uses product-oriented industrial ecology tools René van Berkel, Marije Lafleur, and Esther Willems Industrial Ecology (IE) aims to integrate envi- ronmental consider- ations into all aspects of industrial develop- ment and industrial production. Several tools have been—and continue to be—developed to assist en- terprises in implementing IE. In the last issue of Pollution Prevention Review, the authors discussed an array of process-oriented IE tools. 1 This article illustrates the application of prod- uct-specific IE tools. The product-oriented ap- proach analyzes all material flows for a selected product and then uses the results of this analysis to propose modifications in design, manufacture, use, and disposal of the product. 2 This case study reviews the application of prod- uct-oriented IE tools at Olland Industries, a Dutch manufacturer of machines that dispense coffee and other hot drinks. The company has achieved sig- nificant environmental improvement with these IE tools. The case study also describes how the ap- plication of alternative tools could have affected the outcome of the IE project at Olland Industries. Background: Olland Industries The royal Olland group is a Dutch producer CASE STUDY: OLLAND INDUSTRIES of machines that dis- pense hot drinks. Olland Industries pro- duces, installs, ser- vices, and maintains several kinds of machines that dispense hot drinks. The production processes within the company are limited to the assembly and processing of metal and plastic sheets. The company has 180 employees and an an- nual turnover of DFl 35,000,000 (1992 figures). Overview of IE Tools IE tools enable companies to plan and orga- nize IE activities; to identify, evaluate, and imple- ment environmental improvements; and to evalu- ate progress toward reducing the environmental impacts of their products and processes. IE tools can be divided in four separate, but interrelated, categories: 3 • Management tools, which specify procedures