Improve your knowledge (See Cheat Sheet: Understanding an eco-design approach) to better approach eco-design and possess the first awareness-raising elements (definition, stakes, approaches...).

List the benefits that eco-design can offer the organisation and illustrate them with feedback from organisations with a similar economic model.

Identify the priority stakeholders: which stakeholders are concerned by the introduction of eco-design ?
What is their scope of responsibility?

What are their annual objectives ? What is their knowledge of the sector's social and environmental stakes?
What are their veritable levers for action ?

Prioritise these stakeholders according to their capacity to influence the success of the project and the benefits they have to gain by committing to it. It is possible to map these stakeholders according to a "benefits influence template". Furthermore, it is essential that these stakeholders have time to think about and then put in place the initiative.

Instill adhesion on the basis of internal needs: for priority stakeholders, identify the volunteers from which support for the initiative can be drawn.

It is also important to understand their profession, their priorities and their concerns, the objective being to ensure they converge and to open up new areas for experimentation. Tools to oversee change such as the "partners map" can be used at this stage.

Identify the brakes and the opportunities: basing yourself on the partners map, list the main objections and advantages (known or supposed) of committing to an eco-design approach.

Identify possible eco-design actions already in place within the organisation.

It is possible that eco-design actions have already been developed but not promoted. If this is the case, this argument can be used to demonstrate the organisation's capacity to put in place such actions.

It would therefore be of interest to share feedback (what worked well, what worked less well, what would need to be changed if we wanted to relaunch a similar action ...).

Find out about the current context: customer expectations and the regulatory and competitive framework.

These elements can effectively encourage certain departments to adopt a position regarding an eco-design approach. For this, it can be useful to research current and future French and European environmental legislation and to consult consumer surveys.

Prepare arguments: for every objection raised, list possible responses which develop logical / rational arguments (statistics, figures, references, demonstrations, processes…) but which are also creative/emotive (stories, imagination, analogy…).

Develop the "adhesion strategy": for every stakeholder typology, identify which awareness-raising actions are the most appropriate and categorise them over time.

The objective is that the eco-design theme fosters in the organisation's environment.

Every means possible can be used : formal (newsletter, monitoring, feedback…) or informal (ideas box, "ice-breaker" meeting, discussion over a coffee…).

Propose one or several meetings with management and a manager or representative from every department to convince them to embark on an eco-design initiative thanks to the elements identified in the previous stages.

Jointly define a short action plan (See Sheet Try it! : Steering my eco-design initiative).