Pamela Gordon's Page
http://www.techforecasters.com/blog/
Pamela J. Gordon is CEO of Technology Forecasters Inc., keynoter on profitable sustainability, co-developer of ProductDesign21: Profitable, Responsible, and Sustainable Products for the 21st Century, author of Berrett-Koehler book Lean and Green: Profit for Your...
read more...
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Unite EHS and DfE at Tech Companies
At one month into TFI’s and Antea Group’s alliance — as we rapidly introduce TFI clients to Antea Group’s deep EHS (environment, health, and safety) expertise and Antea Group’s clients to TFI’s product DfE (design for environment) expertise — it’s clear to see that Tech Companies that have uni...
April 12, 2016
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
The Electronics Supply Chain Can Thrive in the Circular Economy
(Part 1 of 3) By Pamela J. Gordon, Technology Forecasters Inc. CEO and Antea Group Senior Consultant One of my happiest moments on the job since joining TFI’s services with those of Antea Group, a Circular Economy 100 member, was upon hearing that Antea Group fast-tracked my enrollment in a Cir...
April 12, 2016
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
How to Make Money in Plastics Recycling
by Pamela J. Gordon, CEO at Technology Forecasters Inc. and Senior Consultant at Antea Group The device on which you are reading this blog (or on which you printed it) likely contains plastic, in addition to some precious and non-precious metals. When that device reaches the end of its life, yo...
April 12, 2016
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
By Pamela J. Gordon In one month alone — August 2015 — automakers produced nearly 300,000 vehicles in Mexico, exporting 80% of them. This production level is 7.7% higher than in August 2014. In fact, 30% of Mexico’s exports are automobiles. (Source: AMIA, Mexican Automotive Industry Associatio...
December 26, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
In the Competition for Best Sustainability Practices, Tech Plays a Key Role
by Pamela J. Gordon With the potentially pivotal UN Climate Change Conference just weeks away, I’m seeing more and more governments — large and small — lead sustainability practices by example: – Sweden aims to be the first fossil-fuel-free nation. – San Francisco continues to be a world lead...
November 19, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Klafter and Gordon on Climate Change Solutions in the Electronics Supply Chain
by Pamela J. Gordon, CEO, Technology Forecasters Inc. This week Flex VP Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility Bruce Klafter and I co-presented on EBN’s webinar “Climate Change Mitigation: How the Electronics Supply Chain Can Do So — Profitably.” When viewing it, you’ll find encour...
October 7, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Cisco, Flex and TFI discuss Climate Change and the Tech Industry
by Pamela J. Gordon Isn’t it time that we in the Tech Industry talk openly about Climate Change? Joe Johnson from Cisco, Bruce Klafter from Flex (Flextronics), and I think so. We will do so during two webinars, produced by EBN, on Aug. 26 and Sep. 30, 2015, at 10:00am Pacific Time. The pair of ...
August 12, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
West Coast Port Headaches: Your Contingency Plan?
By Jonathan Gilbert, TFI Senior Logistics Consultant Contingency Planning in the Supply Chain — Are You Prepared?Labor issues at Long Beach and Los Angeles ports are causing major headaches for supply chain managers. Again. A volatile labor environment, record-setting volumes, and ever-l...
May 18, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Product Designers’ Shotgun Wedding to Supply Chain
Hands Forced by Environmental and Worker Protection TFI’s hands-on workshop in Design-for-Environment, held at Creation Technologies’ Silicon Valley facilityBy Pamela J. Gordon For 20 years, consultants (I among them) have attempted to wed product companies’ Design functions to the Supply-Chai...
April 20, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Regional Manufacturing: from Philosophy to Practice
(Third in TFI’s “Supply-Chain Rescue” series) An interview with Craig Carlson, Director, Commodity Management & Contract Manufacturing, at TFI client Outerwall by Pamela J. Gordon, TFI CEO Moving supply chains closer to end customers — for cost savings and customer responsiveness — is one ...
March 25, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Life-Cycle Approach at EMC Changes People’s World View
By Pamela J. Gordon If your job required you to “Change people’s world view” (and maybe it does), then how would you approach it? EMC Corporation’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kathrin Winkler told me, “You learn quickly that telling them what to do is not the route to go; instead, let people...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
100% Eco-Design at STMicroelectronics: Why and How
By Pamela J. Gordon, President, Technology Forecasters In the 12 years I’ve published and taught about design-for-environment, I’ve wondered why all corporate executives don’t recognize DfE’s obvious benefits: more efficient and competitive products, lower manufacturing and operating costs, re...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
A Common Step Back from Responsible Tech, and How to Get Back on Track
by Pamela J. Gordon (As published in GreenBiz) For 30 years, outsourcing the manufacturing of electronics has been a common model for the tech industry. Outsourcing design along with the manufacturing, on the other hand, has been building in popularity for only the past 10 years. Looking at the...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Ten Ways to Detect REAL DfE in Tech
by Pamela J. Gordon (as published this week in GreenBiz) More electronics companies are pitching their products as being green. The products are touted as being smaller, having more functions than previous generations, and made without lead or cadmium. But how can you tell if claims of enviro...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Design Engineers’ Strongest Value Proposition Today
Untangling from the Relentless Cycle of Compliance Fire Drills by Harvey Stone, Ph.D. If you’re a design engineer, the design-for-environment (DfE) value proposition is arguably your strongest value proposition today -– bar none. Now, if you use design solutions from companies like Autodesk, wh...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
What Manufacturers Procrastinate Most
by Pamela J. Gordon Perhaps tech manufacturers procrastinate creating detailed and actionable disaster-preparedness-and-recovery plans because they think that building collapses and fires happen only in lower-tech industries and developing countries — such as in the garment industry in Bangla...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Who Cares About Local, Resource-Efficient Electronics Manufacturing?
By Pamela J. Gordon On Tuesday evening in Oakland, Calif., a larger-than-expected crowd attended a Sustainable Business Alliance event hosted by Digicom Electronics on the topic of local, resource-efficient, transparent-workplace electronics manufacturing. Here’s why I think so many people car...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Sustainability Skeptics + Enthusiasts = ‘Lean and Green’ Savings
By Pamela J. Gordon In a recent study, the UN Global Impact, 93% of the 1,000 CEOs in 27 industries surveyed see sustainability as important to the future success of their business. Yet, only 33% report that business is making sufficient efforts to address global sustainability challenges. It...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Consumer Electronics — Show Me the Ingredients
Those attending next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas can feast their eyes on 3,200 exhibitors’ sparkling new products. But attendees won’t have visibility to these products’ ingredient lists. In fact, surprisingly few electronics companies can answer completely and definitely t...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Leveraging the Pinch-Point to Avoid Conflict Minerals
By Pamela J. Gordon It sounds easy at first: Simply ensure that the metals within your brand’s electronics are conflict-free. In other words, make sure that none of your gold, tantalum, tin, or tungsten is sourced from mines that fund armed conflict in or around the Democratic Republic of Cong...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Long View of Electronic Products’ Sustainable Design = Hope
by Pamela J. Gordon When addressing environmental-compliance issues feels like a daily grind, taking the long view can inspire hope. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel — along with Bruce Klafter of Flextronics and Julie Silk of Agilent — at an IPC-ITI seminar, “Critical and Em...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Keep the Pressure on Electronics-Industry Associations
By Pamela J. Gordon In March, a colleague of mine asked a major industry association if they offered certification in supply-chain sustainability. The executive responded that they do not, but that it might be an interesting idea for the future. My colleague’s reaction was that this associatio...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Order of Protection: People, Planet, then Product?
by Pamela J. Gordon Disaster planning is not an option for serious players in the tech industry. Plans are increasingly required by customers, certification bodies (e.g., AS9100C), insurance companies, and board rooms. Consider the recent fire at Samsung’s printed-circuit-board supplier causi...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Outsmarting Waste in Electronics
by Pamela J. Gordon If you visited the seashore this summer, as I did, you might not have glimpsed any of the enormous ocean patches of garbage — one of which is a tangled mess of plastics and other garbage twice the size of Texas. But you may have seen this week’s estimate that >300 millio...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Preservative-free Diodes and Non-GMO Capacitors
by Pamela J. Gordon Most people wouldn’t imagine that last week’s acquisition of Annie’s Homegrown, Inc., (natural and organic packaged foods) by General Mills (Cheerios and Betty Crocker) could portend changes in the electronics industry. But the food-industry’s trend of conventional giants ...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
A Welcome and Honest New Book on Outsourcing the Supply Chain
Blog Post by Pamela J. Gordon TFI’s long-time colleague Professor Andy Tsay (chair of the Operations Management and Information Systems department in the business school at Santa Clara University) told me about his new book, Designing and Controlling the Outsourced Supply Chain, from NOW Publi...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Reflecting on Linda Gee’s Sustainable-Tech Wins
A Tribute delivered by Pamela J. Gordon , at CleanTech Open’s Global Forum, San Francisco, Nov. 13, 2014 In the first few seconds of meeting Linda Gee in 1999, I witnessed her uncanny dedication to sustainability. After greeting me warmly at LSI’s semiconductor facility in Oregon, where I in...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Headphone Packaging Misses the DfE Boat
by Pamela J. Gordon, CEO of Technology Forecasters Inc. I bought the new Apple® iPhone® 6 Plus to “dematerialize” what I tote around with me. The 6 Plus screen is 57% larger than my iPhone 4 (now handed down to my 12-year-old), enabling me to be connected and productive without a tablet, lapt...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Collaborative Logistics: Creative solution for global supply chains
by Jonathan Gilbert, TFI Logistics Consultant Tight trucking capacity, volatile rates, and continuing driver shortages are all in the news as we enter 2015. Ocean shipping rates, in a slump for several years, are starting to rise once again. Even the US Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) industry, lon...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon posted a blog post
Getting Hands-on Experience in Sustainable Product Design
By Pamela J. Gordon, TFI Founder and CEO Read. Listen. Watch. Business professionals spend most of their learning time in these modes. You are reading this blog post, for example. Then, there’s “do” — the tactile mode, which is a powerful component of learning to design efficient products ...
March 6, 2015
-
Pamela Gordon is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
We ONLY ship to addresses IN the USA.
Live somewhere else? Please order from our international distributor. Click Here 
Thank you for ordering a digital copy of this title. This will be delivered via email after checkout. Please refer to our Information About E-Books page for any further questions on formats, rights and compatible devices.
Thank you for requesting an exam copy. If you would like to request additional exam copies, please click on ‘Continue Shopping.’ Please limit your requests to not more than three books at a time. If not, please go to ‘Checkout’ and fill in your information and complete your request.
Exam copy error