As the world's greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

It is, if nothing else, good publicity for Nike, the maker of the jerseys and the official sponsor of nine teams, including the United States, Brazil and Portugal.

Yet what many might view as a gimmick is also part of a broadening effort by the company to incorporate sustainability, or environmentally responsible practices, into its product design. Around the globe, a growing number of manufacturers are including more recyclable or biodegradable components into products.

Movement towards sustainability is occurring across companies and industries.

With the increasing focus on innovation and speed to market comes a need for efficiency, discipline and creativity in the new product development process. New product teams are being pressed to think differently, do differently and find more reliable ways to evaluate in-market potential. Whether you subscribe to the classical, stage-gate approach to product development found in most B2B or B2C enterprises or you take a more entrepreneurial, throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks attitude, there are steps along the product development path that can help reduce the risk of wasting time and resources on ideas that won't survive in market.

Five steps of more effective product development.

A few years ago, researchers at Cincinnati-based consumer goods multinational Procter & Gamble (P&G) made a breakthrough that could revolutionize how food is wrapped and stored. But there was one problem, as Chris Thoen, director of innovation and knowledge management at P&G, recounted during a recent conference at Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation. Despite a portfolio of more than 300 products worth nearly $80 billion, P&G didn't have a strong presence on supermarket food-wrap shelves, and it would take millions of dollars of marketing, packaging and other costs to change that.

Learn how P&G successfully navigated this challenge and how borderless innovation can play a role.