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Improving structural performance of products is often realized by introducing increasingly advanced and complex materials as well as material combinations. What material to use in products is decided in the early product development phases and has a decisive impact for manufacturing, maintenance and end-of-life. A particular challenge is that the decisions need to be made upfront, where information of the forthcoming product is limited. This paper presents an early product development method to assess the criticality of alloy materials from a resource availability- and sustainability perspective. The method distinguishes itself from previous studies that focus on element criticality on a country level. The method is used to characterize and analyze the criticality of alloys in a three-step process that aims to support product design teams selecting what material alloy to use in early phases of design. It provides a proactive and systematic approach related to critical materials to avoid potential future problems on a long-term basis. The method presented has been developed in an action research-based approach in an aerospace company where a product design team validated and evaluated the material criticality method. The generic nature of the method is likely to be applicable not only to aerospace companies but also to other industries using advanced alloys. An important finding from applying the method in the company case was the clear link between long term business impact and sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the environmental impacts of the Conector® Enciclopedia, and to recommend and apply improvement strategies based on eco-design principles. For this purpose, the work develops a methodology that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) and eco-design. The LCA was performed using the GaBi 9.2 software and the CML 2002 method. To evaluate the influence of the operating hours of the toy two use scenarios were defined: 'minimum use' and 'continuous use'. The comparison was made on a common functional unit of 'hour of use'. Results showed that the environmental impact of the original toy was heavily dependent on the use phase, given the comparatively large impact caused by employed batteries. Beside the batteries, the electrical and electronic circuit and the game board were the components with the greatest environmental impact in the production stage. Based on the environmental profile of the toy, different strategies were identified, proposed to the company and developed in an eco-designed toy version. The new eco-designed version of the toy achieved approximately 50% impact reductions in all impact categories in the production stage, with very small investments. Despite the environmental benefits found in the eco-design product, the paper concludes that also the consumer acceptance and the technical and economic viability should be considered, trying to maximize the ecoefficiency of the solutions. • The eco-design of an electronic toy was performed proposing improvement strategies. • Life Cycle Assessment was applied to identify the processes to be eco-designed. • The highest environmental impact of the original toy was found in the use stage. • Eco-design measures reduced more than 50% the environmental impact of the toy. • Consumer acceptance and technical and economic viability should be also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of sustainable product and service innovations is often restricted by limited market acceptance or unexpected consumption patterns. The latter includes rebound effects, which occur when resources liberated by savings are used for further consumption. Recently emerging research from the Living Lab is striving to address and anticipate challenges in innovation design by integrating users in prototyping and field testing product and service innovations. The paper presents findings from a literature review on rebound effects and expert interviews identifying methods to monitor and measures to mitigate rebound effects in early innovation design via Living Lab research. We find that monitoring and mitigating rebound effects in Living Lab research includes technological and behavioural triggers as well as socio-psychological and time use effects in addition to economic re-spending effects. The experts have confirmed that Living Labs contain the potential to observe complex demand systems of users within experimental designs, encompassing indirect rebound effects in terms of expenditure as well as time use. In this respect, Living Lab research can facilitate support for sustainable innovations, which aim to encourage changes in consumer behaviour, considering re-spending and time use effects simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pharmaceutical sector has the societal duty to make medical healthcare products both available and affordable. But like any human activity, it is not neutral in terms of environmental impact. Therefore, and like any industry, the pharmaceutical sector needs to consider the environmental aspects into its product design and activities in order to reach a sustainable production and consumption patterns, as defined by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 of the United Nations. With a holistic perspective, the eco-design concept is an approach that aims to integrate environmental aspects into product design. To contribute to the SDGs, the pharmaceutical industry needs to consider the environmental impacts of its products. Usually, experts within Research & Development (R&D) do not have the proper level of knowledge to integrate the environmental aspects, in a Lifecycle perspective, into their decision making. Even so, those parameters are not yet part of the New Product Development (NPD) process of the medicine product. With those elements in mind, the aim of this paper is to understand which phases of the pharmaceutical R&D process represent an opportunity to eco-design such products. We proposed two qualitative experimentations with, first interviewing ten practitioners of R&D; and second, with an assessment of the medicine NPD process and related deliverables, based on LCA results. The use of such results to investigate potential key contributors during NPD stages does not seem to be explored yet, especially for the pharmaceutical sector. Results show that eco-design approaches can be performed all along the development of a pharmaceutical product. Main eco-design levers appear in parallel to the clinical phases 2a and 2b, in other words, when the tests on the final marketed form are initiated. • Eco-designers identified all along the Pharmaceutical R&D process. • Qualitative approaches are recommended from research to early development. • Quantitative approaches are recommended from early development to market. • Main potential Eco-design levers are between the phase 2a and 2b. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction in the use of raw materials and the spread of energy efficient processes and components are necessary from both the economic and the environmental viewpoints. This paper presents the design of an innovative multi-functional agricultural machinery able to integrate three separate traditional implements used for hay raking, hay baling and bale wrapping, i.e. hay rake, round baler and bale wrapper machines, with the aim of speeding up the harvesting operations and reducing both the energy consumption and the global environmental impact. A comparative analysis about the adoption of the traditional implements and the new multi-functional machinery is reported. Particularly, the reduction in both the fuel consumption (−32%), the human labor (−66.7%) is discussed together with a differential environmental analysis of the proposed system and the traditional implements. To meet such a last purpose, the study adopts the life cycle assessment methodology carefully quantifying the impact indicators for three different categories, i.e. human health, ecosystem quality and resource depletion. The results highlight a global environmental impact reduction of about 35%. The proposed system represents an effective and competitive improvement to ease and speed the haymaking process and to reduce the environmental impact of such a key farmer activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the life cycle engineering of an integrated desktop computer system from the perspective of a small to medium enterprise (SME). Using a novel approach which considers the motivations of actors at various stages during the life cycle of the PC it attempts to engineer the lifecycle through design features which have been chosen to influence these critical decision points leading to more desirable pathways from an environmental perspective. Using these motivations it extracts design principles and ultimately design and service features to (1) promote long lifetime with the original user (2) facilitate refurbishment and reuse (3) be easy to disassemble and (4) contain minimal valueless fractions at end of life. This has been achieved largely through two specific design features and supported by post-sale services to the consumer. The first of these features is a high quality finish using a solid hardwood chassis to create an emotionally durable product that is easy to refurbish and eliminates negative value plastic fractions at end of life. The second feature is a strong focus on ease of disassembly to facilitate upgrade, refurbishment and deep disassembly at end of life. The service offering is also crucial and upgrade services and buy back are available. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental design (eco-design) has been identified in both academic and policy circles as a point of intervention in the product lifecycle to promote environmental performance. The benefit of eco-design would be enhanced by rooting it firmly within theoretical design principles and establishing ‘sustainability’ as a functional requirement within a regulatory framework. Formulating such an innovative approach requires first understanding current practices of eco-design in industry. This paper, therefore, addresses three questions: 1) To what extent is the design process structured in practice as suggested by design theory? 2) What, if any, environmental issues do designers consider to be relevant to their products? and 3) To what extent are environmental issues incorporated into product design? Targeting primarily large UK based companies, the authors conducted open ended interviews in conjunction with a postal survey of a sample of manufacturing companies incorporating a wide range of industrial sectors. Critically, many designers are not following good design practice, which limits the possibilities for radical environmental innovation. The environmental design behaviour of companies reflects a complex balance of designers'' understanding of environmental issues and the extent of the design space, influenced by legal requirements, economic and supply chain constraints. A more effective regulatory strategy informed by good design practice is required to assist companies in achieving an effective implementation of eco-design. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study attempts to contribute to the scarce knowledge on how eco-design, and to broad extent sustainability, is connected to innovation driven companies. In particular, this cross sectional research verifies i) perception and knowledge of eco-design of the professionals from innovation driven companies in Spain, ii) specific eco-design strategies towards sustainability that innovation driven companies are integrating in their strategic plans and their application in the supply chain and iii) the companies’ future predictions on innovation and eco-design linkage. The methodology of this paper is based on a survey, developed defining measurable proxies for both eco-design and innovation approaches and conducted on 10,000 multidisciplinary professionals from Spanish innovation driven companies. The study shows that sustainability is a cardinal driver for innovation and that responses have specificities regarding company size, activity or respondent position. Innovation and eco-design strategies for the future aim to use materials with a lower environmental impact and to develop new concepts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Sustainable Product and/or Service Development (SPSD) approach is a pragmatic industry support encompassing a range of strategies aimed at maximising environmental and social performance in all types of “offerings” whether they are “products”, “services” or Product Service Systems (PSS). Implementation of the approach was tested in industry and conclusions reached on the effectiveness of the strategies included in terms of developing an offering with improved sustainability performance as well as practical use as an industry approach. Two strategies incorporated are functional and systems thinking, as these are seen as key for increasing the environmental benefits of offerings. This paper summarises the SPSD approach, general industry testing results, describes how and why functional and systems strategies are incorporated in it and industry testing results relating to their use. This provides valuable information on how functional and systems related considerations can be practically and effectively included in sustainable offering development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In light of increasing pressures to adopt a more sustainable approach to product design and manufacture, the requirement to develop sustainable products is one of the key challenges facing industry in the 21st century. Hence, the concept of developing sustainable products as well as services is evolving as a key element of Cleaner Production. Sustainable product development initiatives (mainly through eco-design) have been evolving for some time to support companies develop more sustainable products. Ireland has been running the highly successful Environmentally Superior Products (ESP) initiative that supports industrial companies to incorporate a more sustainable approach to the development of products and/or services. The lessons learned from the ESP and other global Sustainable Product and Service Developments in industry and research, are being used to develop a method for effective sustainable product and/or service development (SPSD) in industry. The method is designed to provide pragmatic guidance to business and industry for developing sustainable products and services as well as incorporating this approach within existing corporate strategy, cleaner production and product development systems. This method is being developed by the authors at the Environmental Policy and Management Group (EPMG), Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Imperial College London, UK in conjunction with industry and practitioners. The method provides a framework for implementing SPSD throughout the entire lifecycle of a product and/or service. It can be used to identify, assess and implement the options for optimum sustainability in the design and development of a product and/or service. This paper describes the key features of this method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of how much the application of the main TRIZ (Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) strategies resulted in an increase of the sustainability of different devices by reducing their environmental impacts. The used dataset consists of 144 case studies of Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) extracted from 119 scientific articles. They were manually analysed and classified by analogy according to the TRIZ strategies. These latter deal with "Dematerialization of the device" through an increased involvement of fields, "Better exploitation of the resources" available in the system or the working environment, "Structure re-design" for eliminating the conflicting parts and properties, "Increasing the control" of the device during the functioning. While the considered environmental impact categories are: global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, particulate matter formation, fossil resources consumption and water consumption. The study identified promising results in all the TRIZ strategies for almost all the environmental impact categories, with percentage reductions on average between 20 and 50%. Compared to previous studies in the literature, these obtained results provide more rigorous, consistent, and broad quantitative evidence about the validity of the individual TRIZ strategies in eco-design. At the same time, some common mechanisms of application of the TRIZ strategies were identified both when they provided the greatest and least environmental benefits. They enriched the discussion of the results, highlighting the many factors that are involved in evaluation, both about the device and external (e.g. electricity mix) and demonstrating that TRIZ's success in eco-design is not a foregone conclusion, despite the many positive opinions in the literature. The results and their discussion provide data history for the designer wishing to use TRIZ in eco-design. [Display omitted] • The efficacy of TRIZ strategies in eco-design has been tested through LCA, using 144 case studies from scientific articles. • TRIZ strategies on average reduced almost all the LCA impact categories by 20–50%. • Different TRIZ strategies had different efficacy in relation to the different impact categories. • Obtained impact reductions are greater during device use and sometimes negative during manufacturing. • Kind of device, application fields and external factors, can be crucial for the success of the TRIZ strategies in eco-design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]