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Sustainability evaluations are increasingly relevant in the design of products. Within sustainability-related frameworks, circular economy (CE) has gained attention in the last few years, and this has vastly affected design, leading, for example, to design for circularity. This article deals with the wide range of product-level CE assessment tools, out of which some are applied to a case study from the building sector, namely a tiny house made with hemp bricks. Attention was specifically paid to those methods through which a single circularity indicator could be extrapolated. Overall, the objective of this work is to study the convergence of existing CE assessment methods in providing consistent circularity performances. The results show similarities in the overall circularity scores despite differences in the variables used to achieve that final score. Thus, despite the lack of standard methods, the results suggest that many of these tools are sufficiently interchangeable, also in consideration of consistent indications to improve the circularity of the tiny house. This means that consistent inputs are provided to anyone willing to redesign the tiny house with the objective of making it more circular irrespective of the assessment tool used.

This research presents a series of analyses related to the eco-design of polymer matrix composite parts, addressing various aspects of it. The main objective was to clarify the definition of ecological design, the benefits of its implementation and its importance in all stages of obtaining a product (design, manufacturing, recycling). Global environmental issues are presented, emphasizing the importance of adopting sustainable approaches in product design and manufacturing. Special attention is paid to the analysis of waste recycling technologies for polymer matrix composite materials. The analysis carried out identifies specific ecological design principles applicable to these materials and presents recent trends in the field. Relevant case studies are highlighted, demonstrating the benefits of ecological design in order to obtain sustainable products. Additionally, the conducted research allowed for finding answers to the questions "what", "why", "when" and "how" it is necessary to apply the principles of eco-design in the case of composite materials with a polymer matrix. In general, the research promotes eco-design as an indispensable strategy for sustainable and responsible production, inspiring companies to adopt these principles for the benefit of the environment and their business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the approaches followed by the circular economy (CE) to achieve sustainability through design is product life extension. Extending the life of products to make them useful for as long as possible is a means to reduce waste production and materials consumption, as well as the related impacts. For designers, conceptualizing products in a way that allows them to be used for longer is a challenge, and assessing how well they extend their lifespan can be helpful when it comes to choosing the best proposal. In this paper, 70 tools and methods related to eco‐design and circular economy are studied to determine how many of them consider parameters related to life extension and which can be applied in the early stages of design. The results of the analysis show that most of the existing tools and methods are applicable to developed products, and only a few of them take into account parameters related to extending the useful life. Of the 70 tools and methods, only 14 include some parameter related to life extension and are applicable to concepts. CE toolkit, Eco‐design PILOT, CE Designer, Circularity Assessment tool, Circularity Potential Indicator and Circular Design Tools take into consideration eight or more parameters to assess life extension in concepts. This will help designers select the most appropriate and will indicate the need for more complete tools to consider useful life extension in the early stages of design and thus enhance the selection of more sustainable products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring the environmental sustainability of products is challenging because it involves all the stages and processes throughout product life cycle. Product eco-design is essential to achieve it. In the proposed methodology, product eco-design is implemented based on five eco-design elements, namely, function, material, geometric structure, connection relationship and manufacturing process. However, because of the fragmentation of existing eco-design tools, the gap between eco-design evaluation and eco-design optimisation requires a new mechanism to seamlessly integrate them for efficient industrial applications. A new checklist tool called Checklist of Product Eco-design Optimisation Potential (CPEOP) is developed to assess product eco-design optimisation potential. Based on the new tool, optimisation effect of product eco-design can be quantitatively assessed. Furthermore, a novel semi-quantitative method for task planning in product eco-design is proposed, which involves evaluating the product with CPEOP, screening candidates for eco-design and determining the candidates' optimisation directions. The uncertainties arising from CPEOP and enterprise design status quo are further analysed. Subsequently, a case study on a refrigerator is conducted to elucidate the process of the method and reveal its potential. The proposed method is then discussed through a comparison with two mainstream eco-design tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Ecology is the science of the struggle for existence,” says Greg Cooper in his paper titled “The Science of the Struggle for Existence.” Indeed, the 21st century will be the century of the “science of the struggle for existence.” The paper presents some exhortations to engineers, who must find solutions “before nature dies.” Eco–friendly product design is one of the solutions to this global problem. Several basic concepts of eco–design, several eco–design strategies, traditional design strategies versus eco– design, are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent days, incorporation of sustainability principles in product design is gaining importance to survive and compete in the market. The goal of this work is to simultaneously apply the DFMA and sustainability principles in product design. For this purpose, a bike horn is chosen as a candidate product. The three dimensional model of an existing bike horn is created in a modelling package. The DFMA principles are applied to reduce the number of parts, cost of materials, manufacturing processes and the assembly time. The number of parts and total cost were reduced by 22.92 and 24.59%, respectively. The sustainability concepts are then applied on the product with a view to reduce its impact on the environment. It was found that, the carbon footprint and the total energy consumed were reduced by 13.04 and 8.69%, respectively. Thus, the integrated application of DFMA and sustainability concepts results in not only economical product but also eco-friendly one.

The concept of eco-design is an area of interest of many manufacturers. Its implementation provides a framework that allows companies to adapt to the requirements of sustainable development related to the design and manufacturing of environmentally-friendly products. Implementation of eco-design in the industry requires dedicated information technologies. Many types of software tools are offered which support eco-design, and the choice of the one which suits the user best is not easy. The paper describes an analysis of three selected IT tools dedicated to the environmental assessment of products, integrated with the 3D CAD environment. The analysis has been carried out on the basis of specially developed reference models of sets (assemblies) imitating small household appliances. The models have been designed to support the creation of various configurations of connections between elements (parts of the assembly). The study experiments consist in changing the configurations and observing how the changes affect the environmental parameters of the modelled structure. The results have been used to describe the scope of support offered by each of the tools under analysis and their suitability for the environmental assessment of products.

The goal of pursuing the circular economy (CE) is spreading more and more in industry, also driven by the introduction of new regulations, considerably affecting product design. However, a quantitative and rigorous evaluation of the environmental impacts of the results obtained by different design strategies used to implementing CE is missing in the literature. Those available only evaluate certain aspects of the life cycle of few products, belonging to specific application fields, in a qualitative way or they refer only to the global warming potential. This study provides a quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts reductions arising from the application of some common design strategies for implementing different CE options (e.g. reuse, waste to energy, remanufacturing), by using some standard indicators. The results were obtained by manually analysing 156 selected case studies of comparative life cycle assessment (LCA), extracted from 136 scientific articles. In them, the environmental impacts of design solutions for CE are compared with those of other solutions were wastes are not exploited. The obtained results have been used to evaluate the different design strategies for CE and to hierarchize them based on environmental sustainability of the solutions associated with them. In addition, an economic evaluation of the strategies, based on the life cycle costing methodology and exploiting the data available in the same articles, was also provided. Among the main achievements, it was found that the hierarchy of the CE options, pursued by the design strategies, to improve environmental sustainability is different from that provided by other studies. In addition, the environmental benefits associated with the different CE options strictly depend by the applied design strategies and the considered products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean manufacturing accomplishments have led researchers and practitioners to consider extending lean to different engineering enterprise parts, including product and process development. However, in the early phases of product development, it is important to both reduce costs and improve a product's sustainability performance. This paper develops a framework to guide designers and manufacturing managers to design products that better meet customer needs and requirements for sustainable products and services. To achieve this, a critical review of the existing literature in the field of lean design, and eco-design was conducted to fill the research gap and then develop the proposed methodological framework. The integration aimed to create synergies to extend the integration benefits and promote rational use of resources and time to create value for customers by eliminating waste and unnecessary actions in the product development process. The main objective is to ensure the development of products with minimal negative impacts on the natural environment. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the literature that an integrated framework is bringing together lean design and eco-design principles, practices, guidelines, drivers, barriers, and success factors. The framework can potentially serve product designers, manufacturing engineers, sales/marketing personnel, in fact, anyone who has a vested interest in designing environmentally friendly products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-feedback is a design strategy that reminds users of their resource consumption as they use a product. The ultimate goal is to promote pro-environmental behaviors in users by making them aware of the environmental impact of their consumption. The way these designs present resource usage information can significantly impact user perceptions. This paper investigates two aspects of resource usage presentation, quantitative feedback and emotional evocativeness, by evaluating 32 designs spanning electricity, materials, transportation, and water via surveys of 619 university students in the US and Saudi Arabia. Both these aspects are positively correlated with perceived product appeal and perceived effectiveness in encouraging sustainable behavior. It was found that presenting quantitative resource usage information was more helpful to respondents who could better estimate resource consumption, while the emotional evocativeness of a design aided respondents with lower and higher resource consumption knowledge to a similar degree. In addition, we found that images of living creatures and strong visual cues evoked strong emotions in users. Female participants, in general, responded more strongly than males to this emotional evocativeness. These experimental findings cast light on how to better design eco-feedback products to be more widely accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Actas de Diseño is the property of Facultad de Diseno y Comunicacion, Fundacion Universidad de Palermo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent days, incorporation of sustainability principles in product design is gaining importance to survive and compete in the market. The goal of this work is to simultaneously apply the DFMA and sustainability principles in product design. For this purpose, a bike horn is chosen as a candidate product. The three dimensional model of an existing bike horn is created in a modelling package. The DFMA principles are applied to reduce the number of parts, cost of materials, manufacturing processes and the assembly time. The number of parts and total cost were reduced by 22.92 and 24.59%, respectively. The sustainability concepts are then applied on the product with a view to reduce its impact on the environment. It was found that, the carbon footprint and the total energy consumed were reduced by 13.04 and 8.69%, respectively. Thus, the integrated application of DFMA and sustainability concepts results in not only economical product but also eco-friendly one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenario is one of the most effective design tools and methods used to predict areas of success and failure in product design, it gives predictions about the life cycle and trajectory of the product during each stage, as the scenario is a futuristic tool that gives indications of future events during each stage of the product lifecycle, So the importance of using scenario in product design and especially the most environmentally friendly products appeared, So that there is a kind of scenario called Environmental scenario, which deals with environmental impact assessment at each stage of the product life and the expectation of results whether positive or negative; So that it becomes a tool for achieving sustainability in product design, By charting the life of the product, taking into account environmental considerations and requirements to achieve sustainability is one of the tools needed and helps, where the environmental scenario is capable of describing how the product will be treated at every stage of the product life cycle, what the impact of those phases is and how this can be controlled, and the process of analyzing and evaluating the environmental impact of the product can be predicted using the environmental scenario.The environmental scenario is one of the relatively modern design methods that is important in predicting the future of the product and the stages of its life cycle; Where the environmental analysis is carried out And thus the expected environmental impact assessment of the product is evaluated during each stage of its life cycle. Subsequently, many negative environmental problems resulting from the design of the product can be avoided at any stage of its life, thus demonstrating the importance of integrating the environmental scenario into the product design process.In the previous research study, the importance of the environmental scenario was emphasized in achieving sustainability in product design and the importance of integrating the environmental scenario in product design processes to develop a future perspective on the environmental impacts of the product during its life cycle.

Eco-design is used as a tool in the product and service sectors with the aim to increase sustainability and reduce negative environmental impact on the product design stage. When analyzing available information on eco-design methodologies from the point of view of applicability to the packaging, it often becomes unclear which method should be preferred and would best suit the specific application. This paper explains the main principles of eco-design and sustainable application advantages and aims to show the benefits of applying eco-design strategies and methodologies into the development of sustainable packaging. The highlighted differences between the design methods, available tools and their features helps with finding the most suitable specific sustainable packaging design application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current changes in European Union legislation forces design engineers to incorporate sustainable thinking, environmental protection and eco-design into their design considerations. Many companies are concerned that integrating the eco-design principle into their product design process could result in increasing product cost and a loss of their competitive edge. Within this paper recent and possible future developments of the 'eco-design of energy using products' (EuP) Directive are discussed as well as the effects this has on companies. The main outcome of this research is the development of a design decision methodology that helps the design engineer of complex products to apply the eco-design principles without a trade-off on economic issues. The paper explains how the framework takes into account the product hierarchy and supports changes to the product design. Furthermore the paper presents an example of how the basics of the methodology are applied to a small household item. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop an innovative eco-design approach by integrating modules of LCA, CAD∖CAE and optimization to effectively include environmental considerations in product design. A life cycle modeling approach based on feature mapping scheme between product, operation and inventory has been employed to address the discrepancy in the principles of the utilized methodological approaches of LCA and CAD/CAE and enable data transformation between CAD/CAE and LCA models. In addition, by the feature-based life cycle modeling, product and process design parameters are then correlated to environmental impact proxy with explicit relationships, allowing designers to keep track of and optimize design changes that taking effect on both environmental and functional performance. Then, an integrated eco-design model consisted of a CAD-based geometric modeling module, a CAE-based functional performance analysis module, a feature-LCA-based eco-assessment module, and an eco-optimization module has been developed by Isight to realize automated procedures of low-environmental impact design. The proposed eco-design approach is expected to contribute to development of tools for efficient and practicable LCA during design and computer-aided eco-optimization with a complete view of the product life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the simultaneous design of product and its supply chain (SDPSC), the main criteria that is usually used to choose a product design is product cost since it is assumed that up to 70% of product cost is determined during the design phase. However, some researches recognise that product design decisions also affect the environmental impact of the product throughout its supply chain. Consequently, merging eco-design tools with the joint DPSC can develop a better understanding of the product and its environmental interactions to achieve green product development. In this paper, we present a literature review dealing with environmental principles' integration into the SDPSC, then we investigate tools for green product design selection using multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). We compare suitability of three selected MCDM methods, namely Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), and Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT). Two case studies were selected from literature, and a sensitivity analysis is applied for each selected method. Results suggest that although all methods are convenient and can be used in practice, TOPSIS method was more stable towards weighting changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of five use-cases that illustrate food-system modeling approaches, most of them combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The cases deal with issues as diverse as: the modeling of winemaking fermentation; the choice of a food packaging material; the design of solid foam cereal products; argumentation modeling to support multistakeholder decision-making, and the control of freeze-drying for eco-design purposes. They tackle several challenges to modeling and knowledge engineering in food systems: capitalizing data and knowledge; structuring a shared vocabulary and domain knowledge in an ontology; formalizing viewpoints and contradictions from food-related debates; supporting multi-criteria decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have explored the relationship between green products development (GPD) and product portfolio management (PPM). When considering evidence from emerging economies, the knowledge gap is even deeper. Consequently, the objective of this work is to analyze how green and traditional practices of new product development (NPD) influence product portfolio and NPD performance. In addition, we explore how GPD opens new markets and technology opportunities. The empirical evidence is based on a sample of firms that are developing products and belong to innovative industrial sectors in Brazil. In general, the framework developed and tested in this research indicates the following: (i) the adoption of GPD practices significantly influences product portfolio performance; (ii) the adoption of GPD practices tends to generate positive results with regard to obtaining technological and market opportunities; (iii) the adoption of traditional PPM practices influences the dependent factors. Unexpectedly, correlations between a firm's size or age and its performance were not confirmed. This is the first empirical evidence relating GPD, PPM, and market and technology opportunities in Brazil. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how eco-design management standards have been adopted and the environmental and economic results that have been obtained by the Spanish furniture manufacturers. This is precisely the industry sector in Spain where the dissemination of eco-design standards has been most important. Using multiple case-study methodology, the research has shown that, in three companies, more than 90% of the environmental impact of the companies' products occurs within the manufacturing phase. Companies have implemented tools for life cycle assessment with eco-indicators values that allow them to assess complex products and evaluate their significant environmental impacts at each stage. The environmental strategies of these companies are based on the continuous improvement of the internal processes and the review and monitoring of their activities. In this approach, the proper choice of materials and the environmental management of the supply chain are the main problems for companies. The outcomes achieved by the companies included some improvements, such as a greater control of product management and a reduction in operating costs, that have allowed them to obtain competitive advantages. Moreover, the adoption of standard management has enabled the companies to drive innovation of products, improve the image of companies and their products, significantly reduce the environmental impact of their products, and adapt to new, more demanding environmental laws and regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is urgent to introduce life cycle assessment (LCA) into eco-design in order to conduct eco-design in the quantitative and systematic era. In the design phase, various uncertainties in product life cycle inventory (LCI) are emerged. In practice, the real value of LCI calculated in the product end-of-life phase may be much different from the target LCI value predicted in the design phase. The aim of this research is to propose a robust design method to overcome the uncertainty issue. Regarding the scope of LCI analysis, this paper focused on the product manufacturing phase and its end-of-life phase. In this paper, the design problem of robust eco-design is modeled in a mathematical way, the novel sensitivity coefficient of LCI with uncertainty is proposed to solve the robust eco-design problem from mathematical perspective, and a guideline-based approach for robust design is proposed based on the new sensitivity coefficients. A case study is provided to illustrate the application of this research and validate our methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological advances are increasing the complexity of products, especially those in the area of information and communication technologies. Complexity has increased in several aspects: An increased number of materials are used in products, small amounts of materials with key functions are included (i.e., rare earths in light-emitting diodes), and there are more combinations of diverse types of components and connections. The difficulty of separating parts of the products limits the development of circular economy strategies where repair, upgrade, and remanufacture prevent wasting valuable resources contained in those products. This article presents a method for analyzing the removal of battery packs in newer portable computer models, namely PC-tablets and subnotebooks, as an example on how the design of batteries can affect the life span and potential reuse of such computers. The study analyzes the difficulty of removing battery packs using the results from previous analyses of the design for disassembly of newer computer models together with audio-visual material available on the Internet. The disassembly tasks for removal of batteries are summarized by disassembly codes that could be used to help identify the design features that facilitate easier disassembly. The article goes on to discuss also how the results could be included in European Union (EU) product policies aimed to help meet some of the objectives of the European Commission's (EC) Circular Economy Package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a circular economy (CE), the economic and environmental value of materials is preserved for as long as possible by keeping them in the economic system, either by lengthening the life of the products formed from them or by looping them back in the system to be reused. The notion of waste no longer exists in a CE, because products and materials are, in principle, reused and cycled indefinitely. Taking this description as a starting point, the article asks which guiding principles, design strategies, and methods are required for circular product design and to what extent these differ from the principles, strategies, and methods of eco-design. The article argues that there is a fundamental distinction to be made between eco-design and circular product design and proceeds to develop, based on an extensive literature review, a set of new concepts and definitions, starting from a redefinition of product lifetime and introducing new terms such as presource and recovery horizon. The article then takes Walter Stahel's Inertia Principle as the guiding principle in circular product design and develops a typology of approaches for Design for Product Integrity, with a focus on tangible durable consumer products. The newly developed typology contributes to a deeper understanding of the CE as a concept and informs the discussion on the role of product design in a CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on the new strategies related to the sustainable product development process has required a new perception of strategies in the design process. In this context, this paper proposes a method for integrated product development process oriented to sustainability. The method presents a logical sequence to promote the interaction between the definitions of product category, and the selection of design for environmental strategies for the product design. The proposed method consists of three steps: (i) definition of product category and phases most impacted by the strategies; (ii) definition of design for environment strategies for the product; and (iii) definition of recommendations for design. Its logical sequence promotes the interaction between the involved areas and its adoption does not depend on the integrated product development process model selected and does not generate any additional costs. Four case studies were developed to evaluate the method and the results showed that it is a comprehensive and practicable method that promotes significant reduction on resources and energy consumption in the product manufacturing processes. The method has great potential to support decision-making in the design process of a sustainable product since it guides the design towards the development of more efficient products and anticipates the visualization of critical points and the improvements that need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early phases of product development, it is important to both reduce costs and improve a product's sustainability performance. Insufficient data are available on the costs and sustainability aspects of innovative concepts such as automotive lightweight design, which require the application of new materials and processes. The lack of information and high degree of uncertainty hinder the use of traditional sustainability evaluation tools such as Life Cycle Assessment during these early phases. Tools used in eco-design and sustainable design have disadvantages since they either focus on only one sustainability dimension, require quantitative data about materials and processes, or cannot be applied by designers and engineers. To overcome these disadvantages, a new checklist for Sustainable Product Development (CSPD) was developed in close collaboration with practitioners. The CSPD allows the qualitative assessment of environmental, economic and social aspects during the early phases of product development while considering a full life cycle perspective. It provides the methodological foundation for an iterative process, in which improvement tasks related to sustainability are defined that must be completed by the engineers. The applicability of the CSPD with reference to a wide range of technologies was evaluated and tested in a case study that included nine automotive lightweight technologies. This case study revealed that the developed tool helped designers and engineers assess and improve the sustainability performance of a technology and that it stimulated processes of collaboration and information exchange within and between organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cork is an eco-material that has recently been attracting growing interest due to the expanding strategy of sustainable product design, which aims to replace non-renewable materials in the building market. Until now, the cork sector has not taken advantage of the properties of this material and has been fully oriented towards traditional applications such as stoppers for wines and other beverages. The diversification of the cork market, through developing new products with higher added value, is the reason why eco-ideation (using different creativity techniques) can be helpful in creating new products and solutions. The process of introducing eco-ideation was carried out during two interdisciplinary creative sessions and a product design stage. The results of the process were successful in terms of participation and the quantity and quality of ideas, which were characterised by searching, experimentation, participation and knowledge sharing. The versatility of cork fits perfectly with the creative methods of eco-ideation, as cork's good physical properties allow the diverse generation of new ideas for both applications and markets. The concepts generated in this study are in line with the approach of recognising cork's status as a natural, pure and noble material, taking advantage of the good properties of cork, and giving buildings unique traits due to the singular aesthetic of cork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Among the methods of comprehensive analysis for a product or an enterprise, there exist defects and deficiencies in traditional standard cost analyses and life cycle assessment methods. For example, some methods only emphasize one dimension (such as economic or environmental factors) while neglecting other relevant dimensions. This paper builds a factor analysis model of resource value flow, based on full life cycle assessment and eco-design theory, in order to expose the relevant internal logic between these two factors. Design/methodology/approach: The model considers the efficient multiplication of resources, economic efficiency, and environmental efficiency as its core objectives. The model studies the status of resource value flow during the entire life cycle of a product, and gives an in-depth analysis on the mutual logical relationship of product performance, value, resource consumption, and environmental load to reveal the symptoms and potentials in different dimensions. Findings: This paper illustrates logical relationships among resource efficiency, economic efficiency and environmental efficiency, builds a fully comprehensive evaluation analysis model to trace, evaluate and analyze the status of the material and value flow of the product life cycle process. Originality/value: This provides comprehensive, accurate and timely decision-making information for enterprise managers regarding product eco-design, as well as production and management activities. To conclude, it verifies the availability of this evaluation and analysis model using a Chinese SUV manufacturer as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design for Environment (DfE) and Design for Disassembly (DfD) have been recognized as an effective sustainable manufacturing approach to reduce environmental impact during product's life cycle. Although Malaysian manufacturers have long demonstrated a strong global market presence, the implementation of DfE and DfD among manufacturers are found lacking. This paper attempts to investigate the current state DfE and DfD implementation and the local driving force in the local Malaysian industry by addressing four research questions (RQ): RQ1 – How do Malaysian designers value the importance of DfE? RQ2 – What are the current approaches used by designers to incorporate environmental issues during product development stage? RQ3 – What difficulties are experienced in the implementation of DfE and DfD in the product development stage? RQ4 – What are the approaches needed to enhance the engagement of DfE and DfD into product design practices? Targeting product designers in Malaysia, a multiple approach using survey and interview is conducted shown that the current state of implementation and awareness within the local industry is fairly low. The soft approach of the local legislation does not contribute much towards seeing a major change in attitude as will be discussed further in the paper. The above two concerns are major challenges that require immediate attention. However, there seems to be growing concern from the industry and the government that pushes the need for options that could leapfrog the current situation. This presents an opportunity for the local research community to come up with various strategies that will be discussed. Finally, the paper proposes a more comprehensive strategy that is tailored to the local business environment in order for the local industry to be capable of maintaining its market presence. [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]

In the paper the issue of ecological-oriented product design is addressed. The definitions that concern product design are listed and the factors that make them important for the manufacturers are indicated. The method of ecological-oriented product assessment during the design process (implemented in the 3D CAD system), drawn-up by authors, is used for the analysis. The assessment of real household appliance using the method is presented and the conclusions from the evaluation are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Matériaux et Techniques is the property of EDP Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sustaining the material needs of society is an increasingly complex task, as demand grows for sophisticated materials. Concerns regarding material availability are rising, thus many studies following material stocks and flows in the economy and defining material criticality are being conducted. These assessments provide information that can be decisive for the industrial implementation of sustainable and innovative technologies. Disruption risks to the supply chains must be predicted to prevent material shortages at the corporate, national and global scale. Designers can play a major role for the preservation of material resources by considering the evolution of availability at the material selection stage. With the product lifecycle in mind, material recyclability will progressively become a key factor for the design process, in order to foresee potential vulnerabilities and foster material recycling. This paper is part of an on-going research being conducted at the G-SCOP lab of the Grenoble Institute of Technology, whose aim is to provide dynamic resource scenarios and additional input to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods and Design for Recycling guidelines, so as to assist material selection in the design process. It presents a framework and the research methodology employed to identify the parameters that determine the evolution of recycling chains, based on material flow data and historical accounts of the shifts, ascent and decline of recycling activities. This should allow designers to incorporate material criticality and recyclability to their Life Cycle Assessments and fill an important gap since there are very few wide-ranging compilations of data describing the history of the recycling processes and industry in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing environmentally friendly products has become a tighter requirement in the marketplace because of both the increasing trend in awareness of consumers and the obligations from legislation requirements. Unfortunately, this is not a straight forward decision for designers to evaluate whether their design options are satisfactory in terms of balancing various factors (for examples, different forms of environmental assessment) or not. This is partly attributed to the fact that there is no universally accepted approach for conducting such analysis. In this connection, this research makes reference to a European Union (EU) directive as a reference model and makes use of Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP), which is a useful tool to help designers to make decision, for evaluating eco-design options. The AHP model is developed based on two case studies on consumer electronic products. Pairwise comparisons, one of the key steps in AHP, are conducted with the expertise gained from the case studies and the help from the software package Expert Choice. The paper also reveals how design options can be evaluated, or be screened out. The proposed method does not require the designers to conduct detailed analysis (life-cycle assessment for example) for every new product options and hence can save their time. This is particularly important when they are facing shorter and shorter product life cycle nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection, quality requirements for products, eco -design of materials, increasing of production volume and market competition force the manufacturers to adapt to these requirements and also to economic issues. A mathematical method is applied to the solution of this problem. The individual factors of environmental and economic character are expressed by means of different equations having universal validity. The most important factor of the given ones is the so called natural capital, alias natural resources. They are derived from the environment. Each of summarized criterions is represented by its graphical form. An application to the automotive industry closes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable manufacturing has increasingly included design for environment methodologies with the objective of improving the environmental performance of products over their entire life cycles. Current European Union (EU) directives on eco-design focus on the use phase of energy-related products (ErPs). However, the maintenance of various household non-ErPs is performed with ErPs; therefore, the environmental impacts of product maintenance have an important role in the life cycle of non-ErPs. This article presents two eco-design studies where the implementation of improvement strategies of the use and maintenance phase of products had relevant results. Furthermore, environmental communication-to-user strategies were important to ensure the commitment of users toward eco-efficient behaviors. First, a knife was eco-designed according to strategies which focused on materials, processing, maintenance, and communication to user. By applying eco-design in a cradle-to-consumer scope, improvements decreased the environmental impact of the eco-designed product by 30%. However, when considering the entire life cycle of the eco-designed product, environmental impacts could be reduced by up to 40% and even up to ≈93% (depending on the cleaning procedure) as a result of large improvements in the maintenance stage. Second, a woman's jacket was eco-designed following multifunctionality, recycled materials, and efficient maintenance strategies. The new Livingstone jacket reached environmental improvements between 32% and 52% in the indicators analyzed. In this case, maintenance contributed between 40% and 87% of the reduction. As shown in this study, maintenance behavior and communication-to-user strategies are crucial to the eco-design of different household products (traditional vs. flexible design) and their consideration in the design process can reduce their environmental impact by between 40% and 80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many modern products, the use phase is intensive and poses a serious environmental impact because of the energy and resources consumed. This could be resolved by optimizing the product's environmental impact by improving the understanding of the users' relationship with it. In this work, we propose a model that can be used to include the use phase and the eco-oriented strategies in the environmental impact assessment of a product. This model takes into account the changing nature of the interactions between the user and the product over time. An indicator designated mitigation rate is introduced to help model this change. It acknowledges the loss in performance of eco-oriented strategies over time. This work presents the methodology to understand, model, and select among different eco-oriented strategies with different time frames. A case study is also presented, where four alternative models considering different eco-oriented strategies are shown and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]