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To enhance the sustainability of construction and meet the sector's environmental agenda, it is essential to comprehensively scrutinize the environmental, social, and economic impacts of construction projects from the project's design stage. Such assessment is of utmost importance to minimize the impacts of both new construction and rehabilitation projects and is particularly critical during the selection of building materials and construction solutions. This work reports improvements in functionality and user-friendliness of an eco-design tool (UAveiroGreenBuilding) targeting the construction/rehabilitation sector and previously developed within our research group. The optimized version of the eco-design tool underwent validation through the assessment of competitive window frame materials (e.g., wood, PVC, and aluminum) for potential implementation in a rehabilitation project. Windows with PVC frames were identified as the preferred window configuration due to their superior environmental performance and favorable economic profile. Additionally, a digital communication interface was developed to connect the eco-design tool with building information modeling (BIM) projects, achieved through a routine integrated using a Dynamo application. Such successful integration not only streamlined and expedited the data transfer process by obviating the need for manual input but it also enabled the storage of environmental data throughout the life cycle of the project using a simple and reliable data storage protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the sustainability of construction and meet the sector’s environmental agenda, it is essential to comprehensively scrutinize the environmental, social, and economic impacts of construction projects from the project’s design stage. Such assessment is of utmost importance to minimize the impacts of both new construction and rehabilitation projects and is particularly critical during the selection of building materials and construction solutions. This work reports improvements in functionality and user-friendliness of an eco-design tool (UAveiroGreenBuilding) targeting the construction/rehabilitation sector and previously developed within our research group. The optimized version of the eco-design tool underwent validation through the assessment of competitive window frame materials (e.g., wood, PVC, and aluminum) for potential implementation in a rehabilitation project. Windows with PVC frames were identified as the preferred window configuration due to their superior environmental performance and favorable economic profile. Additionally, a digital communication interface was developed to connect the eco-design tool with building information modeling (BIM) projects, achieved through a routine integrated using a Dynamo application. Such successful integration not only streamlined and expedited the data transfer process by obviating the need for manual input but it also enabled the storage of environmental data throughout the life cycle of the project using a simple and reliable data storage protocol.

Although there are numerous published studies that have helped to enhance our understanding about methods or approaches to eco-design products, there are limited publications that focus on the study of eco-redesign of lighting products. Redesign of existing products is one of the most applied design-related activities in industry, and eco-redesign is one of the most suitable eco-design interventions that can be applied by manufacturers when they want to include environmental considerations in their existing products. This type of eco-design intervention is incremental, which typically means less change, and therefore, lower investments of time, money, and correspondent risks. It consists of selecting an existing product from a given portfolio and redesigning it to reduce its environmental impact. This paper presents and demonstrates, with an example of a manufacturing company, a method to eco-redesign lighting products. The method is based in the iterative combination of an analysis-synthesis approach involving: (1) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental impact of the lighting product, (2) Identification of the specific issues which typically cause the impact in the product life cycle stages and components, and (3) Specific eco-lighting design strategies to address the areas of impact (and causes of that impact) identified with the LCA. This method can be applied as a stand-alone method or be integrated into existing design and development processes and methods already used by companies, to facilitate its adoption, and hence impact. Insights and limitations after the application of the method are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of military technology in recent years has made tremendous progress. However, some of these technologies have a direct impact on environmental degradation. This makes it necessary to introduce new solutions and technologies in the field of environmental protection. The paper provides a literature review on issues such as eco-design and its tools, life cycle assessment as well as attempted use of them in the defence sector. The environmental regulations and standards ensuring the quality of defence product have been described. In the military industry whose priorities are primarily related to defense the classic approach to design and its tools focused its attention on safety, functionality, ergonomics, costs, strength and technical parameters, instead of environmental problems. In fact militarism has huge impact on the climate because of giant greenhouse gas emissions, the main problem of the Armed Forces is the increased carbon footprint emissions which should be reduce of therefore case studies of eco-design and its tools, commercial software tools for carbon footprint calculation and life cycle assessment are described. The research is co-financed under the Program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education "Implementation Doctorate". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food industry is responsible for significant impacts on the environment, such as climate change, water depletion and land use. Although these environmental impacts, along with socio-economic ramifications, are generally difficult to monitor and control, there is a significant interest from the food industry to assess the sustainability of their activities and wider supply chains. However, new food products are being continuously designed and manufactured, for instance complex foods made with a number of ingredients such as sandwiches, prepared salads and ready meals. Most sustainability analyses are currently done after the food product is designed and not during the food product development process. Nevertheless, embedding sustainability considerations in the new food product development (NFPD) process has significantly more potential to improve the overall sustainability of the food business. This paper discusses how the food industry could be more sustainable by identifying methodologies and tools to support such sustainability assessments in food businesses. A case study with a prepared food manufacturer is used to discuss where each sustainability methodology and tool could be used in the NFPD process to optimize the design of more sustainable food products. The main conclusion of this paper is that such methodologies and tools should be applied in the first stages of the NFPD process, and then be continuously used when more information on the production processes and wider data on its food supply chain is obtained. Image 1 • The food industry creates significant environmental, economic and social impacts. • The food industry has shown interest in assessing the sustainability of their activities. • Most sustainability analyses are currently done after the food product is designed. • The food industry can use methodologies and tools to support sustainability assessments. • Sustainability assessments should be undertaken in the first stages of the new product development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Purpose: The paper shows how three tools based on life cycle assessment (LCA) were created for an eco-design approach in viticulture, how these tools contributed to the reduction of environmental impacts of technical management routes (TMR), and how they have been used in real-life conditions during workshops organized with two different groups of winegrowers and extension officers in this purpose. This paper is among the first to explore the use of LCA in participatory approaches in agriculture. Methods: The eco-design approach contains two main phases: (i) suggestion of more eco-efficient solutions by the participants based on their understanding of LCA results of a TMR and (ii) eco-design of the TMR based on initial operations from the case study and alternative operations generated during the previous phase. Three challenges have been identified to use LCA in this approach: (i) making LCA results understandable for participants, (ii) enabling easy manipulation of LCI data and modularity of LCA results, and (iii) need for live LCA results during the collective design process. Three tools have been created to fulfil these objectives: (i) a specific format to display LCA results during workshops, (ii) a "serious game" to build new TMRs, and (iii) a simplified calculation tool to evaluate TMRs. Results and discussion: Four out of the five case studies explored with these tools were actually improved at the end of the participatory eco-design approach. The specific format used to display LCA results helped identifying the most impactful operations within initial TMRs. The "serious game" stimulated discussions between participants about alternative operations. Representing unit operations with cards was successful to engage participants in the eco-design process. Finally, eco-design parameters available in the "live" LCA tool allowed participants to improve consistency of unit operations with reality and to discuss how to optimize these parameters in order to both reduce environmental impacts and meet the (agronomic, economic, and organizational) requirements of winegrowers. Several limits concerning the use of weighting and single score and the system boundaries are highlighted. Conclusions: The created tools made it possible to guide discussions towards improving the most impactful practices while allowing other practice changes to be integrated. The proposed approach and the challenges identified for the creation of the tools seem relevant for transposition to other agricultural production sectors. However, while the annual and plot/field scale is interesting for engaging farmers in the production process, larger temporal and geographic scales can help to better integrate certain decision criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite alefforts for a sustainable production system, many companies are still struggling to implement environmental aspects in their daily product development processes. Among the evaluation and improvement methods, life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most popular tools to achieve this goal. Up to date, LCA has been applied to many products, services, and industrial systems to evaluate their environmental impact aspects. However, there is a wide range of indicators available to be applied for LCA, and choosing an inappropriate indicator may lead the product designer to achieve wrong and weak results. Therefore, this paper proposes to overcome this difficulty by developing a method that can be used as a knowledge transfer to product designers and LCA practitioners in order to help them to make the most appropriate choice of LCA indicators. This method should have some characteristics, such as (a) to be adaptable to a given context and (b) to be dynamic, scalable, and easy to learn. The purpose of this paper is to present the Evaluation Method for Choosing Indicator (EMCI) developed to facilitate the learning process of LCA methods and to quickly select their most appropriate indicators. To validate the EMCI method, a case study on a French textile industry has been implemented. The focus was to evaluate how LCA indicators and methods were chosen to be integrated into the suitable eco-design LCA tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing pressure for achieving sustainability objectives, the concept of sustainable product design and development is gaining more attention in recent research. In the past, a plethora of eco-design tools that address only the environmental aspect have been developed. Hence, previous review articles focused mainly on eco-design tools, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and others. Unlike previous studies, the main contribution of this article was to review and analyze the recent and emerging product design tools (published from 2007 to 2017) which considered other dimensions of sustainability along with the environment. Based on the criteria of sustainability dimensions, this paper proposed a generic and broader classification scheme to enhance the understanding of these recent tools. Those which included two aspects of sustainability were categorized as partial sustainable product design (P-SPD) tools, and those which covered three aspects of sustainability were classified as sustainable product design (SPD) tools. The analysis revealed that SPD tools were less mature and standard as compared to P-SPD tools. The majority of both P-SPD and SPD tools were based on a life cycle perspective. However, P-SPD tools were found to be more useful at early design stages. In addition, this paper presented the case studies of the tools to decipher their practical utility. It also discussed the hurdles and problems associated with the methodological development and practical utility of the tools. Founded on these difficulties, future research directions were presented. In essence, a coordinated and responsible effort among practitioners, governments, societies and researchers is needed to ensure the successful implementation of the tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the insulation materials used in construction has a huge impact on the environment throughout their life cycle. Therefore making a product of improved operational and environmental performance indicators is a real challenge for the designers. The widespread usage of composite materials gives more opportunities to achieve this goal. This article describes a conceptual model of an insulating material obtained on the basis of rubber crumbs and expanded perlite of improved environmental and functional performance indicators. The MET matrix is used to determine significant and problematic areas in terms of the environment. The results show that the material under investigation meets the eco materials established literature operational and environmental requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-design is a key trend in industry today. DCNS, a major French shipbuilder, has taken a position in this market thanks to a consortium of several concerned specialists: Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Ifremer, SITA Suez, and Bureau Veritas. The purpose is to create a tool to assess the impacts on the aquatic environment, but also an eco-design tool making it possible to improve design. Based on life cycle analysis (LCA) principles, it is improved by a specific eco-indicator for the maritime environment and the possibility of a return to design at the design stage. This tool is currently being developed by a computer engineer. The functionalities proposed and expected in the tool requirements are being tested by this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses the findings of a small scale research project which explored the possibility of adopting eco-design techniques. The paper focuses on identifying how eco-design techniques can be determined as being compatible with new product development processes. Via the development of a five stage ‘applicability framework’, this study demonstrates how a compatible suite of tools can be identified for application to product development processes. Testing and validation of this ‘applicability framework’, which was used to identify three key eco-design techniques; namely checklists, guidelines, and a material, energy and toxicity (MET) matrix, is shown to have taken place in relation to the development of a lightweight chemical detector product. It is established that checklists, guidelines and the MET matrix can be used both on a specific product, and also more generally in the design process. In particular, the MET matrix is shown as being used to successfully identify key environmental aspects of the product during its lifetime. The paper concludes by arguing that eco-design techniques may not have been more widely adopted by businesses because such methods are not necessarily generic and immediately applicable, but instead require some form of process-specific customisation prior to use, which can in turn act as a barrier to adoption. It is also highlighted that the shear diversity of pressures that come to bear during the product development process can also act as a barrier to adoption, and that the full integration of eco-design techniques will have to encompass approaches which overcome such pressures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]