Environmentally-friendly product development : methods and tools

The modern market economy is founded on economic growth and increasing consumption of manufactured products, leading to over use of resources and environmentally-damaging pollution.

We can help protect the environment by focussing on the entire life-cycle of each manufactured product.

A holistic view of every stage and process of a product's life-cycle is needed in order to find sound solutions to adverse environmental effects and help us develop a new generation of eco-designed products.

Environmentally-friendly Product Development introduces methods to improve the environmental characteristics of products.

Every manufactured product has environmental impacts during its life-cycle.

These arise in the product's manufacture, use, recycling and disposal.

In the past designers have focussed only on technical and economical aspects when developing new products, taking into account market-conditions and their company's resources.

However, designing a product in accordance with environmental demands requires that designers consider potential influences from all part of its life-cycle. The book describes an integrated approach that assists designers to develop environmentally-friendly products, illustrating the methods and tools with case studies.

Process and information modelling, life-cycle assessment and ecological product optimisation are surveyed in detail.

Unique to Environmentally-friendly Product Development is the introduction of the Eco Design Workbench - a computer based design environment that supports the designer during the product development process.

Environmentally-friendly Product Development is a comprehensive survey of environmental design.

Readers will learn about the complexity of ecological product design and be introduced to methods and tools that can minimise environmental impacts.

As well as a practical guide for product designers and design engineers, the book will provide managers in industry with an introduction to the environmental costs involved in a manufacturing economy and signposts to how these may be limited.