Methodology of Eco-Design and Software Development for Sustainable Product Design

Víctor Camañes (), Rafael Tobajas and Angel Fernandez
Additional contact information
Víctor Camañes: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/María de Luna, 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain
Rafael Tobajas: Department of Design and Production Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/María de Luna, 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain
Angel Fernandez: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/María de Luna, 3, 50018 Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: In the face of the growing social recognition of environmental awareness and emerging regulations in countries where targets include the reduction of the CO 2 footprint in the industrial sector, several companies are facing the challenge of introducing environmental impacts as new key design criteria. To successfully launch new products with optimized environmental impact, it is crucial to apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) during the design phase. However, the design process of any product is a process where materials, production processes, concepts, and various design factors are constantly changing, which requires an agile LCA calculation for its effective inclusion during the iterative design process. This paper presents an eco-design methodology, based on the adaptation of the LCA method to the changing design environment, through the adaptation of LCA stages to the design process, the customization of environmental databases to the product of the company, and the development of a software tool for its application during the earlier design phases. This methodology assists designers to save efforts during the calculation process, with different integration levels of environmental data, according to LCA phases established by ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The effectiveness of this methodology will be shown with a real case study.

Keywords: material customization; LCA tool; calculation methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2626/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2626/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:2626-:d:1362128

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().