Empirical study on integration of environmental aspects into product development: processes, requirements and the use of tools in vehicle manufacturing companies in Sweden

An empirical study was conducted on integration of environmental aspects and requirements into four vehicle manufacturing companies in Sweden. The aim was to gain insights into how Design for Environment (DfE) is organised in these companies and, thus help bridge the gap between methodological development and practice. The processes for identifying and integrating environmental aspects into product development, the type of environmental requirements considered and the use of different types of DfE tools were investigated through semi-structured interviews. Despite similarities regarding the type of environmental requirements considered and the major drivers for these, the companies studied have adopted different ways to identify and integrate environmental requirements into their product development process and use DfE tools to differing extents. Such variations reflect differences in the success and maturity levels of the DfE practices adopted. When compared to success factors mentioned in the existing literature, the study concluded that some components needed for efficient integration of environmental aspects into the product development process of all participating companies are lacking. Some of the companies had a greater need for measures that would increase systematic integration of environmental requirements during design decisions. Others first need to establish the processes (in terms of people and use of supporting tools) that could enable such integration.