An Integrated Methodology to Estimate the External Environmental Costs of Products

Environmental costs of products are closely related to their environmental impacts. This paper presents a methodology to estimate the environmental costs of products during the concept design phase by integrating a Simplified Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) methodology with Economic Valuation (EV) methods such as EPS2000d, EXMOD and Ecosense. The new methodology estimates the environmental performance indicators for each stage of the product life cycle by using the SLCA, and obtains the cost values from the most suitable EV method. A number of passive and active products were used to prove the concept and demonstrate the efficiency of the methodology.