A study on the trace of appropriate ecodesign strategies applying "Instep-DfE" and "IZM-EE toolbox" on a PDA

As environmental regulations (RoHS, WEEE, EuP) have become more stringent for products, so environmentally sound products are the new environmental and business challenge. But today, environmental aspects are not included in computer aided design processes and conventional software packages in most of the cases. In the run-up of an intended development project, Eco-Frontier Co. and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) examine a product example (PDA, Personal Digital Assistant) to identify the potential of an integrated, software assisted product assessment for ecodesign. From this research, we illustrate the advantages of both methods and demonstrate the potential synergies.