The link between Life Cycle Design and innovation

Forthcoming products of engineering must not only be of sound quality and cost effective; they must also be optimized ecologically. Therefore, the question if optimizing the environmental performance of a product hinders or supports innovation is a commonly asked one. This paper addresses this issue and shows how Life Cycle Design reveals new challenges in product design, initiating new ways for innovative solutions. Definitions and models of innovation and Life Cycle Design are reviewed. These findings are combined to develop a suitable approach for carrying out LCD while increasing the likelihood of ending up with an innovative product. A vacuum cleaner is used as an example to verify the model and to show that environmental constraints have in fact a high potential to trigger innovations. The main goal of the paper is to convey that working towards environmentally conscious solutions fosters innovation, because it forces product development teams to think in new ways.