Towards an environmental design toolbox for complex products; preliminary results and experiences from selected projects

Company experiments in Europe indicate that design for the environment (DFE) improves the environmental performance of products through more efficient use of raw materials and energy, minimisation of environmental pollution and improvement of production efficiency. In this paper a series of example-tools for DFE will be presented and shortly evaluated. A division is made between analysis tools and improvement tools. Current DFE experience is however limited to design processes for packaging, building components and other relatively simple products and/or components. For more complex products there is still a lack of environmental information and efficient tools. Follow-up projects have been initiated to improve the present generation of DFE tools