The challenges of environmentally conscious design

It has been argued that Environmentally Conscious Design (ECD) is not a simple extension of DFX (Design for X). This view has been based on in-company research and the use of research focus groups. The same research has highlighted that DFX as a term is in common usage, and represents a specific viewpoint: DFX is a common designation for a type of tool which focuses on parameter relationship between two functional areas. Or in practical terms DFX tools allow the expertise/knowledge/understanding of one function to be available to a different function, typically design. This is a one-to-one relationship which does not match the environmentally conscious design problem described. A different view is that ECD is a collection of one-to-one relationships summed over the life of a product or each DFX component being a different tool, such as Design For Disassembly or Design for Environmental Manufacture. While this introduces the environmental impact measured throughout the product life it seeks to sum the totals and so may miss environmental trade-offs between points in the product life. This journey into mathematical representation is used to illustrate what ECD is not rather than to state definitely what ECD is. Within industry and academe the use of DFX as a term linked to environmental issues is both common and comfortable. It is argued here that the essentially `one-function-to-one-function´ nature of DFX tools cannot meet, nor be extended to meet, the needs of ECD. It is the authors´ belief that much hope and energy is expended in the search for better tools that do not recognise the substantial difference discussed. While using existing DFX approaches as a base point can realise worthy environmental benefits in the short and medium term, we must seek resolution of the many issues described above if we are to develop tools and methods which fully support environmentally conscious design in the long term