Product Design for the Environment: A Life Cycle Approach - Chapter 8 docx

It will also identify the most appropriate strategies and tools for an integrated design process that considers all the phases of the life cycle, analyzing and reconciling determinant fa

Chapter 8

Integration of Environmental Aspects in

Product Design

One of the most important aspects of Design for Environment (DFE) is that it

can act as a connecting bridge between production planning and

develop-ment and the environdevelop-mental managedevelop-ment of the same, two functions that are

usually separate In order to fulfi ll this role, the design activity must have

several ineluctable features: a product life cycle orientation; the balancing of

a wide range of requirements; and a simultaneous and integrated structure

of the design intervention Only on the basis of these premises is it possible

to conceive a process of product development that furthers the sustainability

of its life cycle, with the ideal objective of obtaining a product whose

manu-facture, use, and disposal have the least possible effects on the environment

This chapter traces the general picture of how an intervention directed at

environmental protection can be integrated in the product design and

devel-opment process It will also identify the most appropriate strategies and tools

for an integrated design process that considers all the phases of the life cycle,

analyzing and reconciling determinant factors such as producibility,

requi-sites for use, cost, and environmental aspects

8.1 Orientation toward Environmental Aspects in the

Design Process

While the more important issues associated with the environmental aspects of

industrial production are the subject of much discussion nowadays,

manufac-turing companies still have diffi culty in achieving environmentally

sustain-able production One of the crucial factors in this problem is that the principles

and methods of designing for the environmental quality of products have not

yet been integrated into design and managerial practice (Gutowski et al.,

2005) The result is that the success factors in product design still remain

limited to those of quality and development costs (i.e., to those that can be

understood as factors associated with the product’s impact on the business

environment)

188 Product Design for the Environment

8.1.1 Premises for the Integration of Environmental Requirements

The life cycle approach can provide a qualitative leap in the statement of

product development, “making the product fi t its natural environment as

much as it fi ts the business environment” (Krishnan and Ulrich, 2001) This

affi rmation originates in the recognition that there is a need for a “life cycle

thinking approach” to the environmental question It is confi rmed by certain

observations regarding determinant factors obstructing the implementation

of environmentally oriented product development (Ries et al., 1999):

• Poor understanding of the environmental impacts of products

• Cost-oriented approach to the product development process

• Lack of a homogenous and effi cient implementation, within the

context of the entire development process, of an approach directed at the environmental requirements of products

Manufacturing companies’ limited knowledge of the impacts of products on

the environment is historically linked to producers needing to address

prin-cipally those aspects regarding the impact at production sites (consumption

of resources, generation of emissions and waste), not directly attributable to

products and limited to the context of the production phase alone The result

has been a lack of primary information that could support a strategy to

improve the environmental quality of products—a strategy, as has been

repeatedly emphasized in this book, requiring a vision extended over a

prod-uct’s entire life cycle This problem can be resolved by implementing the

Particularly LCA in its simplifi ed form (Streamlined LCA) can overcome

the disadvantages of an analysis too detailed to be undertaken in the

preliminary phases of product development (Section 4.4)

Traditional cost-oriented formulations of the development process stem

from an outdated, defensive approach to the environmental question that

considers the environment a restrictive and generally troublesome constraint,

without being able to appreciate its potential positive value This

problem-atic factor becomes particularly signifi cant when one considers the weight

that cost planning and marketing functions have in the product development

process The lack of accurate economic analysis and a non-perception of a

product’s “environmental value” can seriously hamper eco-compatible

design Also in this case, life cycle–oriented techniques can come to the

Environmental Accounting, together with the other techniques integrating

The lack of a homogenous, environmentally oriented approach, thoroughly

integrated into the entire development process, is one of the crucial factors It

has often been observed that this lack is usually most evident in the preliminary

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phases of product development (Bhamra et al., 1999; Ries et al., 1999), where

there is a scarcity of methods and tools oriented toward environmental

aspects It should be noted how, more generally, design practice lacks an

organic approach to environmental aspects in the entire development process,

despite such an approach clearly being desirable at the theoretical level

The life cycle approach, which in the strictly design dimension is represented

by Life Cycle Design (LCD), can constitute an effective basis for the integration

of environmental aspects into product development In particular, when LCD is

it can become an example of a completely environmentally oriented approach

to the design process, and provide a reference model to achieve the complete

integration of environmental aspects within the development process As

will be further discussed below, the specifi cation of the design objectives and

strategies plays a crucial role in this respect

Another vital role can be played by Design for X (DFX), which provides the

tools and techniques for a design directed at specifi c product requisites so

Section 7.3.2) This issue will be considered in greater detail below

This analysis is summarized in Figure 8.1, showing the instruments with

which the life cycle approach can help overcome the factors impeding the

implementation of environmentally oriented product development in company

practice The same fi gure shows another important obstructive factor, the

cross-functional character of both design practice and environmental aspects

It is linked to the multidisciplinary nature of the competencies required and to

the transversal nature of the correlated activities with respect to the principal

FIGURE 8.1 Approaches to factors impeding the implementation of tally oriented product development

190 Product Design for the Environment

company functions (design, production, marketing) This issue was introduced

in the previous chapter in relation to the organization and planning of the

product design and development process, explaining how Concurrent

Engineering (CE) was conceived precisely in order to address these needs in

design practice Environmental aspects can, therefore, be integrated into

prod-uct development through implementing the organizational strprod-uctures of CE

mental aspects in product development must occur at two different and

complementary levels:

• External integration—Concerns the relation between the product

development process and factors external to the design team that must be taken into consideration (i.e., customer and market demands, production constraints, and environmental requirements) This inte-gration, as shown in Figure 8.1, is obtained by adopting the life cycle approach and using its tools

• Internal integration—Concerns the relation between the internal

func-tions and competencies of the design team This integration is sary in order to best manage the cross-functional character of design practice and of the environmental aspects, and is obtained through a simultaneous and concurrent approach to product development

Having achieved the integration on this dual level, it is fi nally possible to speak

of Integrated Product Development (IPD), understood in its most complete

sense and including environmental aspects In this regard, it is interesting to

note how IPD can assimilate the general concept of improving the design

solu-tion in terms of its response to consumer demands and to market opportunities

(Wang, 1997) The life cycle approach extends this perspective, addressing the

needs of the consumer as well as of all the other actors involved in the various

phases of the product’s life cycle (Prudhomme et al., 2003) Further extending

the concept underlying IPD to include a response to the needs of the

environ-ment thus constitutes the fundaenviron-mental premise for achieving and integrated

product design that also takes into account environmental requirements

8.1.2 Interventions in the Product Development Process

Referring to the vision of the entire product design and development process

and homogenous integration of environmental aspects results from a series

of interventions, differing according to the different phases of the

develop-ment process:

• In the preliminary phases (project defi nition, development process

planning, problem specifi cation), this integration is achieved through

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T

the extension of the factors conditioning the preliminary structuring

of the project, and the defi nition of product specifi cations and sites These, together with consumer requirements and market opportunities, will also include environmental necessities; the latter are given their due weight in defi ning company policies and strate-input of the design process a set of information and data, not exclu-sively environmental, regarding the expected life cycle of the product

• The defi nition of the specifi cally design-related phases (i.e., those

comprising the product design process, again referring to Figure 7.2) must be guided by appropriate approaches to the environmental aspects of the product’s life cycle This particular consideration will

be analyzed in further detail below

• In the main phases of the design process, beginning from conceptual

design and with particular regard to the phases of embodiment and detail design, the defi nition of the design intervention must be directed at harmonizing the ever-wider range of design require-this statement, the various specifi cations can be achieved using the tools of the DFX system, each addressing a specifi c typology of prod-uct requisite, giving appropriate emphasis to those oriented toward

• The postdesign planning phase must be integrated with the product

design phase, which in the general scheme of the product concurrent design (Section 7.3) This integration must be performed according to the presuppositions already introduced in Section 7.2.4.2 (i.e., extension of postdesign planning to cover the entire life cycle, including the production, distribution, use, and retirement of the product) It is precisely in relation to the planning of the production–

develop-consumption–disposal cycle that the most appropriate tools of the DFX system are introduced

8.2 Environmental Strategies for the Life Cycle Approach

Design strategies play an essential role in the life cycle approach They allow

the environmental requisites demanded of the product to be translated into

design practice It should, therefore, be emphasized that the environmental

strategies most appropriate and effective for a specifi c design problem must

be carefully chosen only after the objectives of the project have been

accu-rately translated into product requirements (Keoleian and Menerey, 1993)

192 Product Design for the Environment

In general, strategies oriented toward the environmental effi ciency of the life

cycle can be defi ned on the basis of the product’s primary impact(s) on the

envi-ronment, ascribable to exchanges with the ecosphere of the physical–chemical

fl ows involved in the technological processes making up the life cycle:

• Consumption of material resources and saturation of waste disposal

sites

• Consumption of energy resources and loss of the energy content of

dumped products

• Total direct and indirect emissions of the entire product–system

Thus, for a complete environmental analysis (where it is opportune to refer

only the fl ows of materials in the life cycle but also those of energy and

emis-sions, in both their explicit and implicit forms There are numerous

environ-mental strategies directed at reducing this wide spectrum of impacts (Keoleian

and Menerey, 1993; Hanssen, 1995; Fiksel, 1996; Bhander et al., 2003) They

can be distinguished on the basis of the phase of the life cycle on which they

important environmental strategies are reported

8.2.1 Environmental Strategies in Product Design

Given that the environmental effi ciency of a product is directly dependent on

its design, it is of fundamental importance that any strategy to be followed be

put in relation to the main design parameters (Whitmer et al., 1995) However,

not all the strategies reported in Table 8.1 can be likened to true and proper

design strategies In fact, some of them consist of interventions not directly

linked to design choices Summarizing the various strategies presented in

the table, it is possible to conclude that a design intervention intended to take

account of a product’s behavior, in environmental terms, during its life cycle

must, in general, have the aim of optimizing the distribution of the fl ows of

resources and emissions by:

• Reducing the volumes of materials used and extending their life span

• Closing the cycles of resource fl ows through recovery interventions

• Minimizing the emissions and energy consumption in production,

use, and disposal

To fully achieve these conditions it is necessary to intervene in the two

separate areas of product design and process design Although process

design is of primary importance and (following the principles of Concurrent

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Engineering) more frequently considered to be intimately linked to the

product development process, it is not directly relevant to the objectives of

this book Here, attention is focused more on the design of the product

understood as a material object—a set of material components designed in

such a way that they constitute a functional system that satisfi es certain

requisites demanded of it This is the product–entity dimension directly

linked to the choices made in the specifi cally design-related phases of the

development process (conceptual, embodiment, detail design), whose

parameters are ascribable to precisely the product’s physical dimension:

materials, component form and dimensions, system architecture,

intercon-nections, and junctions

TABLE 8.1 Environmental strategies and life cycle phases

LIFE CYCLE PHASES ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES

Preproduction Reducing the use of raw materials

Choosing plentiful raw materials Reducing toxic substances Increasing the energy effi ciency of processes Reducing discards and waste

Increasing fl ows of recovery and recycling Production Reducing the intensive use of materials

Using materials with low impact Reducing the use of toxic materials Using recycled and recyclable materials Using materials on the basis of their required duration Selecting processes with low impact and high energy effi ciency Selecting processes with high technological effi ciency

Reducing discards and waste Distribution Planning the most energy-effi cient shipping

Reducing the emissions of transport Using containment systems for toxic or dangerous materials Reducing packaging

Using packaging with low environmental impact Reusing packaging

Use Using products under the intended conditions

Planning and execution of servicing interventions (diagnostics, maintenance, repair)

Reducing energy consumption and emissions during use Retirement Facilitating product disassembly at end-of-life

Analyzing the condition of materials and their residual life Planning the recovery of components at end of use Planning material recycling at end of use

Reducing volumes for disposal

194 Product Design for the Environment

This physical dimension of the product–entity is expressed in its life cycle

by the fl ows of material resources This, therefore, leads back to the fi rst of

the three main aspects of a product’s impact on the environment, that of the

employment and consumption of material resources This was shown in the

overview of the product life cycle and of the resource fl ows characterizing it,

This partial view of the environmental problem may seem limited, but in

reality it is very wide-ranging; the only aspect completely ignored is that of

intervening on the various technological processes constituting the life

cycle This view does not exclude the possibility of taking into account the

other two aspects of impact (energy consumption and product–system

emissions) in environmental evaluations With regard to how the energy

and emission content of the materials in play contribute to the

environmen-tal impact, these are clearly ascribable to the volumes of the material fl ows

Regarding how the energy fueling the process and the direct emissions

from it contribute to the environmental impact, these can also be generally

ascribed to the volumes being processed or to specifi c process parameters

dependent on the physical properties of the materials or on the geometries

These can all be managed through the choices of product design; the defi

ni-tion of the materials and of the main geometric parameters condini-tion the

choice of the processes and how these are performed

Focusing on the material fl ows, and therefore on the physical dimension

of the product-entity, the environmental performance of the life cycle can

be improved through the application of two main types of strategies

• Useful Life Extension Strategies, directed at extending the product’s

useful life and so conferring increased value on the materials used and on all the other resources employed in its manufacture—Product maintenance, repair, upgrading, and adaptation

• End-of-Life Strategies, directed at recovering material at the end of

the product’s useful life, closing the cycle of materials and ing, at least in part, the other resources used in its manufacture—

recover-Reusing systems and components, recycling materials in the primary production cycle or in external cycles

Although these strategies must already be taken into consideration during

the design phase, in order to facilitate their application if this is considered

appropriate, clearly they do not have an effect until after the product has

been manufactured As shown in Figure 8.2, however, a third important type

of environmental strategy, known as Resource Reduction Strategies, becomes

operational before the production phase Again associated with the product’s

material dimension, these strategies are directed at reducing the resources

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in Figure 2.9

used in its manufacture and include all the interventions and choices that

favor a reduction in the use of material and energy resources Thus, in general

terms, they are referable to a wide spectrum of expedients that regard not

only product design but also production process planning They may also

include radical strategies, such as “dematerialization” (i.e., the reduction of

the quantity of materials necessary to achieve an economic function) (Wernick

et al., 1997), promoting the evolution from the sale of products to the sale of

services (Tomiyama, 1997), and therefore more properly allocated to the

realm of business strategies

In the sections that follow, attention will be focused on the fi rst two types

of design strategies, together with some of the tools available to the designer

wishing to implement them Subsequently, it will be shown how these

strate-gies can be incorporated in a methodological framework for product design,

outlining the full integration of environmental aspects A more detailed

description of these environmental strategies, and of the design tools and

8.2.2 Useful Life Extension Strategies

With reference to the product’s useful life (i.e., the period of time over which

the product is used while ensuring that it meets the required operating

stan-dards), extending this life results in a saving of energy and material resources

upstream and a reduction in waste downstream of the use phase With this

FIGURE 8.2 Environmental strategies for the life cycle of products

196 Product Design for the Environment

intervention, in fact, it is possible to satisfy the same demand with fewer

product units

The extension of a product’s useful life may be obtained through four

inter-vention typologies:

• Maintenance—Includes periodic and preventive checking

opera-tions As well as monitoring and diagnostic interventions for the programmed substitution of parts subject to wear, maintenance also includes ordinary cleaning operations

damaged parts in order to reestablish the operational condition and level of performance required of the product

• Upgrade and adaptation—Similar interventions, in that both are

motivated by technological and cultural obsolescence, and by changes in the conditions of the working environment and in the exigencies of the user They differ in intervention typology, since upgrading provides for the substitution or addition of components, while adaptation involves a reconfi guration of the main components

of the product

8.2.3 End-of-Life Strategies

Recovery interventions at the end of the product’s useful life allow the life

consequent environmental benefi ts: decrease in the raw materials entering

the cycle because they are partly substituted by recovered resources;

recov-ery of energy and material resources used in production, and therefore a

better exploitation of their use; and decrease in the waste fl ows

Some preliminary considerations regarding recovery fl ows of material

of these premises, as suggested by several authors (Dowie, 1994; Ishii et al.,

1994; Navin-Chandra, 1994), the strategies for the recovery of resources at

the end-of-life can be grouped according to their different recovery levels

In general, the three main recovery levels are direct reuse, reuse of parts,

and recycling of materials A different potential of environmental benefi t

corresponds to each of these, depending on the level of the recovery fl ows in

• Direct reuse—At the end of use, the product can be directly reused,

possibly after having been checked and repaired, with consequent savings in energy consumption, any possible emissions, costs relative

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to the production and assembly of components, and in the volumes of virgin materials

• Reuse of parts—Components that have not undergone excessive

deterioration during use can be recovered, possibly after being regenerated through intermediate processes, as components for reas-sembly, with savings in energy, possible emissions, costs relative to the process of producing the parts, and in the volumes of virgin materials

• Recycling materials—The materials of parts that cannot be reused

can be recycled by the recovery processes included in the materials’

own life cycles, or they can be treated and used in external tion cycles to manufacture products with less stringent material property requirements

8.2.4 Introduction of Environmental Strategies into the

Design Process

The environmental strategies for improving the life cycle of a product,

introduced above and grouped according to the two typologies proposed,

can in practice lead to appropriate design strategies able to guide the

designer in the choices that must be made at the different levels of design

icance in this respect, classifi ed in relation to the main design parameters

The latter are categorized according to whether they concern the system

design (characteristics of the architecture, particularly layout, and

rela-tionships between components) or the detailed design of components

(materials, shape, geometric parameters) This table also shows the direct

correlations between each design strategy proposed and the

environmen-tal strategies it can support This makes it possible to outline a preliminary

methodological statement that would allow the integration of

environ-mental aspects into design practice The statements are schematized in

• Choice of the environmental strategies most appropriate to the desired

requisites

environmental strategies

design levels (system and component design)

Figure 8.3, and can be summarized in the following points:

signif-198

TABLE 8.2 Design parameters, design strategies, and environmental strategies

DESIGN LEVEL

DESIGN PARAMETERS

DESIGN STRATEGIES

ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES USEFUL LIFE EXTENSION

(ES1) (ES2) (ES3)

END-OF-LIFE RECOVERY (ES4) (ES5) (ES6)

System LAYOUT Minimize number of components D D D D

Optimize modularity D D D D D Design multifunctional and upgradable

components

D D D Plan accessibility to components D D D D RELATIONS

BETWEEN COMPONENTS

Reduce number of connections D D D D D Reduce variety of connecting elements D D D D D Increase ease of disassembly D D D D D Component MATERIALS Reduce unsustainable and hazardous

In any case, the environmental strategies followed must be in harmony with

the entire spectrum of requirements, reconciling any confl icts that may arise

from design orientations directed at diverse objectives Fulfi lling criteria not

directly referable to environmental benefi ts, such as the cheapness and

qual-ity of the product, becomes in itself part of the concept of “eco-effi ciency” of

the design solution (Lye et al., 2001)

The result of the preliminary statement outlined above and shown in

Figure 8.3, consisting of the overview of a set of design parameters upon

which to intervene in order to follow the environmental strategies and

achieve the desired requisites, can be extremely useful in the management of

confl icts between the strategies themselves Not infrequently, design

inter-ventions directed at different environmental objectives are mutually

oppos-ing (Luttropp and Karlsson, 2001) Furthermore, this overview is a fi rst step

toward clarifying the links between the choices directed at environmental

aspects and those inspired by conventional criteria

Achieving equilibrium between different necessities (performance,

economic, environmental), which is clearly essential for the realization of

a full and effi cient integration of environmental aspects into design

prac-tice, represents an important critical point This is due to the very nature of

the environmental problem and of the design intervention oriented toward

environmental necessities Managing these necessities in a truly effective

manner requires radical strategies, potentially confl icting with traditional

product requisites (performance, producibility, cost) The environmental

strategies introduced in the previous section are developed on the basis of

a problem-focused approach to the design process (i.e., an approach initially

concentrating on the problem to be resolved and subsequently arriving at

the solution to the problem) (Maffi n, 1998) This statement, frequently

adopted in reference methodology frameworks for the product design

FIGURE 8.3 Introduction of environmental strategies into the design process: Preliminary

meth-odological statement

200 Product Design for the Environment

process (Pahl and Beitz, 1996), requires considerable freedom in the

prelim-inary phase of structuring the project development and, in effect, it is only

possible in the case where there is the opportunity to ideate and develop a

new and highly innovative product More commonly, a product-oriented

approach is usually adopted instead (i.e., an approach privileging the

analysis of the concepts of preexisting products, subsequently elaborating

these and adapting them to any new necessities) This second type of

approach is greatly conditioned by previously acquired experience and is

expressed in practice through the use of general guidelines and rules of

thumb This latter characteristic, in particular, reveals its inadequacy as an

aid in environmentally-effective design In fact, the design intervention

cannot be easily reduced into guidelines and systematic procedures, as

useful only in exploring the potential opportunities of eco-effi cient

The reconciling of environmental strategies with conventional product

requirements can be achieved by mediating between these two contrasting

approaches This harmonizing approach can be implemented by focusing

on the weight given to the environmental strategies when applied to the

design process, as shown in Figure 8.4 Although the environmental

requirements must also be clearly defi ned in the preliminary phase of

problem specifi cation, together with all the other product requisites, the

application of the product-oriented approach, above all in the early design

phases, can ensure the attainment of the conventional requirements

precisely through the exercise of experience and established rules The

application of environmental strategies that require a problem-oriented

approach can be conditioned by the weight given to the environmental

requirements, varying both the extent of the fi eld of application within the

design process and the weight given to these strategies in the various

phases of design

FIGURE 8.4 Introduction of environmental strategies into the design process:

Equilibrium between conventional design and environmental aspects

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