Abstract
This chapter briefly explores two commercially available design-for-environment (DfE) software tools, each with a contrasting approach to DfE but a common goal to make embracing DfE principles practical in the corporate environment. In 1997, a consortium of Alcatel Alsthom, IBM, Legrand, Schneider Electric, ADEME (French Environment Agency), Thomson Multimedia, and the ECOBILAN group (Ecobalance, Inc.) released Environmental Information and Management Explorer (EIME). The tool, aimed at designers and development staff, was an attempt to capitalize on ECOBILAN's LCA experience while creating a way for corporations to standardize their strategy for integrating DfE principles. The tool relies on flexible interfaces, genetic environmental data, and a focus on the reduction of mass and energy (materials acquisition, manufacture, and use lifecycle stages). DfE 1.0 provides a different incentive for companies to incorporate DfE principles. The tool performs a cost and environmental assessment co-analysis of future products, concentrating on disassembly at the end of the product's life. The tool was jointly produced by U.S.-based Boothroyd and Dewhurst, Inc. (BDI), and the TNO Institute of the Netherlands. The application uses the metric to analyze and maximize a product's end-of-life (EOL) recovery potential and resulting cost benefits. Essentially, the tool determines the point at which it becomes uneconomical to continue disassembling a part or product.
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