Sustainable Design: A Case of Environmental and Cost Life Cycle Assessment of a Kitchen Designed for Seniors and Disabled People

Anna Lewandowska,Przemyslaw Kurczewski,Marek Zablocki,Jaroslaw Selech,Bogdan Branowski,Katarzyna Joachimiak-Lechman

doi:10.3390/su9081329

Abstract

Sustainable production and consumption patterns require a change in approach at the early conceptual stages, i.e., when planning and designing products and services. This article presents an example of sustainable kitchen design aimed at the needs of seniors and people with physical disabilities, which takes into account social, economic, and environmental aspects. The interdisciplinary project team used a variety of traditional design methods such as the identification of requirements using QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and FMEA (Failure Mode Effects Analysis), the development and verification of the technical concepts of the designed objects and their use, the development of construction and technological documentation, assembly drawings of the product architecture and its parts, function cost analysis, virtual and real prototyping, and tools based on the concept of a life cycle such as environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). The analysis of the design solutions from the point of view of several criteria and several life cycle stages shows the complexity of the decision-making process and the difficulties in selecting a clearly favourable solution. Environmentally preferred materials may be difficult for users to accept due to their costs. On the other hand, materials that have a high environmental impact at the production stage may show great potential for final disposal.

Highlights

This article presents the results of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) analyses performed as part of a project called ‘New Product Lines Enhancing Mobility and Accessibility of Environment for Seniors and Disabled (PBS1/A6/5/2012)’, which was conducted from 2012 to 2015 by employees of several Polish research centres, including the Poznan University of Technology, the Poznan University of Life Sciences, the Poznan University of Medical Science, and the Poznan University of Economics and Business
In contrast to the LCC result, just like in Alternative variant 1 (ALT1), the undiscounted costs of such a change are estimated at 4886€, accounting for an increase of 30% compared to BASE (Figure 4)
After taking into account the environmental benefits arising from the 20-year lifespan of the granite worktop (50% of production, 50% of final disposal) (ALT2a → Alternative variant 2b (ALT2b)), the environmental indicator drops from 484 to 375 mPt, while the costs go down from 4326€ to 4090€

Summary

Introduction

This article presents the results of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) analyses performed as part of a project called ‘New Product Lines Enhancing Mobility and Accessibility of Environment for Seniors and Disabled (PBS1/A6/5/2012)’, which was conducted from 2012 to 2015 by employees of several Polish research centres, including the Poznan University of Technology, the Poznan University of Life Sciences, the Poznan University of Medical Science, and the Poznan University of Economics and Business.This project was carried out within the context of various scientific and other academic fields, including gerontechnology, rehabilitation techniques, mechanical and material engineering, ergonomics, design, marketing, and environmental science. This article presents the results of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) analyses performed as part of a project called ‘New Product Lines Enhancing Mobility and Accessibility of Environment for Seniors and Disabled (PBS1/A6/5/2012)’, which was conducted from 2012 to 2015 by employees of several Polish research centres, including the Poznan University of Technology, the Poznan University of Life Sciences, the Poznan University of Medical Science, and the Poznan University of Economics and Business. In North America, the same age group will form 7.7% of the overall population in 2050, compared with 4.2% in Asia, 4.1% in Latin America, and 1.1% in Africa When taking those aged 65 years and older into account, this currently constitutes 15.6% of the global population and 29.2% of the European population [4]

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Conclusion