Eco-design Approach Research Articles

A Robust Eco-Design Approach Based on New Sensitivity Coefficients by Considering the Uncertainty of LCI

It is urgent to introduce life cycle assessment (LCA) into eco-design in order to conduct eco-design in the quantitative and systematic era. In the design phase, various uncertainties in product life cycle inventory (LCI) are emerged. In practice, the real value of LCI calculated in the product end-of-life phase may be much different from the target LCI value predicted in the design phase. The aim of this research is to propose a robust design method to overcome the uncertainty issue. Regarding the scope of LCI analysis, this paper focused on the product manufacturing phase and its end-of-life phase. In this paper, the design problem of robust eco-design is modeled in a mathematical way, the novel sensitivity coefficient of LCI with uncertainty is proposed to solve the robust eco-design problem from mathematical perspective, and a guideline-based approach for robust design is proposed based on the new sensitivity coefficients. A case study is provided to illustrate the application of this research and validate our methods.

A Perspective on the Development of Sustainable Construction Products: An Eco-Design Approach

A Perspective on the Development of Sustainable Construction Products: An Eco-Design Approach

Assessment of Environmental Performance of TiO2 Nanoparticles Coated Self-Cleaning Float Glass

In recent years, superhydrophilic and photocatalytic self-cleaning nanocoatings have been widely used in the easy-to-clean surfaces field. In the building sector, self-cleaning glass was one of the first nanocoating applications. These products are based on the photocatalytic property of a thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles deposited on the surface of any kind of common glass. When exposed to UV radiation, TiO2 nanoparticles react with the oxygen and water molecules adsorbed on their surface to produce radicals leading to oxidative species. These species are able to reduce or even eliminate airborne pollutants and organic substances deposited on the material’s surface. To date, TiO2 nanoparticles’ benefits have been substantiated; however, their ecological and human health risks are still under analysis. The present work studies the ecodesign of the industrial scale-up of TiO2 nanoparticles self-cleaning coated float glass production performed by the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and applies new human toxicity indicators to the impact assessment stage. Production, particularly the TiO2 nanoparticle application, is the life cycle phase most contributing to the total damage. According to the ecodesign approach, the production choices carried out have exacerbated environmental burdens.

A User Oriented Framework to Support Environmental Performance Indicators Selection

Ecodesign is an approach to reduce environmental impacts of products. This approach is based on the assessment and the improvement of environmental performance. In order to justify ecodesign choices, indicators must be used to follow environmental performance and to insure their potential benefits. There already exist environmental performance indicators selection methods, and almost all the methods highlight the fact that the needs of users are important, but no one explicitly express which are the users, what are their needs and what are the type of indicators that can be applied in ecodesign approach. This paper focuses on the users’ needs and proposes a combined framework for environmental performance indicators selection.

A Feature-based CAD-LCA Software Integration Approach for Eco-design

LCA is considered as a useful aiding tool for eco-design. However, Major obstacles hindering the employment of LCA to product eco-design include inefficiency in life cycle related data collection and difficulties in interpretation of LCA results into engineer's knowledge field. Though product CAD models are very useful, they cannot be used directly for LCA modeling and analysis, concerning the discrepancy in the principles of the utilized methodological approaches of CAD and LCA. This study aims to propose a CAD-LCA software integration approach based on feature technology. Two types of features, the Product Feature (PF) and Operation Feature (OF), for life cycle representation are proposed first. Then, a NX Unigraphics plug-in tool for PF extraction is developed. Also, a feature-based LCA system prototype tool which has the capabilities of processing product feature models, generating the life cycle process model based on product-to-operation feature mapping and performing LCI and impact assessment is proposed. This tool offers an effective way of life cycle related data integration, LCA result interpretation and application to sustainable product design. A stepped shaft LCA case study is then presented to demonstrate the proposed approach.

Eco-design case-based reasoning tool: The integration of ecological quality function deployment and case-based reasoning methods for supporting sustainable product design

Several methods and tools have been developed to facilitate sustainable product design, but they lack critical application of the ecological design (eco-design) process and economic costing, particularly during the conceptual design phase. This research study overcomes these deficiencies by integrating eco-design approaches across all phases of the product life cycle. It proposes an eco-design case-based reasoning tool that is integrated with the recently developed ecological quality function deployment method, which supports sustainable product design. The eco-design case-based reasoning tool is an intuitive decision-support tool that complements the ecological quality function deployment method and proposes solutions related to customers’ requirements and the environmental and economic impacts of the product. The ecological quality function deployment method ensures that customers’ needs are considered within the context of product sustainability. The novelty of this article is in the development of the eco-design case-based reasoning tool which is based on the premise that if experiences from the ecological quality function deployment process can be captured in some useful form, designers can refer to and learn from them. This approach helps industrial decision-makers propose solutions by reusing solutions from similar cases and from their past experiences. The novelty is in the way the cases are structured and new cases are generated, using life-cycle assessments, cost estimations, and information about related manufacturing processes and means of transportation. This article demonstrates the applicability of the proposed approach through an industrial case study.

Redesign of steam turbine rotor blades and rotor packages – Environmental analysis within systematic eco-design approach

Eco-design of steam turbine blades could be one of the possibilities of decreasing the environmental impact of energy systems based on turbines. The paper investigates the eco-design approach to elaboration of the rotor blades and packages. The purpose is to present the course of eco-design of the rotor blades and the rotor packages taking account of eco-design assumptions, solutions and the concept itself. The following eco-design variants of the rotor blades and the rotor packages are considered: elements of the rotor blades made separately (baseline variant of the rotor blades); elements of the rotor blades made of one piece of material; blades in packages made separately and welded (baseline variant of the rotor packages); packages milled as integral elements. At the stage of detailed design, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed in relation to a functional unit – the rotor blades and packages ready for installation in a steam turbine, which is the stage of the turbine. The obtained results indicate that eco-innovative solutions for the turbine blades and packages could be achieved through structural and technological changes. Applying new solutions of the rotor blades may produce the following main benefits: 3.3% lower use of materials, 29.4% decrease in energy consumption at the manufacturing stage, 7.7% decrease in the environmental impact in the life cycle. In relation to the rotor packages, the following main benefits may be achieved: 20.5% lower use of materials, 25.0% decrease in energy consumption at the production stage, 16.2% decrease in the environmental impact in the life cycle.

An approach to foster eco-design in 'traditional' companies without eco-knowledge

The adoption of an eco-design approach is a key challenge for the total quality environmental management (TQEM). Recently, several eco-design methodologies have been presented, but none can be easily integrated in the traditional design process of manufacturing companies. The research presented in this paper aims to define a methodology, called G.EN.ESI, to help designers (especially those ones without a specific know-how on eco-design), during the development of sustainable products. In order to aid designers in the assessment of the environmental and cost impacts of a product, also a set of software tools have been defined. Using such a platform, the designer is supported by a robust workbench to perform all the analyses required to evaluate the product eco-sustainability for each phase of the product lifecycle. This software platform is essential for companies which want to implement the G.EN.ESI methodology without upsetting their own consolidated modus operandi and the internal organisation.

Design of Biomethane Supply System Using Ecodesign Approach and System Dynamics Modelling

Design of Biomethane Supply System Using Ecodesign Approach and System Dynamics Modelling

Eco-design and color, a proposal for innovation and methodological approach

En la actualidad, la metodología del ecodiseño aplicada al diseño de objetos presenta un gran auge, con numerosas marcas y firmas que convierten a la reducción de los impactos medioambientales en las etapas de diseño como un valor agregado al desarrollo de sus productos. Sin embargo, en cuanto al uso y aplicación del color en estas nuevas líneas de objetos es muy poco lo que se ha analizado o propuesto e incluso abordado desde el ámbito académico. Es el diseñador quien conceptualiza y otorga cualidades a un objeto, como lo es entre otras el color. En el marco del nuevo paradigma de la sustentabilidad y el trabajo de diseño pareciera que el tema del color solamente se asocia a escalas cromáticas que nos conducen a los colores neutros o a un imaginario social que se ubicaría dentro del verde. A partir del proyecto de investigación “Innovación y desarrollo de productos para el ITSPV con base en artículos de desuso” se abre un nuevo análisis y enfoque metodológico que pone al color como parte del proceso de diseño, dentro de las opciones a escoger e investigar por los diseñadores, respetando la naturaleza del planteo del ecodiseño, pero pensando cromáticamente los objetos. En el presente artículo se exhiben algunos productos y trabajos en donde el color y el ecodiseño se acercan para generar una nueva metodología de trabajo basada en la creatividad, la cromaticidad, la identidad cultural y la disminución del impacto medio ambiental en los procesos de diseño.

Environmental responsibility in building design: an Italian regional study

The building and construction sector plays a crucial role in implementing energy efficiency and, more generally, in reducing environmental impacts. In this context, design is a key-phase for effective improvement in the whole sector. Therefore, the adoption of the Eco-design approach can be a “green” turning point for the strategies of this sector. This study aims to investigate factors and drawbacks that drive designers in the implementation of Eco-design. The data are collected by a questionnaire survey covering a considerable number of designers in Tuscany (region in Central Italy). The results reveal that designers have a high environmental sensitivity, but a systematic adoption of Eco-design approach is still far. Moreover, the study highlights the spreading in the sector of those “internal” key factors that normally foster the inclusion of energy and environmental criteria in the building design, e.g. training, cooperation with supply chain and certification schemes.

A Protocol to Address User Behavior in the Eco-Design of Consumer Products

Today, it is difficult to integrate the use phase optimization of consumer products into eco-design methodologies. Current eco-design approaches are in fact mainly focused on improving the technological performance of products while it has been proven that users behavior plays an important role in the overall environmental performances of products. This paper deals with the need to address the notion of user experience and behavior in the design process of today's low-complexity consumer products in order to improve their environmental performance. The research protocol presented in this paper is a new eco-design approach in six steps that can be used by designers to support eco-design decisions and integrate user behavior parameters into design activities. The first step consists in the identification of critical environmental aspects in use and usage drifts potential of the product. Steps two, three, and four support designers in the analysis of the use phase for the selection of efficient design for sustainable behavior (DfSB) strategies to be implemented on the product. Finally, steps five and six aim to test the selected strategies with product-in-use observations. Life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is used for the evaluation of the environmental benefits of the strategies. To illustrate this work, a case study of a coffee maker is described together with the eco-design solutions chosen for this product. The solutions reflect strategies targeting DfSB.

An Analytic Network Process approach for the environmental aspect selection problem — A case study for a hand blender

Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess, in a systematic way, the environmental aspects and its potential environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product's life cycle. It is widely accepted and considered as one of the most powerful tools to support decision-making processes used in ecodesign and sustainable production in order to learn about the most problematic parts and life cycle phases of a product and to have a projection for future improvements. However, since Life Cycle Assessment is a cost and time intensive method, companies do not intend to carry out a full version of it, except for large corporate ones. Especially for small and medium sized enterprises, which do not have enough budget for and knowledge on sustainable production and ecodesign approaches, focusing only on the most important possible environmental aspect is unavoidable. In this direction, finding the right environmental aspect to work on is crucial for the companies. In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making methodology, Analytic Network Process is proposed to select the most relevant environmental aspect. The proposed methodology aims at providing a simplified environmental assessment to producers. It is applied for a hand blender, which is a member of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment family. The decision criteria for the environmental aspects and relations of dependence are defined. The evaluation is made by the Analytic Network Process in order to create a realistic approach to inter-dependencies among the criteria. The results are computed via the Super Decisions software. Finally, it is observed that the procedure is completed in less time, with less data, with less cost and in a less subjective way than conventional approaches.

Development of urban solar infrastructure to support low-carbon mobility

The provision of an adequate network of urban infrastructures is essential to create clean and energy-efficient urban mobility systems. However, the urban infrastructure to support sustainable mobility can produce a substantial environmental burden if no life cycle environmental criteria are applied in its design and management. This paper demonstrates the potential to support energy-efficient and CO2-free pedestrian and electric bike (e-bike) mobility through the ecological design (eco-design) of urban elements. An eco-design approach is applied to reconceptualize a conventional pergola toward an eco-product (solar pergola). The solar pergola generates surplus photovoltaic electricity that provides a multifunctional character. According to the end-use of this energy, different scenarios are analyzed for robust decision-making.The deployment of solar pergolas can contribute to save from 2,080kg to over 47,185kg of CO2 eq. and from 350,390MJ to over 692,760MJ eq. in 10 years, depending on the geographic emplacement (solar radiation and electricity grid system). These savings are equivalent to charging 2–9 e-bikes per day using clean energy.Instead of maximizing infrastructure deployment to shift to environmentally friendly modes of mobility, the implementation of multifunctional urban elements represents a key area of action in the context of smart city development.

Methodology for innovative eco-design based on TRIZ

In the context of product innovation, the environmental dimension takes a new dimension and can not be separated from other product requirements which make it competitive. Many tools are available but not widely used by companies. In the present work we have adopted an approach using a qualitative evaluation matrix including parameters related to the ease of use of the product related to the organizational preparation for the appropriation of an eco-design approach, in addition to the standard factors of eco-efficiency. In order to help the designer to make a decision, an adapted TRIZ method is proposed (Teoria Rechenia Izobretatelskikh Zadatch or theory of inventive problem solving). The applicability of this method is justified by the many contradictions in the choices in a study of the life cycle and can help designers and companies to choose an approach to attain a satisfying level of eco-design for the resources invested in it. An application, based on inventive principles, will be adapted and completed.This matrix can help the designer to reduce the scope of his creative investigations. Verification of the results was made by application to various situations of patents published in eco-design and monitoring of student teams that meet the challenges presented during the competition “24 Hours of innovation.”

Local Value Creation and Eco-design: A New Paradigm

De**sign has a great role to play in sustainability. Interesting progresses has been performed within the last decades. Nevertheless, some issues of sustainability, and their impact on design, remains poorly studied. Specifically, when it comes to the field of local value creation, the literature in design is still limited. However, the Local Value Creation (LVC) thinking can be a great insight for designers to develop more eco-innovative concepts, through new product design, new services and new business models. In order to go towards this direction, it is necessary to include new variables that are rarely considered in design processes such as the local workforce, sustainable local resources or the customization of the new product or service for local customers.This paper proposes a better understanding of the relation between eco-design approaches and LVC, and more precisely how current eco-design approaches consider this issue. To do so, a first part introduces the Local Value Creation concept and its challenges for sustainability. Then, a second part focuses on a literature review to understand how the LVC dimension is studied in the eco-design process. This will lead in a third section to concretely characterize how eco-design approaches and tools consider LCV issue.A last section proposes to identify potential contradiction between the LVC and the eco-design concept, in order to draw first outlines of a new eco-design paradigm with a Local Value Creation dimension.

An innovative decision-support approach for design consideration EOL in feedback-based sustainable supply chain

With increasing environmental challenging, eco-design not only plays an important role but is also becoming the main focus of customer need in sustainable supply chain. Thus, eco-design may be considered as all EOL activities that includes the whole life cycle in the early stage of the green product development. We believe that, the consistent between design for X items (DFX) and end-of-life (EOL) is one important aspect that needs to be integrated. The work reported in this paper presented innovative decision-support approach for green product development procedure, focusing on application an EOL strategy feedback-based sustainable supply chain. We show that the innovative decision-support approach for green product development procedure consists of three phase: early design consideration, eco-design product function and problem-solving of green product from customer feedback phases. The proposed procedure will be demonstrated with customer complaint problem case for three interface component. Experiment and evaluation related to performance measurement of EOL activities effect in sustainable supply chain is discussed. Three metrics (precision, recall and F1) is compared with three approaches such as the proposed approach, traditional approach and eco-design approach.

Growing Near Net Shape Components from Renewable Materials

The integration of natural materials in today's product development gains more and more importance. Society's demand for ecologically produced and sustainably operable goods is a key driver for material scientists and engineers to substitute conventional substances such as metals or plastics. In addition, the entire lifecycle sets multiple requirements for the product developers entailing strategies for reuse and recycling. Most of these eco-design approaches are limited to the selection of the right material and the industrial processing, to shape and manufacture to the desired design. The authors of this contribution are scientists from the areas of cell-biology, eco-toxicology, structural-, engineering- and industrial-design, and teamed up to use directed natural growth of bio-materials (e.g. plants). The aim is to minimize conventional production steps and decrease the amount of resources for manufacturing. In the first step the team categorizes and analyzes potential plants in general and on a structural cell level. In addition, requirements for different sorts of products are defined, and matching parts of both databases are identified. The full paper will show first results and research of the potential function-plant relation and will give an overview of characteristic parameters for the holistic evaluation of near net shape grown products. These include exemplarily the amount of fertilizer needed, ecotoxicological implications, plant area needed, growth time, mechanical properties, design restrictions and possible surface quality.

A conceptual framework to develop green textiles in the aeronautic completion industry: a case study in a large manufacturing company

Textiles can be applied in a wide variety of aircrafts' components and it is known for its highly polluting dyes, short life-cycle and small concern with end of life. Combined with the aeronautic emissions, the textile industry represents a clear threat to the environment, but it also represents opportunities. In order to promote sustainability in the completion industry, the product development process is of central importance. A large number of general approaches and methods for the development of sustainable products has been proposed and used in the literature, but how they can be integrated to improve the design process in the Green Aircraft Completion (GAC) sector is an open research question. This paper was developed from this question and it reviews and analyses several design methods and eco-design approaches from the literature in order to propose a novel integrative conceptual framework for the GAC. This framework is then applied in a large North American company so that it could be tested and improved. This experience allowed the researchers to verify whether the development of new textiles in the studied company comply with the sustainable frameworks and good practices proposed by the literature. Empirical evidences also indicate that the proposed framework would enable companies in the GAC and aeronautic industry to develop systems involving the final consumer, suppliers and the local communities; not only decreasing its carbon footprint, but also improving the company's corporate social responsibility.

Reducing and reusing industrial scraps: a proposed method for industrial designers

Abstract Designers often develop products without a real vision of industrial dynamics, not taking into consideration how their choices can affect environmental and economical aspects of the product development process. Our research concentrates on industrial scraps. How can designers actively reduce scraps since early product development phase? To answer this, we firstly analyzed the existing norms within Italian and European jurisdiction and classified various case studies, where design was carried out taking into consideration industrial scraps. We then developed a method to be followed by products designers and companies, intended to help them obtaining both environmental and economical advantages by sustainable practices in an industrial context. The approach consists in a simplified procedural methodology that indicates all needed steps to design industrial products based on these practices. Finally we applied and verified the feasibility of this methodology on specific and original case studies. In our conclusions we summarize limits and advantages of the method and how designers and companies can develop new industrial products through this ecodesign approach, raising consciousness during the design process and giving the chance to achieve better economic and sustainable standards by applying the tool here developed.