Eco-design Of Products Research Articles

Sustainability-oriented management in the SMEs. A multilevel analysis in the European Union

This research focuses on SMEs in the EU and their acceptance of circular economy practices, with a special attention to the structural characteristics that might be significant drivers. Eight indicators of environmentally friendly practices are studied: water saving, energy saving, renewable energy, material saving, waste reduction, sale of waste materials, waste recycling, and eco-designed products. A sample of European SMEs from EU-28 data (countries at the time of the survey) is used to test hypotheses through eight multilevel probit regression models. Company- and country-level covariates are added to the multilevel models. The results showed that the number of employees, the business sector and the type of products/services sold have an impact on environmentally friendly practices. On the other hand, at the national level, per capita GDP and greenhouse gas emissions are the most relevant factors in the eight models. These findings are relevant for the implementation of the European Green Deal, which aims to increase resource efficiency through the transition to a cleaner EU and circular economy.

Product Ecodesign: An Application of Bio-Based Materials in the Personal Care Packaging Industry

AbstractThe increasing amount of plastic materials produced and their persistence in the natural environment after the use stage makes them highly critical from the environmental viewpoint and human health and much efforts are being made to find valid alternatives worldwide. This is particularly true for the packaging industry where the use of plastics is more intense and products often have a very short useful life. Ecodesign is a recognized approach capable of proposing effective solutions to reduce the impact of plastic materials, including their replacement with alternative ones. In this view, bioplastics have been recognized as a new generation of materials characterized by a potential lower environmental burden, along their life cycle, including the end-of-life phase. The same cannot yet be said for their technological and production performance, both at an industrial level and the use phase, especially for durable products.This article refers to the personal care industry and aims at exploring, in the Circular Economy framework, the Ecodesign of a personal care plastic dispenser. In this specific sector, the use of bio-based materials is still very limited and in an early stage, differently, from other industries (e.g. agri-food) where, instead, the applications are much more widespread. In particular, a material substitution solution drew on bio-based materials has been adopted in respect of conventional polypropylene and polyethylene. The technological performances of such bio-based materials have been evaluated through laboratory, production and use tests; the results obtained highlight that they are reaching levels comparable to conventional plastics. The regulatory, environmental and economic implications of their potential use at an industrial level are also discussed.

Life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental performance of multi-products food processing systems such as milk fractionation: Importance of subdivision and allocation

Many industrial food processes are multi-steps, multi-products systems, and sharing the environmental impacts produced by each step to each product is critical when implementing life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The objective of the study was therefore to investigate subdivision and different allocation rules as means of accounting for branched process itineraries such as the fractionation of milk into cream, casein, whey proteins and lactose as a case study. Depending on the mass, dry matter, protein or economic allocation, single products may or may not bear significant environmental impacts, thereby stressing the need for equally detailed inventories for all co-products. Aggregating the results by step or by input further helps identifying hotspots. Methodological choices in LCA of multifunctional systems are therefore strategic decisions that ultimately affect the eco-design of products, processes and food chains.

Life cycle assessment of the production of an extruded dog food in Brazil

Sustainability is the current focus of the scientific community, governments, and companies in various market segments, such as pet food. Pet food production has increased rapidly in recent years, with a trend toward the development of environmentally friendly products and processes. The first step in creating strategies for mitigating environmental impacts is to assess key points in manufacturing processes. Given this, this study aimed to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental impacts associated with the formulation, production, and distribution phases of an extruded dog food produced in Brazil. System boundaries were from cradle-to-gate, encompassing extraction of raw materials, transportation, processing, production, packaging, and distribution. Estimates were based on the amount of food required to meet the energy requirements for maintenance of a 10 kg dog (functional unit = 2.59 MJ day−1, reference flow = 177.3 g day−1). Environmental impacts were calculated by the environmental footprint method (EF 3.0 v. 1.00) using SimaPro software (v. 9.1.1.1). Product ingredients and packaging materials were modeled under Brazilian conditions using ecoinvent 3.7.1 and Agri-footprint 5.0 databases. Data regarding transportation, processing, distribution, electric and thermal power generation, water usage, and waste generation were obtained from the company's records (2019–2020). In this study, as expected, formulation was the most relevant factor, accounting for 70%–90% of the total environmental impacts. The main impact categories were terrestrial and marine eutrophication, acidification, particulate matter, and climate change (80% of total impacts). Production of the evaluated dog food was associated with the emission of 88.73 kg CO2 eq year−1 or 1.37 kg CO2 eq kg−1 distributed food. The use of animal meals (poultry by-product meal and meat and bone meal) and vegetable by-products (wheat bran and rice bran) contributed to reducing environmental impacts. Therefore, in this study, ingredient selection was considered the most important factor in mitigating the environmental impacts of pet foods. As the overall impact of the formulation depends on data on the use stage, such as nutrient excretion after consumption, future studies should adopt a cradle-to-grave approach for a better comprehension of the feasibility of applying animal and vegetable by-products in the eco-design of pet food products.

Applying multi-criteria decision analysis to combine life cycle assessment with circularity indicators

Monitoring the transition to a circular economy requires not only the measurement of circularity but also of environmental impacts, which often present trade-offs due to different perspectives when assessing a product. This article proposes a novel approach, named ECI-MCDA, to combine circularity and Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) indicators via Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) non-compensatory methods (Electre I and Electre TRI). The proposed approach includes a clustering analysis to inform the choice of circularity indicators, and a robustness analysis to assess the influence of the MCDA parameters. The ECI-MCDA approach is applied to a multifunctional building sandwich-block (CleanTechBlock) composed of a thermal insulation layer incorporating over 90% recycled glass. The environmental performance and circularity of CleanTechBlock is assessed for different end-of-life (EoL) scenarios, including reuse, closed- and open-loop recycling. The ECI-MCDA approach has demonstrated its efficacy in handling divergent results between circularity and environmental performance, identifying an alternative that addresses both perspectives. Additionally, the proposed approach shows the potential to support decision-making to improve circularity and environmental performance, thereby promoting the eco-design of products.

Právní regulace související s výrobky v kontextu cílů Evropské unie v oblasti ochrany klimatu

This paper examines how objectives of the European Union in the field of climate change affect the legal regulation of products and what impacts they also have on some connected issues. The current ecodesign legal regulation is based on the Ecodesign Directive and the particular requirements on products are then set in regulations following the Ecodesign Directive. The paper primarily focuses on the changes in ecodesign product regulation brought by the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation proposal. The issue of the proposed legal regulation connected with environmental claims is also addressed in the text as it is an important complement to the sustainable products legal regulation.

Sustainable products and audit fees: empirical evidence from western European countries

Purpose This study aims to examine whether firms that appear to exhibit high sustainable outputs are more likely to pay higher audit fees than firms without such outputs. Design/methodology/approach The sustainability outputs are measured using a sustainable product portfolio consisting of four products: clean energy products, eco-design products (EDP), environmental products (EP) and sustainable building projects (SBP). The audit fee variable is measured by the natural logarithm of the total amount of audit fees. The study tests two models of the association between these outputs and audit fees; Model 1 tests this association in the absence of the moderating variable (sustainability committee), and Model 2 tests the association in the presence of the moderating variable. Findings An analysis of data on 261 European firms from the Refinitiv Eikon database from 2010 to 2019 shows that high sustainability outputs are significantly and positively associated with audit fees. More importantly, this association is moderated by the presence of a board-level sustainability committee, suggesting that this type of committee reflects a factor considered by auditors in their audit risk assessment practices. The findings indicate that in Model 1, one (EP) out of four variables has a significant and positive association with audit fees, while in Model 2 and in the presence of sustainability committee, two variables (EP and EDP) have a significant and negative association with audit fees. However, the robust analysis shows that three variables (EP, EDP and SBP) have significant and negative associations with audit fees. Practical implications The study findings have important implications for policymakers, auditors and firms’ managers. For policymakers, the findings provide support for the argument that sustainable attitudes incentivise firms to manage sustainable product profiles more effectively. As such, policymakers should incentivise firms to establish a sustainability committee and regulate its role and responsibilities. Auditors should coordinate with the sustainability committee to facilitate audit efforts and reduce audit fees. Social implications Understanding the relationship between sustainable products and audit fees will allow firms to improve their portfolio of sustainable products. In addition, other social implications of this study relate to improving relationships with society by establishing a sustainability committee that is responsible to communicate with that society. Originality/value The results support the argument that firms should manage sustainable product portfolios more effectively. In addition, the results of the study highlight the importance of a new variable as a moderator, the sustainability committee, which has not been examined before.

Comparison of Environmental and Life Cycle Impact of a Switched Reluctance Motor Drive and Inverter-Fed Induction Motor Drives

This paper compares the environmental and life cycle impact of one switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive and two inverter-fed induction motor (IM) drives. The study was carried out according to the Directive on the Ecodesign of Energy-Using Products (EuP 2005/32/EC) and following the Methodology for the Ecodesign of Energy-Using Products (MEEUP). The following base-case models were used: an IM (Eff3), an IM (Eff1) and an 8/6 SRM. All of these base-case models are rated at 1.5 kW of output power and are considered to be representative of the low-power range. The analysis shows that SRM drive has a lower environmental impact than the IM drives and offers a high savings potential, comparable to, or even greater than that of the IM (Eff1) in the use phase.

A performance evaluation system for product eco-design in the fashion supply chain

With the increasing environmental awareness of citizens, sustainable fashion has become a hot topic in industry, academia, and society. The importance of product eco-design (ED) in ensuring the sustainability of organizations and supply chains cannot be overstated. This paper aims to establish an eco-design performance evaluation system and identify the most effective management mechanism. To achieve this goal, a linked two-stage network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is developed. This model has a well-defined internal structure and potential causal relationships between variables; and the two stages are Internal and Supplier Management (ISM) and Openness and Collaboration (OC). We analyze stage and overall efficiencies using proactive, reactive, and simultaneous approaches. Additionally, we explore the convergence characteristics of the industry's ED efficiency from 2015 to 2018. The results show that the overall ED efficiency of fashion enterprises is significant when considering the interrelatedness of subsystems. However, there is disharmony between the two stages. As the proactive approach, ISM is the optimal strategy to maximize ED efficiency. On the other hand, OC is critical to eco-design performance. This paper contributes to the existing literature by developing an innovative DEA analytical framework for evaluating eco-design performance. It also identifies the most eco-efficient way to achieve better environmental performances, which allows decision-makers to better allocate their design efforts and improve both short- and long-term corporate sustainability.

Minimizing the Environmental Impacts of Plastic Pollution through Ecodesign of Products with Low Environmental Persistence.

While plastic pollution threatens ecosystems and human health, the use of plastic products continues to increase. Limiting its harm requires design strategies for plastic products informed by the threats that plastics pose to the environment. Thus, we developed a sustainability metric for the ecodesign of plastic products with low environmental persistence and uncompromised performance. To do this, we integrated the environmental degradation rate of plastic into established material selection strategies, deriving material indices for environmental persistence. By comparing indices for the environmental impact of on-the-market plastics and proposed alternatives, we show that accounting for the environmental persistence of plastics in design could translate to societal benefits of hundreds of millions of dollars for a single consumer product. Our analysis identifies the materials and their properties that deserve development, adoption, and investment to create functional and less environmentally impactful plastic products.

Research on implementation factors of product ecological design based on digital collaboration

To assist enterprises in adapting to the challenges of the digital era during the product eco-design stage, based on the synergistic symbiosis theory and the eco-strategy wheel, combined with literature research and expert interviews, this study identifies 11 factors for enterprises to realize product eco-design under digital collaboration. In this study, the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to aggregate the identified 11 factors into four factor sets: strong cause, weak cause, strong result, and weak result; and the Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) was used to create a multilevel recursive model of product eco-design for digital collaboration. The study's findings show that: digital collaborative product eco-design is a combination of intra-organizational, intra-organizational, and external organizational synergies; and digital collaboration improves the efficiency of eco-design technology acquisition. This research provides a scientific foundation for company managers to make product eco-design decisions in the context of the worldwide digitalization trend.

Eco-Design of Products and Processes: A Review on Principles and Tools for Sustainable Manufacturing

Eco-design is a crucial approach in achieving sustainable manufacturing, which seeks to reduce the environmental impact of products and processes throughout their lifecycle. This paper explores the principles and tools that are used in eco-design, providing an overview of the key concepts and methods for sustainable manufacturing. The principles of eco-design are centered on minimizing the environmental impact of products and processes through the use of renewable resources, reducing waste and emissions, and improving energy and material efficiency. The paper discusses these principles in detail and highlights the benefits that can be achieved by implementing eco-design in manufacturing. The tools and methods of eco-design include life cycle assessment (LCA), design for environment (DfE), and environmental management systems (EMS) whereas DfE involves designing products and processes to minimize their environmental impact. EMS provides a framework for managing environmental performance across an organization. The paper also discusses the challenges of implementing eco-design in manufacturing, including the need for collaboration across different functions within an organization, the availability of data and resources, and the complexity of the supply chain. Organizations can implement eco design by utilizing Life Cycle Assessment, eco-labeling, and Design for the Environment. This approach can help organizations initiate or improve sustainable production practices.

Enhancing life cycle assessment framework to support product ecodesign through index decomposition analysis

In ecodesign, life cycle assessment (LCA) has not only been used to evaluate a product's environmental sustainability but also serves as a tool for designers to identify areas for sustainability improvement. Conventionally, this is achieved by ranking all contributing LCA variables to identify high-impact areas. However, interpreting and translating this information into actionable design variables can be challenging. An LCA variable can be influenced by multiple design variables, each of which might affect the design's environmental sustainability to varying degrees. Presently, there is a lack of tools capable of analysing the influence of each design variable. To bridge this gap, this study proposes an LCA disaggregation methodology that uses Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) to assess the environmental sustainability significance of the considered design variables. Using the methodology, designers can make informed decisions that prioritise design effort on design variable with the greatest potential for enhancing the product's environmental sustainability. The proposed methodology is demonstrated through a case study involving the design of a desk fan cover, considering material choice, geometry, and manufacturing process as key design variables.

The circular economy strategy as a way of designing more durable, repairable, and reusable products

The European Union’s strategy for the circular economy seeks to change the current linear model of production and consumption, which involves the misuse of many resources and the production of huge amounts of waste. To this purpose, it is necessary to amend legislation on the ecodesign of products and introduce durability, repairability and reusability criteria. This article analyses the origins and evolution of ecodesign legislation, as well as the challenges that the circular economy poses to this legislation, pointing out the main limits and regulatory changes that should be considered.

Eco-design influence on the life cycle assessment of frozen cauliflower gnocchi: a comprehensive cradle-to-grave analysis.

Nowadays, when discussing agri-food products, it is important to talk about sustainable production methods. Environmental sustainability has become a production issue, especially when it comes to the design of a product, service, or process. Using frozen fresh cauliflower gnocchi marketed in different packaging and in different global areas as a case study, we aim to highlight the importance of the impact of product eco-design on the entire life cycle. The environmental impact of cauliflower gnocchi was assessed based on the life cycle assessment methodology. With the cradle-to-gate approach, the most influential factors are the cultivation, distribution, and packaging phases. Considering the cradle-to-grave approach, home storage has proven to be the most influential factor for a quarter of the entire life cycle of cauliflower gnocchi. The eco-design of packaging has demonstrated how, by analysing only the packaging, it is possible to achieve significant reductions in impact (-47%), but when compared with the entire life cycle these actions have no significant responsibility (approximately 10%). If, however, the field of action is broadened and eco-design solutions are sought to reduce the impact deriving from the conservation phase, the consumer has the ability, through their decisions, to reduce the impact relating to conservation as much as possible or to double the impact of the product life cycle. Overall, to promote prosperity while protecting the environment, according to Agenda 2030, the agri-food system must analyse the supply chains without neglecting any step involved in the life cycle of the product. The eco-design must go beyond the usual factors analysed and shall include downstream activities to aim for more sustainable products, including consumer behaviours, following the cradle-to-grave approach. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Sustainable Pickering Emulsions with Nanocellulose: Innovations and Challenges.

The proper mix of nanocellulose to a dispersion of polar and nonpolar liquids creates emulsions stabilized by finely divided solids (instead of tensoactive chemicals) named Pickering emulsions. These mixtures can be engineered to develop new food products with innovative functions, potentially more eco-friendly characteristics, and reduced risks to consumers. Although cellulose-based Pickering emulsion preparation is an exciting approach to creating new food products, there are many legal, technical, environmental, and economic gaps to be filled through research. The diversity of different types of nanocellulose makes it difficult to perform long-term studies on workers' occupational health, cytotoxicity for consumers, and environmental impacts. This review aims to identify some of these gaps and outline potential topics for future research and cooperation. Pickering emulsion research is still concentrated in a few countries, especially developed and emerging countries, with low levels of participation from Asian and African nations. There is a need for the development of scaling-up technologies to allow for the production of kilograms or liters per hour of products. More research is needed on the sustainability and eco-design of products. Finally, countries must approve a regulatory framework that allows for food products with Pickering emulsions to be put on the market.

SPOT: A Strategic Life-Cycle-Assessment-Based Methodology and Tool for Cosmetic Product Eco-Design

The cosmetics industry is facing growing pressure to offer more sustainable products, which can be tackled by applying eco-design. This article aims to present the Sustainable Product Optimization Tool (SPOT) methodology developed by L’Oréal to eco-design its cosmetic products and the strategies adopted for its implementation while presenting the challenges encountered along the way. The SPOT methodology is based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of a finished product and its subsystems (formula, packaging, manufacturing and distribution). Several environmental indicators are assessed, normalized and weighted based on the planetary boundaries concept, and then aggregated into a single footprint. A product sustainability index (a single rating, easy to interpret) is then obtained by merging the environmental product rating derived from the single environmental footprint with the social rating (not covered here). The use of the SPOT method is shown by two case studies. The implementation of SPOT, based on specific strategic and managerial measures (corporate and brand targets, Key Performance Indicators, and financial incentives) is discussed. These measures have enabled L’Oréal to have 97% of their products stated as eco-designed in 2022. SPOT shows how eco-design can be implemented on a large scale without compromising scientific robustness. Eco-design tools must strike the right balance between the complexity of the LCA and the ease of interpretation of the results, and have a robust implementation plan to ensure a successful eco-design strategy.

Replacing Induction Motors without Defined Efficiency Class by IE Class: Example of Energy, Economic, and Environmental Evaluation in 1.5 kW—IE3 Motors

This paper shows the results obtained from the study on the variables that have the greatest influence on the decision to replace three-phase induction motors, without a defined efficiency class and installed in industrial applications, with IE3 efficiency class induction motors. The work has been carried out on motors with a nominal power of 1.5 kW due to the availability of laboratory tests that have allowed us to accurately quantify the selected study variables. According to IEC 60034-30, between 0.75 kW and 4 kW is the greatest potential for energy savings in electric motors installed within the industrial sector. The tests carried out have made it possible to assess different operating conditions of the motor: direct power supply from the grid, electronic power supply using scalar control, and electronic power supply using direct torque control. The study has focused on three aspects: energy evaluation, assessing the savings potential; economic evaluation, based on indicators such as Payback Period and Net Present Value; environmental assessment, quantifying the impact indicators proposed by the Methodology for Ecodesign of Energy-related Products (MEErP). A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to quantify, through ratios, different operating points from those directly analyzed in the article.

Understanding Marine Biodegradation of Bio-Based Oligoesters and Plasticizers.

The study reports the enzymatic synthesis of bio-based oligoesters and chemo-enzymatic processes for obtaining epoxidized bioplasticizers and biolubricants starting from cardoon seed oil. All of the molecules had MW below 1000 g mol-1 and were analyzed in terms of marine biodegradation. The data shed light on the effects of the chemical structure, chemical bond lability, thermal behavior, and water solubility on biodegradation. Moreover, the analysis of the biodegradation of the building blocks that constituted the different bio-based products allowed us to distinguish between different chemical and physicochemical factors. These hints are of major importance for the rational eco-design of new benign bio-based products. Overall, the high lability of ester bonds was confirmed, along with the negligible effect of the presence of epoxy rings on triglyceride structures. The biodegradation data clearly indicated that the monomers/building blocks undergo a much slower process of abiotic or biotic transformations, potentially leading to accumulation. Therefore, the simple analysis of the erosion, hydrolysis, or visual/chemical disappearance of the chemical products or plastic is not sufficient, but ecotoxicity studies on the effects of such small molecules are of major importance. The use of natural feedstocks, such as vegetable seed oils and their derivatives, allows the minimization of these risks, because microorganisms have evolved enzymes and metabolic pathways for processing such natural molecules.

Does Product Eco-design Promote Remanufacturing: Application of a Stylized Game-theoretic Model

As an effective approach to reduce resource waste and production costs, remanufacturing has elicited extensive attention from the industry and academia. Many electronic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have increasingly begun to incorporate product eco-design (PED) into their remanufacturing processes since take-back regulations that hold OEMs responsible for handling their own end-of-life products have gradually become more stringent. The investment costs for the PED implementation vary across different PED effort levels (i.e., high, medium, and low) chosen by the OEM, and different PED effort levels may yield different remanufacturing strategies. In this paper, we develop a stylized game-theoretic model to investigate the impact of PED effort levels on the OEM’s equilibrium decisions (which include production quantities of new and remanufactured products) and supply chain performance in the context of take-back legislation. Our results demonstrate that high PED effort levels do not imply more remanufacturing and that the OEM’s choice of remanufacturing strategies depends on the trade-off between cost savings from remanufacturing and deterministic risks. Interestingly, we find that new products should have a certain level of profitability to ensure the validity of take-back legislation. Due to the substitution and complementary effects between new and remanufactured products, the optimal decisions exhibit different characteristics in remanufacturing strategies. Through a numerical study, we observe that the economic performance decreases with increases in the PED effort level under take-back legislation, but the change in the total environmental impact depends on the PED effort level and the production cost of new products.