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Integration of environmental aspects in product development: a stepwise procedure based on quantitative life cycle assessment
P.H. Nielsen*, H. Wenzel
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, Technical University of Denmark, Building 424, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark Received 22 March 2000; received in revised form 14 February 2001; accepted 3 July 2001
Abstract Signicant environmental improvements can often be achieved by integrating environmental properties as an optimisation parameter in product development together with more traditional values such as production costs, functionality, aesthetics etc. This paper presents a professional method intended for managers based on quantitative life cycle assessment to identify environmental hot spots in a reference products life cycle and to select new environmentally optimised solutions for a new product. The paper takes its starting point in traditional procedures for product development (idea, analysis, goal denition, concept development and detail development) and shows step by step how the environmental properties of the new product can be optimised and thus contribute to the overall competitiveness of the new product. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Product development procedure; Environmental performance of products; Design for environment; Integrated environmental design; Eco-design
1. Introduction Several enterprises in various geographic regions recognise that good environmental performance is an important factor for their future success and do a lot to reduce environmental impacts by treatment actions, implementation of cleaner technologies and by product modications. However, as many of the most obvious environmental improvements have already been realised in many companies, it is frequently asked: how can we further improve the environmental performance of our products and services? And how can we document the signicance of the changes that we make? Some of the most important decisions with respect to environmental properties of a new product are taken during the product development. Thus, signicant environmental improvements can very often be achieved by integrating environmental properties as an optimisation parameter during the product development together with
* Corresponding author. Present address: School of Environment Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. Tel.: +45-4525-4800. E-mail address: nielsen@ait.ac.th (P.H. Nielsen).
parameters such as function, production costs, aesthetics, ergonomics etc. Environmentally oriented product design has already received a signicant amount of attention in the literature, and in addition to studies of general and/or philosophical character [13], the main focus has so far been addressed to qualitative and semi quantitative approaches [410]. The qualitative approaches are quick, fairly simple in use and advantageous in situations where the products environmental properties are obvious. However, when it comes to more complex situations where the environmental properties of a product are unclear, quantitative approaches [1014] are required: (i) to learn the proportions between environmental impacts from different stages of the products life to allow for environmental priorisations between alternative solutions, and (ii) to document the magnitude of the obtainable environmental improvements. As a result of the project Environmental Design of Industrial Products (EDIP) [13] a scientically based instrument is proposed to integrate environmental issues in product development by quantitative means. Recognising that the environmental performance of a product or a service is not only determined by processes and material selections in the specic company under study,
0959-6526/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 5 9 - 6 5 2 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 3 8 - 5
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life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to analyse the products environmental properties EDIP has now been known for some time (the rst Danish version was published in 1996 [15]), and considerable experience with the tool has been obtained as a result of co-operation projects with industry partners [13,1618]. Most industry reports remain unpublished due to condentiality, and the purpose of this paper is thus to present the obtained experience for a broader public by summarising the experience in some general principles. By providing this information we hope to inspire product developers in the industry who like to include environmental performance as an equal aspect in their products and services and to save substantial time and effort during the rst attempts. In order to facilitate the understanding of the general principles, some illustrative examples from a washing machine are provided [19]. 2. Product development in general terms Fig. 1 shows the main phases of product development as outlined by several authors [2022]. During each phase, aspects such as technical properties, ergonomic properties, economic properties, health properties and environmental properties of the product are taken more or less into account and the nal product usually comes out as a compromise between the different priorities. The solution space, i.e. the degree of freedom to choose solutions [23] and hence the potential for environmental improvements is large in the beginning of product development (see Fig. 1) when ideas and conceptual solutions are open. However, it decreases gradually as the general product features are established and more and more details are determined. The environmental improvement options are limited to production processes, logistics, recycling etc. when the production has been set up and the product is ready for the market. LCA can be used in any phase of product development, but the major potential exists in the analysis phase, the concept development phase and in the detail development phase and this paper will address these three phases. 3. Integration of environmental regards in product development The general product development scheme outlined in Fig. 1 has been extended in Fig. 2 to illustrate how the
environmental performance of a product can be integrated in product development using LCA. In the following sections each step in the procedure will be discussed and illustrated by examples. The activities in the environmental part of the product development procedure shall be considered as a supplement to the traditional values (technical performance, economic performance etc.), and as a contribution to the overall competitiveness of the product. The development procedure outlined in Fig. 2 is based on LCA and a number of essential requirements with respect to LCA must be fullled before the work can begin. These requirements are outside the scope of this paper and hence only briey summarised in Table 1. 3.1. Step 1: Analysis 3.1.1. Step 1.1: Dene a reference product and determine its life cycle Making a quantitative LCA requires knowledge of specic materials and processes, and a dened product is required for the initial investigations. Thus, the rst step in the procedure is to dene a reference product, which can serve as a representative for the new product in the initial phases of the product development. An existing product can serve as the reference product if it is believed that the new product is going to be a modication hereof. For completely new products, which are not like any existing products this is, of course, not possible and a ctive product must serve as the reference product. Since new products are usually based on existing technologies in new compositions, it is in most cases possible to compose a useful reference product by putting existing units and technologies together. The environmental performance of a product or a service is determined as a sum of all impacts throughout the products life cycle. Thus, from the beginning of the product development procedure the entire life cycle of the product system must be taken into account in order to achieve the best environmental performance of the new product. Fig. 3 illustrates the life cycle of a product in general terms. The task of the LCA and Life Cycle Design expertise in this step is to identify all relevant processes and materials in each phase of the reference products life cycle. Although much input can be obtained from the companys suppliers, LCA experts, public organisations and from public databases and literature, this procedure can be quite resource demanding for complex products. However, materials and processes, which from an initial judgement are found unimportant from an
Fig. 1.
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Fig. 2. Environmental performance integrated into product development. Figures refer to step numbers used in the following sections. Full arrows represent progress between main product development steps and dotted arrows represent progress between underlying steps with respect to, environmental performance of the new product. The idea phase, the goal denition phase and the implementation phase (shown in rounded boxes) are not or only briey discussed in the following. The selection of optimal solutions in Step 2.3 and 3.6 includes all aspects of the product: economy, function, aesthetics etc.
Table 1 Brief summary of essential LCA requirements Requirements LCA methodology LCA expertise References [6,13,2326] [7] Comments ISO provides international standards The LCA expert must be integrated in the general development team Several tools are available Both paper and electronic databases are available
environmental point of view can be left out of considerations to keep the work in appropriate proportion. As an illustrative example, Fig. 4 presents a small extract of the process system behind the function of washing clothes in a domestic washing machine [19]. 3.1.2. Step 1.2: Make an LCA computer model of the reference products life In order to facilitate the determination of environmental impacts throughout the products life cycle and later to manipulate these impacts through changing the life cycle, an LCA computer model of the reference product must be made. The LCA computer
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Fig. 3.
Fig. 4. Process system behind the function: washing clothes in a washing machine. Only a few selected materials and processes are included.
model can be built up in specially designed computer tools (see Table 1) and shall contain information about resource consumption and emissions to the environment in each stage of the life cycle of the product. The model must be constructed in a manner that allows the existing solutions in the reference product to be removed and replaced easily with others. Since the product development takes its starting point at a conceptual level in Step 2, a rough model of the reference product is fully sufcient: Most environmental information may be obtained from general databases. Many details can be excluded. Materials and processes for which environmental data are available can be used as an approximation for unknown materials and processes Minor energy uses (e.g. in own production) can be excluded or estimated roughly. Only the most important markets of the product should be taken into consideration. Simple average disposal scenarios can represent the disposal processes in the life cycle. Transportation processes can be modelled as rough average scenarios. Although the LCA is quite rough at this stage, special attention shall always be paid to possible emissions of toxic substances, which can occur in small but signicant amounts in any stage of the products life cycle. The LCA computer model can be made in several different LCA software tools (see Table 1), but the user should note that certain features with respect to impact assessment (see Step 1.3) are required. In the current example for the washing machine, the EDIP PC-tool [27] and EDIP unit process database [28] were used for modelling. Specic data about the composition and function of the washing were acquired from
a producer of washing machines and supplied with literature information [19]. 3.1.3. Step 1.3: Generate environmental proles of the reference product The environmental prole of a product is a summary of all environmental impacts throughout the products life cycle, and the environmental prole comes out as a result of calculations in the computer tool after the LCA inventory phase or the LCA impact assessment phase (see Table 1). For purposes of supporting decisions in product development, it is advantageous if various impacts are comparable and expressed on a common scale. The EDIP impact assessment method [13,29] is based on normalisation, relative to targeted future environmental impacts and known reserves of resources. This type of impact assessment provides a common scale for environmental impacts (mPETWDK2000)1 respectively resource consumption (mPRW90)2 and is directly applicable for product development purposes as illustrated in the following. As a result of the EDIP weighting method, ozone depletion is for instance weighted high compared to acidication,
mPETWDK2000 (milli person equivalents, targeted for the World/Denmark in year 2000) represents the fraction of an environmental impact caused by the service provided by the product relative to an average persons yearly contribution to the environmental impact in year 2000, provided that all ratied political reduction plans for environmental emissions (Danish or international) are realized. One mPETWDK2000 represents 1 of an average persons (Danish or world citizen) yearly contribution to the targeted environmental impact in year 2000. 2 mPRW90 (milli person reserves in the world in 1990) represents the fraction of a resource used during the products life cycle relative to the known reserves of the resource in 1990 pr. world citizen. One mPRW90 represents 1 of the share of the known reserves of a resource as established in 1990 that is available for an average person (world citizen) and the descendants of this person.
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Fig. 5.
Weighted impact prole (environment and resource consumption) for a washing machine at the conceptual development level.
because ambitious reduction plans exist for ozone degrading compounds compared to acidifying compounds, and copper is for instance weighted high compared to aluminium because copper is scarce compared to aluminium. As an example, the weighted environmental impact prole and resource consumption prole for the reference washing machine is shown in Fig. 5. The computer model behind the prole is quite rough and includes only the most important materials and processes as discussed under Step 1.2. Fig. 5 shows that washing clothes with the actual washing machine contributes to almost all environmental impacts and furthermore that a remarkable amount of copper and fossil fuels isconsumed.3 In the following step, the sources of these impacts will be revealed. 3.1.4. Step 1.4: Identify the environmental hot spots in the reference product In this step the most important sources of environmental impact in the reference products life cycle (environmental hot spots) are pointed out in order to identify potential focus areas for the further product development. Based on the results of the LCA of the reference product, the following questions should be answered: 1. Which processes in the reference products life cycle are the most important? 2. Which materials and sub-assemblies of the reference product are the most important?
3 The present contribution to global warming of 25 mPETWDK2000 shows that using the washing machine for washing clothes, occupy 2.5% of an average world citizens environmental space in 2000, provided that Danish reduction targets for global warming in 2000 are met. The consumption of almost one mPRW90 of copper shows that using the washing machine in one year (300 washes) requires almost 1 of the known copper reserves available for one world citizen and its descendants in 1990.
3. Which stages of the reference products life cycle are the most important? 4. Which single inputs and outputs in the reference products life cycle are the most important? As an example, Fig. 6 presents the same environmental impact prole for the reference washing machine as Fig. 5. However, in Fig. 6 the environmental impacts are divided with respect to life cycle stages. Fig. 6 reveals that the most signicant environmental impacts appear in the use stage, but also that raw material extraction and disposal contribute signicantly to certain impact categories. The manufacturing stage (production of the washing machine) seems to be almost negligible from an overall environmental point of view. The negative contributions in Fig. 6 illustrate the environmental gains caused by avoided production due to reuse of metals after the disposal of the washing machine. The data behind Fig. 6 were broken down with respect to process types (proles not shown) and it was claried that electricity utilisation for heating water in the use stage was the main source of environmental impacts. Hence, it was recognised that electricity use for water heating in the use stage represented a major environmental hot spot which should be addressed in the concept development. 3.2. Step 2: Concept development 3.2.1. Step 2.1: Identify revised conceptual solutions where hot spots have been found After the over all environmental prole of the product has been evaluated, it is time to determine whether some of the environmental hot spots can be moderated or removed by modifying or replacing certain conceptual solutions in the reference product. In this step, all aspects such as economy, design, technical feasibility etc. must of course be taken into account to ensure that the new product becomes attractive on the market. Signicant environmental improvements compared to the reference
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Fig. 6. Weighted environmental impact prole for the reference washing machine as classied with respect to the washing machines life cycle stages.
product can very often be achieved in the concept development phase, if the entire project team takes the output from the LCA as an interesting opportunity to rethink traditional solutions. Most details about the product remains unknown at the conceptual level in product development and it is therefore satisfactory that the model remains quite rough at this stage. 3.2.2. Step 2.2: Compare revised conceptual solutions with the existing solutions in the reference product At this stage existing and new conceptual solutions are compared with each other from an environmental point of view. Before any physical modications of the product have been made, simulations in the LCA computer tool are used to test new conceptual ideas against each other. The purpose of this activity is to reveal how different conceptual solutions interact with the environment and hereby provide a basis for selection of optimal solutions as described in Step 2.3. The procedure outlined below should in principle be repeated for each new conceptual idea in question. 1. Replace hot spot solutions with revised conceptual solutions in the LCA-model of the reference product. 2. Generate a weighted environmental prole for the modied reference product. 3. Compare the original and the new environmental proles. However, since this procedure can be quite demanding, it should be noted that in simple cases, the work can be limited to qualitative analysis of differences between various conceptual solutions. If the electricity
use, for example is the only signicant difference between two concepts, the comparison of the systems can be limited to the electricity usage without doing any computer-modelling. To ensure that all life cycle stages and all emissions and resource consumptions from cradle to grave are taken into account, the MECO-principle [13,31] can be applied. The qualitative considerations can be useful for quick exclusion of useless conceptual solutions, whereas quantitative LCA documentation is required for the selected concept (see next section).
3.2.2.1. Example. The utilisation of electricity for heating of water in the use phase of a washing machine proved to be an important environmental hot spot, cf. Step 1.4. Thus, it could be interesting to look closer into the heating of water and see if a new conceptual solutions could provide an equivalent service for the user (re. technical, economical aspects etc.) but with lower overall environmental impacts. Fig. 7 presents an environmental comparison of the reference washing machine (where water is heated with average EU electricity) and the same washing machine where the water heating is based on central heating with natural gas as energy source. The weighted results presented in Fig. 7 reveals that all environmental impacts except hazardous waste can be reduced by a factor of two or more, and that the total use of energy carriers (weighted) can be reduced by about 20%. This is due to the fact that water can be heated more efciently with direct heating than via electricity and the fact that natural gas is a relatively clean source of energy. Other related improvement options such as water saving and tempera-
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Fig. 7. Weighted impact prole (environment and resource consumption) for the product system of a washing machine. Water heating is based on electricity (reference), respectively natural gas (revised concept).
ture reduction could be analysed and evaluated in the same way. 3.2.3. Step 2.3: Select the optimal conceptual solutions By repeating the procedure in Step 2.2 for a number of conceptual solutions in the reference products life cycle, a general impression of the products environmental properties is generated and the environmental improvements potentials for the product can be identied and quantied in terms of saved environmental impacts and resource consumption. This information is a useful input to the nal choice of an optimal conceptual solution in the general product development procedure where all aspects regarding the product are taken into account. It should be noted that the largest environmental improvement potentials are not necessarily found among the most signicant hot spots. The improvement potential may be zero even for a major hot spots if the actual solution has already been optimised to the best possible level. In such cases the focus must be addressed to the less signicant hot spots e.g. by repeating Step 2.1. It is a wide spread impression that environmental improvements are associated with increased production costs. However, thoughtful decisions including both environmental, technical and economical aspects may very often lead to solutions with the same or even lower costs due to resource and tax saving (e.g. waste deposition duty). Costly environmental improvements can eventually be motivated by an anticipation of increased prots due to more goodwill towards the product and the company in general. 3.2.4. Step 2.4: Update the LCA computer model with optimal conceptual solutions The last step in the concept development step is to update the LCA computer model of the reference product
so it represents the nally decided product concept and can be used in the following detail development phase. In practical terms, the conceptual solutions, which were preferred in Step 2.3, replace the existing conceptual solutions in the LCA model of the reference product. The updated model is hereafter referred to as the LCA-model of the selected concept. 3.3. Step 3: Detail development In the detail development phase all decisions regarding detailed solutions (materials and processes) in the product are determined and very often numerous different solutions are in choice at the initial stage [13,30]. The purpose of the environmental part of this design phase is to support the choice between different options at the detailed level by taking environmental questions into account. The selection of environmentally reasonable solutions is supported by LCA comparisons as already described under concept development. 3.3.1. Step 3.1: Fill details into the LCA computer model of the selected concept The purpose of the current step is to improve the LCA computer model of the selected concept by entering possible detailed solutions. Some details may be transferred directly from existing products and others may be identied during the technical part of the detailed design phase. If two or more details are in question already at this stage, a -LCA [13] can be used to determine the environmentally optimal solution, as discussed below. As soon as all detailed information has been entered in the LCA-model of the selected concept, the model is referred to as the LCA computer model of the detailed product. The LCA computer model shall be quite detailed and precise at this stage to reect the products properties accurately:
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The most important environmental information is based on actual materials and processes. Simulations with similar materials and processes are only used occasionally. All important energy uses are taken into account at a quite detailed level. Overheads are determined quite precisely. All the most important markets of the product are included. Disposal scenarios are built up quite specically for the most important countries. All signicant transportation processes are included. In the model, it is important to enter all details in separate blocks, so they can be removed and replaced easily with others in Step 3.5. 3.3.1.1. -LCA. The general purpose of the -LCA is to analyse and compare specic units or functions in the product from an environmental point of view, while the rest of the product is ignored. The -LCA is a useful tool to compare two or more detail solutions, and can be used at this stage to point out the optimal choice prior to evaluation of the general results for the product in Step 3.2 to 3.6. Use of the -LCA at this stage can be considered as a short cut, which can save signicant time and effort as the optimal solutions are identied before the detailed LCA computer model has been set up and used. However, time and effort can also be spent on details, which would have turned out to be unimportant from a general point of view in the following steps if the short cut had not been applied. Thus, the short cut is mainly useful for experienced product developers who know by intuition where the environmental hot spots shall be found. In practical terms, the task of the -LCA is to compare concrete detail solutions such as: two or two or nent; two or two or more different components; more different materials for the same compomore different processes; more ancillary substances.
The functional unit of the -LCA study shall be in accordance with the overall functional unit of the study, and for the nal choice of an optimal solution aspects such as function, economy and aesthetics must be included. Details in the product vary from simple items (e.g. screws and nuts) to complex constituents (e.g. lacquers) and data collection can be some times be quite time consuming. Thus, it is important to predict the specic data needs as early as possible to prevent the LCA from becoming a bottleneck in the general product development. The -LCA short-cut procedure is repeated for all details of interest and the optimal solutions are entered into the general LCA computer model. Since the quantitative LCA-procedure as outlined here can be quite demanding, it is important to note that the selection of the optimal solution can be limited to qualitative considerations, based on the MECO-principle [13,31] if environmental differences between two conceptual solutions are obvious. See Step 2.2. 3.3.1.2. Example. Surface coatings often turn out to be important for the overall environmental prole of products, and it could be interesting to compare two different surface coatings for cabinets by a -LCA before the general detailed model is set up. The following two detail solutions were considered by quantitative modelling, and the results can be found in Fig. 8. Solution 1: the bottom is made of zinc plated iron; the cabinet is made of zinc plated and lacquered iron (reference). Solution 2: the bottom is made of zinc plated iron and the cabinet is made of lacquered iron (without zinc plating).The environmental prole in Fig. 8 shows that signicant environmental savings can be obtained by limiting the zinc plating to the bottom of the washing machine and only lacquering the rest of the cabinet. The resource prole shows rst of all that zinc consumption would turn out to be the most important resource use in the washing machines life cycle in terms of scarcity (compare with other resource uses in Fig. 5) and secondly that this resource use could be reduced to a more reasonable level by eliminating the zinc plating of the sides. Thus, eliminating the zinc plating of the cabinet could be favourable unless the lack of zinc plating reduced the lifetime of the washing machine. In this example the same lifetime of the washing machine was assumed for both surface-coating solutions. However, the surface coating may in some cases inuence the products lifetime and therefore the whole life cycle of the product. 3.3.2. Step 3.2: Generate environmental proles of the detailed product The environmental prole of the detailed product is determined as shown earlier (Step 1.3) although the
The comparison can be done according to the following procedure: 1. Dene a functional unit for the detail under study (e.g. 1 m2 surface coating, 10 years). 2. Build up LCA computer models for the detail solutions in question. 3. Generate environmental proles for each detail solution. 4. Compare the environmental proles. 5. Identify the environmentally optimal solution.
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Fig. 8. nets.
Weighted environmental impact proles (environment and resource consumption) for two different surface treatments of bottom and cabi-
focus is now addressed to the details. The environmental consequences of the choice of details in the product can be considerable as seen in the above example, and signicant differences between the environmental prole of the conceptual product and the detail product can be expected. 3.3.3. Step 3.3: Identify environmental hot spots at detail level At this step, the most important details in the product with respect to environmental impacts and resource consumption are identied. One by one, the environmental impacts associated with each detail of interest is determined and compared with the products environmental impacts as a whole and the most important contributions are pointed out as focus areas in the following steps. 3.3.4. Step 3.4: Identify revised detail solutions where hot spots have been identied Details of the existing products are very often based on industrial traditions developed and implemented before environmental concern became an issue. Hence, signicant environmental improvements can in many cases be achieved by replacing traditional solutions with new materials or processes or even recovered solutions from the past. 3.3.4.1. Examples. Rare metals such as copper, zinc and nickel are used frequently in existing products and often in places where they may not be necessary. The rare metals contribute signicantly to the resource prole of the product and very often the environmental burden associated with their production is high. It should be examined whether these metals in the existing solutions can be replaced with other materials, or if the product can be prepared for easy reuse of the materials by designing for facilitated disassembly. Organic chemicals are used as auxiliary materials in
many processes. The potential environmental impact of organic chemicals can be substantial if they are emitted to the environment, and signicant environmental improvements can be achieved if the most problematic organic chemicals are avoided or replaced with less harmful substances. Energy consumption contributes considerably to the environmental proles of many products, because of large energy consumption in the use phase. Signicant improvements can very often be achieved in the detail design phase by implementation of energy saving technologies or intelligent energy controls. 3.3.5. Step 3.5: Compare revised detail solutions with existing solutions in the reference product In this step, the revised detail solutions suggested in Step 3.4 are compared with existing solutions. The principle is the same as already described under Step 2.2. 3.3.6. Step 3.6: Select the optimal detail solutions Based on the comparison of various detailed solutions in Step 3.5, the optimal solutions in a broad sense shall be selected in this step. The principles are the same as discussed under Step 2.3 and the establishment of production can begin when the optimal solutions for the product have been identied, see Fig. 2. 3.3.7. Step 3.7: Update the LCA computer model with optimal detail solutions and generate an environmental prole of the nal product When all details in the product have been settled, the nal version of the LCA computer model can be made. The new details selected in the previous step replace existing details, which were not preferable anymore. The updated computer model is hereafter referred to as the LCA computer model of the nal product. Based on the LCA computer model of the nal product the environmental prole of the new environmentally
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optimised product can be determined. The prole of the product is reported in the LCA-report (see Table 1, LCA methodology) which serves as documentation for the environmental properties of the product and the environmental advantages which have been achieved compared with the reference product. This information can be used in maximising the sale of the product (e.g. environmental labelling) and to prole the company in general. 4. Discussion It is not possible to provide a clear distinction between conceptual solutions and detail solutions and it is to some degree a matter of taste which activities in the product development procedure belongs to the conceptual development phase and which belongs to the detail development phase. However, it is not important for the results of the work to be clearly dened at this point and each product development team can use their own interpretation. It is just important to stress that both phases may comprise signicant environmental improvement potentials and that maximum yield of the work can be obtained if the two phases are passed though separately. Many companies have long traditions for producing specic products based on certain well-dened concepts and are only interested in modications at the detailed level. In this case, nothing prevents that the existing product serves as the reference product in Step 1.1, and that a detailed model is built up from the beginning. Product development is a creative process that shall not be limited by too strict guidelines. Thus, the rigid procedure described in this paper shall only be considered as a general framework for environmental modelling and decision making during the product development process. As soon as the general procedure is recognised, product developers are encouraged to adapt the principles to their own situation. The quantitative method described in this paper is quite demanding and time consuming as also discussed by van Berkel et al. [2] However, the outcome of the work is a well-documented report of the products environmental prole, and as soon as the rst product model has been made a number bets appear: 1. Future modications of the studied products can be tested quite easily from an environmental point of view before implementation. 2. Conclusions with respect to processes and materials can to a large degree be transferred from the studied product to other products in the same family. 3. New LCA models of other products in the same family can be based on the existing model and the existing database. The awareness of environmental aspects in product
development has grown over the last decade and one trend in the literature about this matter has been an increasing integration of LCA in the product development procedure [14,32,33]. In the present method, the iterative nature of both LCA and product development is acknowledged and the development of the product and the LCA model is seen as an interactive and fully integrated procedure. Thus, according to the present method, the LCA Goal and Scope Denition shall be adjusted currently as the product development proceeds, the LCA Inventory, Impact assessment and Interpretation shall be performed whenever decisions related to the new product are required and small -LCA and MECO analysis shall be made whenever short cuts in decision making are appropriate.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Hanne Erichsen who supported with environmental proles for the washing machine, to Michael Hauschild who supported with fruitful discussions and Christine Molin for linguistic comments and editing. This study was a part of the European Union research program on environment and climate, REMPRODUSE.
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