Analysis of parameters about useful life extension in 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy

One of the approaches followed by the circular economy (CE) to achieve sustainability through design is product life extension. Extending the life of products to make them useful for as long as possible is a means to reduce waste production and materials consumption, as well as the related impacts. For designers, conceptualizing products in a way that allows them to be used for longer is a challenge, and assessing how well they extend their lifespan can be helpful when it comes to choosing the best proposal. In this paper, 70 tools and methods related to eco-design and circular economy are studied to determine how many of them consider parameters related to life extension and which can be applied in the early stages of design. The results of the analysis show that most of the existing tools and methods are applicable to developed products, and only a few of them take into account parameters related to extending the useful life. Of the 70 tools and methods, only 14 include some parameter related to life extension and are applicable to concepts. CE toolkit, Eco-design PILOT, CE Designer, Circularity Assessment tool, Circularity Potential Indicator and Circular Design Tools take into consideration eight or more parameters to assess life extension in concepts. This will help designers select the most appropriate and will indicate the need for more complete tools to consider useful life extension in the early stages of design and thus enhance the selection of more sustainable products.     

Linking Industrial Ecology with Business Strategy: Creating Value for Green Product Design

As organizations practice environmental design, some discover green design positively impacts business performance. This article demonstrates how an organization can employ existing design methods and tools with the Kano technique to craft an environmental product design strategy that enhances its business strategy. These tools expand the toolbox of the industrial ecologist and enable the link between green design and business improvement. The Kano technique was developed in the 1980s to facilitate design of innovative products. We also introduce terminology and concepts such as “voices of the environment,”“environmental knowledge management,”“environmental profile,” and “environmental product attribute” in order to bridge the gap between industrial ecology and business concerns. To demonstrate how an organization can find the synergy between business value and environmental value, this article describes three activities and their corresponding tools and exhibits their use with industry examples. First, we present techniques by which designers can identify and prioritize customers and stakeholders who voice both environmental and business concerns. Second, we describe how voice‐of‐the‐customer translation techniques can be used to efficiently collect and translate data from these customers and stakeholders into critical environmental product and service attributes. Third, we discuss how the Kano technique can be used to connect green design to business strategy by making visible the variety of stakeholder and customer perceptions of these critical environmental attributes. Examples then demonstrate how those perceptions suggest appropriate approaches for integrating the critical environmental attributes into product and business strategy. Finally, we provide examples based on work done with General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS) to illustrate the design of products that improve environmental performance while adding greater perceived value for numerous customers along material‐flow value chains.     

Iterative screening LCA in an eco-design tool

A screening and simplified LCA method, is essential necessary to include environmental aspects in the stage of Research and Development (R&D) of products and processes. An interactive, iterative and integrative eco-design tool using the top-down approach in the identification of advanced materials is being developed in a joint project performed by six research institutes. The principles and methods as well as some examples for the validation of the screening LCA as well as its application in eco-design in case studies are presented in this article.     

生态设计家具的碳足迹核算与减排效果分析——以木质家具为例

我国的木质家具不仅产量大,而且碳排放强度也相对较高,利用生态设计理念可以降低木质家具的碳足迹。为了定量化生态设计所带来的减排效果,按照减少资源消耗和环境污染、节省住宅空间等木质家具生态设计原则,通过在一款多功能家具的框架内安装不同面板,形成了4种不同材质和结构的设计方案,利用生命周期分析方法核算了4种方案的碳足迹,并进一步量化了改进方案的减排效果。结果表明:4种家具设计的碳足迹从小到大为三聚氰胺板家具、木皮板家具、拼板家具、嵌条板家具,其中,实木类家具原材料碳排放较低,人造板类家具加工过程电力碳排放较低(主要来源于喷涂工段,占电力排放的83%—92%);通过各种减排方案的减排效果分析,发现采用"可拆卸无胶连接方式"改进方案减排效果显为明显;同时发现,合理的"低碳设计"(采用以实木板为基板,以三聚氰胺纸为贴面制作面板),可以避免中纤板喷涂过程的碳排放,从而减少产品整体碳足迹。     

Playing with Hyenas:Renovating Environmental Product Policy Strategy

The 1990s policy trend of intervening at the specification level over a broad range of products has ended. Today's environmental product policies focus, rather, on a few arbitrary product groups. Selectiveness should serve absolute environmental impact reduction, which asks for a rational product-selection and target framework. The authors propose "life-cycle impact per consumer expenditure" as a key criterion. This criterion helps to connect macro environmental impact reduction aims with product innovation targets, even under continuous economic growth, consumption pattern shifts, and rebound threats. The authors analyze the Dutch economy as an exercise. This results in 44 product groups, labeled "Hyenas" by the authors, that need to improve their ratio score drastically between now and 2040. Some magnitudes of desired change are given. Finally, intervention processes at the Hyena group level along the lines of sustainable transition management are proposed. Joint visioning, experimental portfolios, interaction between micro, meso, and macro change levels, and gradual pressure building are crucial elements in this concept of complex change management.     

Thermodynamic rarity of electrical and electronic waste: Assessment and policy implications for critical materials

The strategic relevance of extracting raw materials from waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the EU is increasing due to value chain risks caused by geopolitical instability, accessibility of specific minerals, and decreasing reserves due to growing extraction rates. This article examines the quantities of so-called critical raw materials (CRMs) originating within WEEE streams from a depletion perspective. Presently, current recycling targets are based solely on mass collection and recycling rates. We examine the potential limitations of this approach using an exergy-based indicator named thermodynamic rarity. This indicator represents the exergy costs needed for producing materials from the bare rock to market. The case of Italy is used to explore the application of the indicator at the macro (national) and micro (company) level for the product categories “small electronics” and “screens and monitors.” Our estimations show significant differences between the mass and rarity of materials within Italian WEEE streams. While iron accounts for more than 70% of the weight of the product categories analyzed, it accounts for less than 15% of the rarity. Similarly, several CRMs with a small mass have a higher rarity value, for example, tungsten with less than 0.1% of the mass and over 6% of the rarity. The policy context is reflected upon, where it is argued that thermodynamic rarity can provide novel insights to support end-of-life WEEE decision-making processes, for example, target development and recycling standards setting to help prioritize material monitoring and recovery options.     

Recycling plastics from e-waste: Implications for effective eco-design

This paper presents five case studies on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling to provide a coherent overview on the likely impact of eco-design measures on recycling of plastics used in energy-related products within the EU. Whilst some eco-design measures, such as improving disassembly of plastic parts, may generally benefit recycling operations, other measures were found to be ineffective or requiring further investigation. For example, product polymer marking, and provision of product-specific information was rarely utilized by participant organizations, if at all. Additionally, this study highlights a disconnect between the aims of substance bans as an eco-design measure and the impact upon plastics recycling in practice. Future research could help with quantitative and/or statistical analysis of WEEE processing to investigate across a wider selection of recyclers and recycling processes. Despite 20 years of research on eco-design, it appears that EU eco-design policies and voluntary initiatives are still being devised without adequate understanding of their impact on different types of recycling practices. Empirical research on recycling processes can provide important insight to ensure eco-design measures are effective and avoid unintended consequences for the environment.