Comparing environmental product footprint for electronic and electric equipment: a multi-criteria approach

Electronic and electric devices are now applied in most human activities: their diffusion is increasing worldwide; furthermore, most of them are characterized by a high replacement rate due to technological obsolescence. Consequently, environmental problems due to their diffusion are increasing; several aspects are involved from the energy consumption derived from their manufacturing processes and their use phases to their end-of-life (EOL) management. Such legislative (e.g. the European Energy Efficiency directive for household appliances) or voluntary interventions (e.g. based on the ISO standards) have been introduced for such devices: the aim is to incorporate environmental considerations in product design and manufacturing in order to benefit the environment. Some attempts are focusing on defining standardized models for the overall lifecycle including waste management. The aim of this paper is to introduce a reference model for comparing environmental product footprint of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). All life cycles of EEE will be evaluated: a specific focus is on the EOL management process as their waste management represents a complex problem for developed and developing countries. A multi-criteria decision-making model will be developed based on the well-known analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method: differently from traditional AHP applications, an absolute model has been proposed in order to compare EEE effectively from an environmental point of view. A case study validation regarding large household appliances is proposed.     

Ecological and economical assessment of end‐of‐life waste recycling in the electrical and electronic recovery sector

Technological innovation and shorter product life cycles of electrical and electronic equipment coupled with their rapidly growing applications have resulted in the generation of an enormous amount of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). To address the potential environmental problems that could stem from improper end‐of‐life management of WEEE, many countries have drafted national legislation to improve the reuse, remanufacture and material recycling from WEEE, and to reduce the amount of such waste going to landfills. With the introduction of such legislation comes an increased need for the recovery operators to evaluate the recycling costs and environmental benefits of reclaimed products and materials in order to select the most appropriate end‐of‐life options for individual products in WEEE. This paper presents a systematic methodology for ecological and economical assessment to provide a holistic understanding of the impacts associated with different end‐of‐life options for such waste. This assessment, in addition to providing decision‐support for the selection of the best possible end‐of‐life option for a particular product in WEEE, could also generate vital information to support the design and material selection processes during the initial product development activities. The assertion made is that the detailed considerations of the ecological and economical impacts associated with different end‐of‐life options will significantly improve the recovery and recycling of WEEE.     

Computational energy estimation tools for machining operations during preliminary design

The aim of this paper is to develop computational machining energy estimation tools during the early design stage of product development. In the preliminary or embodiment design, a product's shape and materials are determined. At this stage, it is crucial for a designer to be able to compare alternative designs and materials based on many different criteria, such as cost, functionality, energy, etc. Automated tools for estimating energy consumption that could later be used to integrate with CAD/CAM systems are in demand. This study presents computational tools for estimating the energy consumption of machining operations during the early design phase. The computational tools utilize a preliminary computer representation of a product (CAD model), its material and candidate machining operations to automatically analyse and estimate a range of energy consumption during machining operations. Detailed steps for computing turning and milling energy consumption are presented. Case studies of both parts and assemblies were conducted to test the validity of the tools and to evaluate the performance of the tools. Environmental impacts such as carbon weight will also be estimated. The computation tools will assist users with little knowledge about energy computations to estimate energy consumption during the design stage. Such energy estimation can be used to redesign parts and assemblies, leading to the development of products with reduced machining energy. The computation tools are part of a larger research on estimating energy consumption throughout a product's life cycle.     

A method for supporting the design of efficient heating systems using EU product policy data

The design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems is still a challenging engineering task which requires experienced and informed decision-making. These systems have a great energy-saving potential at the system level rather than at the level of the individual products of which they are composed. European environmental product policies have been very useful in facilitating a homogeneous rating scheme which can be used to compare the energy performance of different products that provide the same service. This paper proposes a simplified design method which uses the performance of components that are regulated by European product policies to obtain the overall performance of heating systems in residential buildings. It is a flexible method and allows different product configurations to be assessed so as to optimise the system performance during the design phase. The method is tested on a real case study with domestic hot water and space heating systems. The case study shows the potential for improving the heating systems according to the performance levels of its products currently available in the market. Results of the domestic hot water system show that upgrading its storage tank to the maximum energy class (A⁺) could bring the highest energy savings ( 4162 kWh/y).     

Product innovation for sustainability: on product properties for efficient disassembly

Due to increasing societal awareness, nowadays companies need to consider environmental issues in their business activities. A requirement that has entered the agenda is the design of products to support efficient end‐of‐life management. However, though previous research has addressed various disassembly aspects there is a need for more understanding on which product properties are essential for efficient disassembly processes. Better understanding is also required regarding when, during the product development process, these properties are established. On the basis of empirical studies of disassembly of electrical and electronic equipment and vehicles, this paper suggests a number of product properties that are essential for efficiency of the disassembly process. Furthermore, the paper analyses when these properties are set in the product development process. Four product properties, denoted disassembly properties, have been identified: ease of identification; accessibility; ease of separation; and ease of handling. The analysis shows that these properties are affected during all product development phases. Especially in the early phases it is crucial to consider the disassembly properties in order to avoid unnecessary and costly design changes that may occur in the later development phases if the design solutions are pulled in the wrong direction.     

Lean framework for planning redesign proposals to optimise EOL environmental behaviour in WEEE products

The aim of this research was to define a sequence of actions to guide redesign propositions for electrical and electronic equipment products, which minimise negative consequences to the environment after the end of their useful life. Current practices mainly encourage the examination of individual problems as disassembly process and identification of suitable product end-of-life (EOL) treatment strategies. There also exist previous studies that try to incorporate EOL concerns in product design phase. In most cases, the main problem is the limited available EOL information because of its delayed retrieval. The proposed method focuses primarily on minimising this problem. The steps of the analysis performed include the selection of the optimal EOL treatment strategy and, afterwards, the evaluation of its results concerning the environment. In parallel, product design characteristics are grouped and examined concerning their expected significance for the environment in the EOL stage. The results from the previous stages are combined and product improvement actions are proposed for further examination in the redesign stage. The general framework used to conduct all these actions is lean thinking methodology. In the end, results concerning the application of the proposed method on a distribution transformer are presented.     

Application of active disassembly to extend profitable remanufacturing in small electrical and electronic products

Alternative production approaches are required because of conventional manufacturing's adverse environmental impacts. Remanufacturing returns used products to at least original performance specification from customers' perspectives and gives the resultant products warranties at least equal to that of new equivalents. Remanufacturing is relatively novel in research terms compared to conventional manufacture and recycling but often is more profitable than both. It would help manufacturers address competitive, environmental and legislative pressures by enabling them to meet pressing waste legislation while producing high-quality, lower cost products with less environmentally damaging end-of-life (EoL) and manufacturing modes. Remanufacturing is highly profitable in large, complex mechanical and electromechanical products but with conventional manufacturing and design modes not so in smaller products; particularly fast moving ones. However, effective waste management is urgently required for such products because waste electrical and electronic equipment constitutes the fastest growing EU waste stream and a large percentage of products being produced by major developing economies such as China are of this type. Active disassembly (AD) enables product non-destructive, self-disassembly at EoL and was invented to facilitate a step-change improvement in recycling. This research investigated the use of AD to extend profitable remanufacturing into small EoL electrical and electronic products.     

Evaluating efforts to build sustainable WEEE reverse logistics network design: comparison of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches

Many developing countries such as Turkey are still making an effort on building an infrastructure for waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) reverse logistic network design (RLND) processes. It is obvious that policies/laws/regulations related to WEEE management provide a sustainable framework for implementation in the RLND. The question is here: Does the implementation of WEEE directives make sense in terms of reducing the total cost of the network in the long term? This study aims to compare regulatory and non-regulatory situations of WEEE RLND in developing countries by formulating two models named as ‘regulatory’ and ‘non-regulatory’. Model 1 is considered as sustainable with economic, environmental and social goals, and the quotas imposed by the environmental directive are taken into consideration as the data of product return amount. In Model 2, only economic goal is considered, and product return amount is forecasted using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A case study is conducted in a recycling company in order to evaluate performance of the proposed models. This study contributes to the relevant literature by (1) comparing the regulatory and non-regulatory situations RL models explicitly and (2) proposing ANN model to forecast EEE product return or WEEE quantity for non-regulatory situation.     

国外废旧家用电子电器回收再利用研究

随着废旧家用电子电器数量和种类的增加及其产生的环境污染问题，废旧家用电子电器的处理处置、回收再利用引起世界各国的广泛关注。本文阐述了一些工业发达国家在废旧家用电子电器回收再利用方面所采取的措施、取得的成功经验和未来发展趋势。     

Design concept for an ecological relaxing textile product using solar energy

We can enhance our quality of life and reduce environmental impacts by making improvements in textile product design. By thinking about the environment when we design, choose and use technology, we can play an important part in building a better world for the future. If we are going to live in a sustainable way, the technology that we use has to be sustainable.

This paper provides an insight into how the design of textile products could provide for a more sustainable future. It describes a design concept for an ecological relaxing textile that uses photovoltaic cells to collect and store solar energy and to power an electronic relaxing system. This design may help improve our quality of life now and in the future.

The raw materials and processes, the electronic devices and the dimensions of solar energy for this application are analysed from an environmental perspective. The solar relaxing textile can facilitate our daily life by providing increased comfort and well being, and also acts as an indirect message to use renewable energy within textile support, in order to preserve our ecology.     

A hybrid approach for environmental impact evaluation of design options

The strengthened environmental regulatory requirements and general awareness of the need for environmental conservation worldwide, design for environment has become a key design criterion in new product development processes. Due to their resources-consuming attribute and the prerequisite expert knowledge in environmental sciences for the impacts interpretations, the existing forms of product-oriented environmental impact assessment methods are impractical to be adopted by product designers in small-and-medium enterprises. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a generally accepted quantitative approach to assess a product’s environmental impact. However, a full LCA study often requires a considerable amount of data and therefore, it is regarded as not a handy tool for product design evaluations particularly at the initial design stage. This leads to our intention to develop an immediately applicable approach for decision-makers to evaluate the design options. The proposed approach integrates Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Theory, with Evidential Reasoning (ER) to support the environmental impact evaluations of design options. A case study is carried out to demonstrate its applicability to prioritize the environmental impact of various design options. A symmetrical triangular distribution is introduced for calculating the expected utility and for testing the sensitivity of results.     

Construction of an optimum system design method considering product lifecycle

This paper proposes an optimum system design method that especially considers product lifecycles and aims to help designers make effective decisions during the product design phase. By considering and estimating all lifecycle factors of cost and environmental impact in addition to the product performance, this method facilitates development of optimum design solutions that incorporate requirements pertaining to the product's entire lifecycle. Furthermore, quantitative estimation of lifecycle factors enables the numerical expression of optimum solutions, rather than depending primarily on experiment and designer intuition. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, this paper develops an optimum system design method for a milling machine as an example of a machine product designed for long term use. The lifecycle cost and the lifecycle environmental impact are generally expressed as the summation of each value during manufacturing phase, usage phase, disposal phase and recycling phase. In this example model, Eco-indicator 99 is used to evaluate environmental impact. In the proposed lifecycle design optimisation method, the relationships among the product performance, the lifecycle cost and the lifecycle environmental impact are evaluated as a multi-objective optimisation problem. Analysis of the obtained Pareto optimum solution sets subsequently enables designers to pursue breakthrough product design solutions.     

Multiobjective optimisation method for life-cycle design of mechanical products

Manufacturing that minimises the exhaustion of natural resources, energy used and deleterious environmental impact is increasingly demanded by societies that seek to protect global environments as much as possible. To achieve this, life-cycle design (LCD) is an essential component of product design scenarios; however, LCD approaches have not been well integrated in optimal design methods that support quantitative decision-making. This study presents a method that yields quantitative solutions through optimisation analysis of a basic product design incorporating life-cycle considerations. We consider two types of optimisation approaches that have different aims, namely, (1) to reduce the use of raw materials and energy consumption and (2) to facilitate the reuse of the product or its parts when it reaches the end of its useful life. We also focus on how the optimisation results differ according to the approach used, from the viewpoint of the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse and Recycling). Our method obtains optimum solutions by evaluating objectives fitted to each of these two optimisation approaches with respect to the product's life-cycle stages, which are manufacturing, use, maintenance, disposal, reuse and recycling. As an applied example, a simple linear robot model is presented, and Pareto optimum solutions are obtained for the multiobjective optimisation problem whose evaluated objectives are the operating accuracy of the robot and the different life-cycle costs for the two approaches. The characteristics of the evaluated objectives and design variables, as well as the effects of using material characteristics as design parameters, are also examined.     

Pricing and coordination of waste electrical and electronic equipment under third-party recycling in a closed-loop supply chain

Waste electrical and electronic equipment have the potential environmental risks and resource value simultaneously. So the product recycling is very important. This paper studies on recycling problems of WEEE under the third-party recycling in a closed-loop supply chain. We take the following measures. Firstly, based on classifying the WEEE, we consider a revenue sharing and cost sharing contract as the coordination mechanism. Secondly, under centralized and decentralized decisions, we use the game analysis technology to determine the optimal pricing and profits, respectively. Finally, we conduct the number simulation to illustrate and validate the proposed models and provide managerial insights. The results show that when retailers sell new and second-hand products simultaneously, consumers become more sensitive to recycling prices, the profits of manufacturers, recyclers and CLSC increase. However, the retailers' profits decline.

     

Implementation of a software platform to support an eco-design methodology within a manufacturing firm

The paper aims to explore the implementation of an eco-design methodology and the related software platform (G.EN.ESI – Green ENgineering dESIgn) within technical departments of a manufacturing firm. The G.EN.ESI eco-design methodology is based on the life cycle thinking concept and the software platform is conceived as a set of inter-operable software tools able to efficiently exchange data among them and with the traditional design systems (i.e. CAD, PDM and PLM). A multinational company, designing and producing household appliances, adopted the proposed methodology and related software platform for redesigning two cooker hood models with the aim to improve their environmental performances. Design and engineering departments evaluated the methodology and platform impact on the product development process, as well as the platform inter-operability with traditional design tools. The results indicate that methodology and software platform satisfy the requirements of the enterprise in terms of: (i) degree of expertise and training requirement on this subject, (ii) low impact in a consolidated design process and, (ii) good level of inter-operability among heterogeneous tools. However, the testing results highlight the necessity of a further platform optimisations in terms of software integration (single workbench made by integrated software tools with the same graphical user interface).     

Relative Assessment of Indicators in Sustainability Enhancement (RAISE): a first approach in the manufacturing stage of products

The estimation of the sustainability performance of products requires tools to provide systematic approaches to the definition of impacts, indicators and comparative scenarios from early design stages. This paper illustrates the Relative Assessment of Indicators in Sustainability Enhancement (RAISE) methodology that is based on the measure of negative impacts generated during any product life cycle stage. This approach includes a systematic process for the definition and evaluation of indicators to compare the sustainability performance of products considering each indicator individually and using a holistic index of sustainability to entail an overall comparison between products from manufacturing scenarios. The RAISE method is developed with the aim of assessing sustainability performance of product life cycle stages and incorporating this assessment into the decision-making process when comparing different manufacturing scenarios. A guitar capo manufactured in polymeric material is used as case study to demonstrate the use of the method. In this paper, only the manufacturing stage is considered; however, the method can also be employed in other stages of the life cycle.     

Analysis of building environment assessment frameworks and their implications for sustainability indicators

Green construction is gaining increasing attention in the global context. However, the construction of sustainable green buildings and environments involves different tools and systems and diverse perspectives. Therefore, the development of environmental assessment tools is an important task for managing green housing and green building projects. In this paper, we discuss the benefits, limitations, and future directions of the assessment framework. There are four characteristics of building environmental assessment, i.e., comprehensiveness, design guideline, signaling, and communication tools, which afford both benefits and limitations. We illustrate the role of the assessment framework as a hub promoting integration of diverse knowledge, as a design guideline encouraging better design and action, as signaling environmentally friendly design and action, and as a communication tool. On the other hand, there are limitations, such as the use of a mixture of quantitative and qualitative measures, ambiguity of weighing, lack of financial evaluation, and lack of involvement of diverse disciplines and stakeholders. To develop an effective assessment framework, the following three factors must be considered: knowledge, power, and implementation. We propose that knowledge innovation, a credible approach for a salient solution, and collective action represent the future challenges of the assessment framework.     

欧洲有关国家关于执行欧盟废旧电子电气指令的措施

随着全球高科技工业的迅猛发展、人类消费水平的不断提高和消费结构的变化，电子废弃物快速增长，并造成日益严重的环境污染问题，因此引起了全球各国高度关注并制定了相关环境管理对策。2003年2月13日，欧盟公布了《废旧电子电气设备指令》（简称WEEE指令）和《限制某些有害物质在电子电气设备中使用指令》（简称ROHs指令）。欧盟各国实践表明，欧盟成员在欧盟指令公布之前已经制定了关于收集和适当处理电子电气废物的规定，这些规定基本上与欧盟新指令有着相同的内涵。因此，欧盟成员政府并不需要为了满足欧盟指令的新要求而对目前国内的电子电气处理体制做太大的修改，故可以预期欧盟各国执行欧盟关于废旧电子电气设备指令过程中将不会导致过多问题产生，并且执行成本相对较小。     

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’, products. But do these strategies help in developing such products, and how to assess their ‘sustainability’? Based on a review of the objectives in nature-inspired design, we argue that assessing environmental sustainability is not straightforward. Whereas both Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle build on the perspective of ‘achieving sustainability’, current life-cycle assessment-based tools are geared towards reducing current impacts. As a consequence, existing tools are insufficiently equipped for the purpose of the assessment: they do not cover some of the main results that nature-inspired design is set out to accomplish. To be able to include these results, we propose two new constituents to current life-cycle-based product assessment: assessing against conditions of sustainability and assessing ‘achievement’, the extent to which these conditions of sustainability have been achieved. Furthermore, the product context needs to be included for assessing beneficial impacts. This article discusses how these constituents can contribute to an assessment tool that enables designers and engineers to assess the development of environmentally sustainable solutions.     

Selection of green product design scheme based on multi-attribute decision-making method

The function, cost and environmental performance are the primary decision-making factors for scheme selection in green design. For the comprehensive and accurate decision-making in selecting green product design scheme, a quantitative analysis method of multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) is presented. With analysing the multi-attribute of scheme selection, the MADM model is established, which takes environmental impact of materials, disassembly performance, recycling performance, energy efficiency, noise, pollutants to environmental and functional values. Fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution method is applied to solve this model for the feasible solutions. Finally, a case study is given to validate the application of this methodology as a useful design guideline for scheme selection in green design.