Development of an eco-ideation tool to identify stepwise greenhouse gas emissions reduction options for consumer goods

Pressure on consumer goods manufacturers to develop new products with significantly less environmental impact is growing, through increased consumer awareness of environmental issues and governments setting ambitious emissions reductions targets. A strategic response to this pressure is to prepare a portfolio of innovative product ideas to meet a range of future emissions reductions targets. However, although extensive work exists on ideation (the generation of novel product ideas) and eco-design (design for reduced environmental impact), eco-ideation (generation of ideas that particularly aim to reduce environmental impacts) has had little attention. The challenge of eco-ideation is to release the creativity of a broad range of employees, only few of whom may be familiar with the drivers of environmental impact.This paper proposes a novel tool to facilitate the generation of radical product and process ideas giving step-change reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The features of products and processes that drive greenhouse gas emissions across the product life cycle were characterized with a set of indicators. A simple visual tool was created to show these indicators on a sliding scale between best and worst imaginable performance. A leading question associated with each slider was designed to stimulate lower impact ideas. The tool was iteratively refined and simplified through structured testing with individuals from across a range of roles and differing knowledge of environmental impacts. The final eco-ideation tool used 14 scales, with leading questions for each scale developed to stimulate idea generation.The tool’s effectiveness was evaluated through use in a series of 15 individual workshops and compared with the outcomes of an equal number of conventional 12-person group-brainstorming sessions. The comparison suggests that using the simple tool generally leads to a wider range of more radical ideas than emerge from group brainstorming.     

基于关键产品把控的舰船装备环境适应性设计对策分析方法

综合考虑舰船装备系统的复杂性和海洋环境的严酷性,提出了一种基于关键产品把控的舰船装备环境适应性设计对策分析方法.该方法在分析装备环境适应性设计基本要求的基础上,提出了按产品层次逐级进行环境适应性分析,根据其对上一级产品或整个装备系统功能的影响,层层剥离出环境适应性关键产品,通过识别环境适应性薄弱环节,消除环境适应性风险或隐患,建立了环境适应性设计关注点、环境要求、影响因素、薄弱环节、控制措施、具体方法等之间的映射关系,形成了环境适应性设计解决对策,建立了基于关键产品把控的舰船装备环境适应性设计对策分析方法,给出了方法应用示例.该方法为舰船以及其他装备开展环境适应性设计提供了一种可行的借鉴方法.     

Diversity of eco-innovations: Reflections from selected case studies

An analytical framework is developed in this paper in order to explore the diversity of eco-innovations according to several key dimensions (design, user, product service and governance). The framework is used to analyse a set of case studies of eco-innnovation processes. The diversity of the analysed eco-innovations appears to be considerable; each of them involves different kinds of combinations of elements pertaining to those dimensions. Albeit the design dimension is decisive to determine the environmental impacts of the innovation, all dimensions can play a significant role in the management of eco-innovation. Our findings suggest that the capacity of eco-innovations to provide new business opportunities and contribute to the transformation towards a sustainable society depends on the interplay of those dimensions and the engagement of key stakeholders in the innovation process.     

生态产品生命周期设计概念框架

生态产品是从原材料采掘到产品制造、运销、使用和最终报废处理整个生命周期总环境影响最小的产品，而生命周期设计是实现产品环境影响最小化和污染预防的最好方式之一。生态产品的开发，应从设计开始，生态产品生命周期设计的概念是一种基于产品系统的设计方法；其设计步骤有确定系统边界、环境现状评价、设计要求分析、各要求优先排序与协调，设计对策、设计方案评价等几个方面，随着ＩＳＯ１４０００体系的全面建立，产品生命周期     

基于层次分析法和布氏矩阵的产品绿色评价研究

针对当前多数产品评价中缺少对环保因素考虑的现状,构建由环境、资源、能源和经济指标组成的产品绿色评价指标体系,提出基于层次分析法和布氏矩阵的产品绿色评价方法.运用层次分析法确定绿色评价指标的权重,运用布氏矩阵对产品设计方案进行综合绿色评价,评选出环保性能最优的产品方案,进而节约资源,降低能耗,减少环境污染.并通过车载冰箱绿色评价实例验证了该方法的实用性和有效性.     

Eco-design implemented through a product-based environmental management system

Lucent Technologies (Lucent) has undergone considerable change in business strategy with the outsourcing of manufacturing activities. In order to control the significant environmental aspects of hardware products, Lucent's wireless business unit, Mobility Solutions, determined it would concentrate on the design of products: focusing on eco-design enables product sustainability to be improved, with each product generation providing a ‘start of pipe’ (front end) solution with attendant efficiencies.Mobility Solutions pioneered a product-based environmental management system (PBEMS) to formally address the impacts of wireless hardware products on the environment throughout the entire product lifecycle, regardless of where products are developed. This management system looks beyond the environmental impacts of manufacturing to include conceptual design, development, use by the customer, and final product disposal.The success of this approach can be attributed to the integration of eco-design with traditional hardware product realization processes. Through the PBEMS, business and environmental processes are simultaneously utilized to manage significant product aspects and to incorporate sustainability principles during product design. Many innovative eco-design tools are applied during the product realization process to identify areas for improvement of future products, and to verify that each generation of existing products is more sustainable than its predecessor. These eco-design tools include eco-roadmapping, design for environment guidelines and checklists, and lifecycle assessments.The Mobility Solutions PBEMS conforms to the requirements of the ISO 14001 international standard and has achieved third-party certification. By implementing environmentally responsible characteristics through eco-design programs, employees, customers, and the world community benefit from a consistent approach to the environmental management of wireless hardware products. Mobility Solutions continues to reap the value of sustainable product design that is both good for the environment and makes sound business sense.     

A life cycle based method to minimise environmental impact of dairy production through product sequencing

The trend of increasing the number of dairy products for sale affects their environmental impact in a life cycle perspective. During dairy processing, the production schedule is affected by more frequent product changes, hence also cleaning operations. This causes more milk waste, use of cleaning agents and water. The amount of milk waste depends on the product change technique used, which is determined by the characteristics of the product. A method was designed to calculate the sequence, which, for a given set of yoghurt products, minimises milk waste. A heuristic method, based on the strive to minimise production waste combined with production rules, was worked out. To determine whether the heuristic solution gives the best possible sequence from an environmental perspective, an optimisation was also made. The analytical method used for optimisation was able to handle 21 products and verified the heuristic method for a waste minimised sequence up to that level. It is also highly probable that for sequences including a greater number of items waste can be minimised with the same heuristic method. A successful demonstration of the possibility to make a more complete environmental assessment was fulfilled by connecting the sequencing model to conventional life cycle assessment methodology.     

Minimising environmental impact by sequencing cultured dairy products: two case studies

The increased production of cultured milk products has environmental consequences. To counteract the environmental impact from the dairy industry, it is important to process the products in a sequence designed to minimise waste. In a previous study a model was constructed to minimise the waste caused by a sequence for a given set of products and to calculate the environmental impact of a waste minimised sequence. This study applies successfully the model in case studies at two dairies. The number of products to be sequenced varied: Dairy A had 34 products and Dairy B had 16. The sequenced products were yoghurt, sour cream, cold sauce and crème fraiche, all with multiple flavours. The difference in number of products to be sequenced offered the opportunity to use both of the two model sequencing solutions: the heuristic and the optimised. The role of frequency of each product to be sequenced was investigated. Scenarios with differing frequencies were used in the case studies. The result showed clearly that the waste caused by a sequence decreased when product frequency was reduced. From a life cycle perspective, the environmental impact of processing cultured milk products can be greatly reduced by adopting sequences with fewer changes of product.     

Applying 3DCE to environmentally responsible manufacturing practices

A review of recent literature in the fields of operations, supply chain, and management indicates there is on-going interest in improving new product development (NPD) performance. Three-dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE), the simultaneous design of product, process and supply chain have been proposed as a way to improve traditional NPD outcomes, such as reduced time to market, lower costs, and improved customer acceptance. There appears to be a lesser concern associated with the environmental impacts of new products. Environmentally responsible manufacturing (ERM) on new product development focuses on reduced emissions, hazardous materials elimination, and lower product weight without sacrificing functionality. This paper explores the following issue: will employing 3DCE to integrate NPD and ERM yield better benefits than the separate and uncoordinated application of environmental goals and NPD initiatives?     

A method for evaluating the overall technical and economic performance of environmental innovations in production cycles

As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing number of businesses are adopting cleaner production as a strategy to minimise the impact of their activities and their products on the environment. However, the range of approaches which are grouped together and given the common name ‘cleaner production’ is quite broad and diversified and includes a variety of innovative solutions that lead to very different results. Indeed, varying results have been obtained; the improvements in that industry has achieved in its environmental performance, both on a single business basis and in the overall product life cycle, as well as in the financial and economic returns. The present study proposes a quantitative method of classification, cleaner production innovations based on technical and economic criteria. The method proposed here is based on improvements made to the environment and the economic benefits to both the single business and to the overall socio-economic system as well as on the inter-relations between these variables.     

Comparing LCA results out of competing products: developing reference ranges from a product family approach

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has proven useful in comparing the environmental impact of alternatives, life-cycle phases or parts in a product. To date, benchmarking a new product with previous environmental information entails a degree of subjectivity. This paper presents LCP-families, a concept to develop reference ranges for environmental impact of a new product. A new product can be catalogued as environmentally better or worse than a percentage of its competitors, depending on what position it occupies in its LCP-family. Three case studies of packaging products are carried out to show the applicability and usefulness of the concepts presented.     

Improvement of agility and sustainability: A case study in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation

Increasing competition has been forcing the modern manufacturing organisations to adopt advanced manufacturing paradigms. Agile Manufacturing (AM) is an advanced manufacturing paradigm that enables an organisation to survive in the competitive business environment. Agility is the performance measure of AM practices. Simultaneously, modern business organisations are forced to evolve environmental friendly products. Sustainability is regarded as an important concept for survival by the modern organisations. In this context, agility and sustainability are regarded as performance measures for contemporary organisations. This paper reports a case study which has been carried out in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation. The candidate product is the knob of rotary switch. Initially Computer Aided Design (CAD) has been used to digitalise the baseline model. Keeping the baseline model as reference, five new knob models have been evolved. Then the sustainability analysis has been carried out to determine the environmental impact of the knob models. The analysis results indicated that the proposed knob models possess minimal environmental impact. The conduct of case study has lead to an inference that there is a significant improvement of agility and sustainability in the design and development of knob of rotary switch.     

Proposal for new quantitative eco-design indicators: a first case study

Eco-design is a valuable approach in order to reduce the environmental impact associated with a product system, by introducing environmental considerations early on in its design. Different strategies are possible for the implementation of eco-design, depending on the intended goals as well as the characteristics of the products. The present work proposes a series of eco-design indicators and tests to what extent the application of these simple indicators provides a reliable indication of the reduction of environmental impact, as measured by commonly employed Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) indicators. The product chosen for the case study was a water source heat pump. Two of the newly-developed indicators were applied and compared to LCIA indicators, focussing on design for disassembly and for recycling. A good and robust correlation was found, providing support to the thesis that these simple eco-design indicators can be used as a proxy to quickly and effectively gauge the environmental improvements introduced in a product system at the design stage.     

Development and analysis of design for environment oriented design parameters

Knowledge of customer requirements (CRs) allows manufacturers to effectively reduce the time-to-market for products and maintain a high-level of quality through customer satisfaction. Acquisition, definition, and decomposition of such requirements is therefore a first step in the product design process and key for successful product development. Of building importance in these requirements is for sustainable or green products. Thus has developed the method of Design for Environment (DFE) in product design process, which calls designers to not only understand CRs for product function, structure and economic attributes, but in social and environmental impacts. Thus, the need for elicit environmental customer requirements (ECRs) from various traditional CRs becomes apparent along with the need to meet those requirements in the design process.In the present paper, initial CRs are decomposed and categorized into functional customer requirements (FCRs), performance customer requirements (PCRs) and ECRs. Such an analysis is made based on the analysis of environmentally friendly products (EFPs), environmentally conscious customers, and the characteristics of their CRs, Furthermore, the decomposing method based on semantic analysis is given along with a developed quality function deployment for environment (QFDE) method. These methods create a shift from initial CRs to DFE oriented technical parameters (TPs). Finally, the acquisition and conversion of CRs of the automatic soybean milk maker in the DFE process is taken as an example to validate and analyze the above-mentioned method.     

Emergy as a tool for Ecodesign: evaluating materials selection for beverage packages in Brazil

The life of a product begins with the initial product design concepts; the costs and potential impacts of a product are heavily influenced by the final design, the production processes, the economic and environmental costs of all raw materials. Additionally, both of these factors are very much affected by how the products are managed during and after consumer usage. Thus, there is an urgent need for a tool to facilitate the integration and assessment of environmental and economic demands into the product planning and development processes. The introduction of environmental accounting based on emergy as a tool to assist in product design is proposed. This complementary tool may be inserted into the conventional design methodology to facilitate in the selection of materials and processes as well as in the actual design of the products. To illustrate the application of the proposed method for material selection, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and aluminum cans for beverage packaging are compared. Despite the exceptional condition of aluminum recycling in Brazil, results show that the best option for beverage packages is the PET bottles.     

浅议环境法的绿色专利

人们通常强调新颖性和经济效用的一个创新,而忽略了对环境造成的影响。这一思想体现到制度设计专利制度。一般来说,如果能够通过三个条件：新颖性、实用性和创新性,可授予专利。这种制度设计制约思维过程中创新者的回报,他们努力发明一件新颖的且有利可图的专利,但是忽略了对环境造成的影响。因此,牺牲的最终是环境。在这项研究中,试图探索一种体制上的补救。在为了改变科技发展的方向,建议完善政策背景下的创新,特别是专利制度。引进一个新的考核标准,绿色专利制度,并探讨其可行性和可能带来的影响。通过把这项环保的关注到专利审查,专利制度可以鼓励创新发明的＂创新,实用和绿色＂的产品以及程序,称之为＂绿色专利＂。     

When to buy new electrical/electronic products?

An environmental criterion for the determination of the usage pattern of electronic products was proposed. As such products usually have strong environmental impacts during the usage stage of their life cycles, and the impacts are generated mainly as a consequence of the power requirement, the use of energy consumption as a representative environmental indicator was justified. The model was performed on four case studies: computer monitors, refrigerators, light bulbs and induction motors. For computer monitors, liquid crystal display (LCD) was considered more environmental friendly than the cathode ray tube (CRT). However, disposing of the existing CRT and buying a new LCD might not be beneficial as the energy gained from the difference in the energy consumptions was not justified. Unlike computer monitors which were operated in periodic pattern, products such as refrigerators were mostly run continuously throughout their lives. In this case, buying a new, lower energy consumption model was often superior as the cumulative energy saving during the usage stage was significant compared with those occurred during the other life cycle stages. In general, the new product model should provide a better environmental performance, i.e. lower energy consumption rate. However, there were trade-offs between purchasing a replacement and repairing the old mal-functional one as the upgrade or repair of the old product could avoid the fixed energy consumption associated with the production stage of the new product. In the case of small electronic devices with low operating environmental impacts such as light bulbs and induction motors, the use of compact fluorescent lamps instead of incandescent lamps or new motors, respectively, were highly recommended. In particular for the case of induction motors, the maintenance such as the rewinding of old motors was proven to be beneficial.     

A new business model for baby prams based on leasing and product remanufacturing

A shift in business thinking from selling products to providing service solutions to customer needs is becoming noticeable. It is driven by increasing competition and the need to identify new profit centres for producers of mature products. This paper identifies a new product group that could be interesting from the product-service system perspective – baby prams. The study presents a new business model based on selling the function that baby prams provide through leasing prams. It discusses potential barriers and necessary changes in product design and the supply chain to make it work. The product-service system in this case could include the organisation of a reverse logistics system with different levels of refurbishment and remanufacturing of prams, partially by retailers. The new model may provide customers with a high quality pram in a “like new” condition for the period they need it, and may help avoid transaction costs of having to sell the pram on the second-hand market. Economic estimations point to a significant potential for increased profits, while the environmental potential should be further investigated.     

Manufacturing actor’s LCA

Modern industrial environmental management encompasses life-cycle thinking. This entails considering not only the emissions and resource use of the company’s production processes, but also the environmental consequences of all processes related to a product’s life cycle. However, no single actor can influence the whole life cycle of a product. To be effective, analysis methods intended to support improvement actions should therefore also consider the decision makers’ power to influence.Regarding the life cycle of a product, there are at least as many perspectives on life-cycle thinking as there are actors. This paper presents an approach with which manufacturing decision makers can sharpen the focus in life-cycle assessment (LCA) from a conventional ‘products or services’ emphasis to a company’s manufacturing processes. The method has been developed by combining knowledge gained from earlier LCA studies with new empirical findings from an LCA study of an SKF manufacturing line.We demonstrate how system boundaries and functional units in an LCA can be defined when adding the perspective of a manufacturing decision maker to the product life-cycle perspective. Such analysis helps manufacturing decision makers identify improvement potentials in their spheres of influence, by focusing on the environmental consequences of energy and material losses in manufacturing rather than merely accounting for the contributions of individual stages of the life cycle to the overall environmental impact. The method identifies and directly relates the environmental consequences of emissions or raw material inputs in the product life cycle to manufacturing processes. In doing so, the holistic systems perspective in LCA is somewhat diminished in favor of the relevance of results to manufacturing decision makers.     

某产品大气腐蚀环境因素监测与环境数据应用模式研究

目的 对某产品服役环境中的主要腐蚀环境因素进行监测，并挖掘环境数据应用模式，为该产品服役环境的腐蚀条件分析提供数据支撑。方法 根据某产品寿命期环境剖面，对库房、舱室及户外环境中温度、相对湿度、盐雾等主要环境因素进行为期3 a的监测，并从多个方面探讨这3种环境因素的应用模式。结果 针对某产品开展了主要环境因素监测，得到了其在关键服役场所的腐蚀环境数据，监测数据成功应用于该型产品服役环境严酷度分析、实验室环境试验条件设计、维修保障措施拟定等方面。结论 开展某产品关键服役环境下的腐蚀环境因素监测，可支撑该型产品的“环境符合性评估”“大气腐蚀性严酷度评估”“环境控制要求制定”以及“环境试验方法研究”。得到的环境监测数据以及应用案例可供其他类似产品服役环境监测及数据应用提供参考。