Page 104 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development
P. 104
CHAPTER 6
Principles of
Design for
Environment
The following definition was given in Chapter 1.
Design for Environment is the sys tematic consideration of
design performance with respect to environmental, health,
safety, and sustainability objectives over the full product and
process life cycle.
This chapter describes seven basic principles for companies that
wish to integrate DFE into their innovation practices. These are:
1. Embed life-cycle thinking into the product development
process.
2. Evaluate the resource efficiency and effectiveness of the
overall system.
3. Select appropriate metrics to represent product life-cycle
performance.
4. Maintain and apply a portfolio of systematic design
strategies.
5. Use analysis methods to evaluate design performance and
trade-offs.
6. Provide software capabilities to facilitate the application of
DFE practices.
7. Seek inspiration from nature for the design of products and
systems.
Chapters 7 through 10 elaborate further on these principles.
83
