Page 114 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Principles of Design for Envir onment 93

CAD), and performance simulation. While some environmentally-
oriented tools are available, they are nowhere nearly as well devel-
oped, and many companies have resorted to building their own.
Several types of information technology can be helpful for DFE:
• Online advisory tools such as context-sensitive “expert sys-
tems” can help designers and engineers to benefit from accu-
mulated wisdom about design guidelines, useful technologies,
or lessons learned from previous successes and failures.
• Computer-based modeling can be useful for assessing DFE
consequences because of the complexity of the life-cycle sys-
tems associated even with simple products. Examples include
physical modeling of environmental emissions, assessment
of carbon footprints, and estimation of end-of-life recovery
costs (see Chapter 9).
• Linkage to the CAE/CAD framework can encourage regular
use of DFE tools by enabling convenient and “seamless”
application as part of the normal workflow. To avoid the
“islands of automation” syndrome, DFE tools ideally should
be compatible with the host environment and facilitate data
sharing and interoperability with other CAE/CAD tools.

Although this is an important and rapidly-developing topic, a
full discussion of information technology and software tools for DFE
is beyond the scope of this book.

Learning from Nature
DFE Principle 7. Seek inspiration from nature for the design
of products and systems.
Try to emulate the sustainability and resilience of natural systems in design-
ing product and process technologies as well as collaborative industrial net-
works. Many product innovations have been based on observation of
natural systems, where elegant solutions have evolved over millions
of years. Janine Benyus coined the term biomimicry to describe the
practice of adapting nature’s designs to solve human problems [5].
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For example, Velcro was inspired by the structure of insects’ feet,
while new designs for turbine blades are mimicking the flippers of
whales. Natural systems manage to accomplish physical tasks and
chemical transformations without the excessive baggage of industrial
supply chains. One company that applied biomimicry successfully is
Interface, which designed a new brand of carpet tiles to mimic the
random patterns of natural ground cover, thus facilitating installa-
tion and replacement. Biotechnology companies such as Dow Agro-
Sciences often turn to natural organisms for sources of innovation
(see Chapter 13).