Page 27 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

6 Cha pte r O n e

of resource utilization and waste absorption, and also pose potential
threats to global climate, vegetation, and agriculture. Who is respon-
sible for this escalating crisis—complacent consumers or profit-driven
producers? Unfortunately, contentious debates are only a dis traction
from developing solutions. Playing the blame game is not going to
help—we need to accept our collective guilt and move on. Making
real progress will require disruptive innovation and fundamental
redesign of industrial systems.

The Emergence of DFE
The concept of Design for Environment (DFE) originated in the
early 1990s, largely through the efforts of a handful of private firms
that were attempting to build environmental awareness into their
product development efforts.* The strategic importance of DFE and
examples of DFE practice were first described in an innovative 1992
report by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment [6], and
in the same year the American Electronics Association produced a
ground-breaking primer for the benefit of member companies [7].
Since that time, the level of interest has mushroomed, and DFE has
become a common theme in corporate environmental stewardship
and pollution prevention programs. Typically, the scope of DFE in -
cludes the following objectives:

• Environmental protection—assurance that air, water, soil,
and ecological systems are not adversely affected due to the
release of pollutants or toxic substances.
• Human health and safety—assurance that people are not
exposed to safety hazards or chronic disease agents in their
workplace environments or personal lives.
†
• Sustainability of natural resources—assurance that human
consumption or use of natural resources does not threaten
the availability of these resources for future generations.

For purposes of this book, we view DFE as a collection of design
practices aimed at creating products and processes that address the
above objectives. Hence the following definition:

Design for Environment is the sys tematic consideration of de sign
performance with respect to environmental, health, safety,
and sustainability objectives over the full product and process
life cycle.

*DFE is often referred to by other names, including Eco-Design, Life-Cycle Design,
and Design for Eco-efficiency.
† This is “sustainability” in the narrow sense originally intended. The term has
evolved into a popular buzzword used to encompass environmental, health and
safety, economic, social and ethical issues.