Page 95 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

74 Chapter Five

In addition, design teams find it challenging to perform DFE con-
sistently and effectively for several reasons:
• Environmental expertise is not widely available among
product development engineers.
• The complex and open-ended nature of life-cycle environ-
mental impacts makes them difficult to analyze.
• The economic systems in which products are produced,
used, and recycled are much more difficult to understand
and manage than the products themselves.
Overcoming these challenges requires effective communication,
credible tools, and a clear implementation strategy. To establish a suc-
cessful DFE program, there are a number of key steps that a company
should follow:
Program Definition
• Establish top management commitment to legitimize
the program.
• Invite inputs from external stakeholders, including
regulators, customers, and communities.
• Fit the program to the existing organizational structure
and cross-functional teams.
• Ensure adequate staff training, incentives, and
empowerment.
DFE Implementation
• Establish appropriate DFE metrics, guidelines, and
supporting tools (see Chapters 7 to 9).
• Assess the baseline environmental performance of
existing products and processes.
• Identify alternative technologies and set development
priorities, using systematic criteria.
• Implement high-priority changes and measure the
improvements relative to baseline.

Ongoing DFE Practice
• Integrate new technologies and lessons learned into
other products and processes.
• Institutionalize the metrics, guidelines and other tools,
using computer support as appropriate.
• Communicate the beneficial results of DFE actions to
stakeholders.
• Recognize and reward both team and individual
accomplishments.