SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Year: 2016
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Christian Tollestrup, Kaare Eriksen, Nis Ovesen
Author: Laxasa, Enrique; Santolaya, José Luis; Roche, Carlos; Velasco, Carlos
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1University of Zaragoza, Spain, 2Tatoma Group, Spain
Section: Assessment
Page(s): 424-429
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
Sustainable product development initiatives have been evolving for some time to support companies
improve the efficiency of current production and the design of new products and services through
supply chain management. The development of an Eco-design approach focused on reducing the
environmental impacts of products was carried out in the last decades. Nevertheless, sustainability
rather consists of the three dimensions: environmental, economy and social well-being.
This work aims at effectively integrating sustainability in product development projects at the same
time that traditional product criteria are fulfilled. The project of an isotherm container for the transport
and storage of food was addressed. According to LCA evaluation methods, an approach based on the
analysis of the flows exchanged by the industrial installation throughout the production step was
developed. A set of engineering metrics and indicators were considered useful to comparatively assess
the sustainability performance of different product designs.
Keywords: Sustainability, product design, production system, indicators assessment.