Sustainable Design Evaluation - Integration of Sustainability in Product Development Processes
Year: 2023
Editor: Kevin Otto, Boris Eisenbart, Claudia Eckert, Benoit Eynard, Dieter Krause, Josef Oehmen, Nad
Author: Reichard, Julian Johannes (1,2); Martin, Alex (2)
Series: ICED
Institution: 1: S2 Health GmbH;
2: IPEK - Institut for Product Devolpement at Karlsruher Institut of Technology (KIT)
Section: Design Methods
Page(s): 3275-3284
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2023.328
ISBN: -
ISSN: -
Abstract
To develop sustainable products, product developers must be able to incorporate sustainability into individual decision processes during product development. In doing so, they are faced with the conflicting demands of time and cost pressure and the growing complexity caused by the many requirements and (sustainability) criteria.
The Sustainable Design Evaluation, which is presented in this publication, is a method to enable product developers to estimate the impact of their product-related decisions along the three dimensions of sustainability across all phases of the product life cycle. The core of the Sustainable Design Evaluation is a two-stage assessment technique enabling a relative and comparable quantification of ecological, economic, and social criteria. Furthermore, an aggregation scheme for those criteria is introduced. Based on the two-stage assessment technique and the system of aggregation, the results of the Sustainable Design Evaluation can be displayed clearly and interpreted easily by product developers to assess the impacts of their product-related decisions.
Thus, in contrast to existing methods, the SDE combines ease of use and interpretation with a sufficiently holistic sustainability assessment.
Keywords: Sustainability, New product development, sustainability assessment, Decision making