TOTAL LIFE-CYCLE CONSIDERATIONS IN PRODUCT DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY : A FRAMEWORK FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION

This paper presents a new framework for comprehensively evaluating the sustainability content of a product through Product Sustainability Index (PSI) in terms of all three components of sustainability (economy, environment and society) over its total life-cycle (pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, use, post-use). This method is useful in comparing various competitive products of the same family. This technique uses a visual representation of PSI to give an overview of the product’s inherent and builtin sustainability levels in a simple and effective manner.