Sustainability within product portfolio management

On both a strategic level and a product level a lot is known on how to integrate sustainability aspects. On the intermediate level of product portfolio management this is not true. Here the strategic sustainability goals of a company need to be translated into products. A company wanting to innovate in a green way automatically has to make product portfolio decisions through the choice of where to start. Resources and time are always limited, so a company will want to utilize its R&D capacity most effectively. This process of prioritization has received little academic attention. This paper identifies the different decisions that companies can take related to product portfolios. Of those, the decisions that are ill-addressed by classical EcoDesign tools and methods (namely decisions relating to products already on the market, and the option to design ameliorative products) are elaborated. Finally, (adaptations of) tools are discussed to incorporate sustainability in the early stages of the New Product Development process.