Comparison of the Environmental Effects of Coating Technologies for Interior Wood Furniture

The environmental performance of the coating process in the European furniture industry has become a critical issue after the publication of the “Solvent emission directive” by the European Community in 1999. Consequently, several technologies and materials have been introduced in order to improve the sustainability of this key process. With this respect, life cycle assessment (LCA) can play a decisive role in the selection of the most appropriate coating system. The article presents the main features and the results of an LCA study which was undertaken in an actual plant in order to compare eight different coating systems. The results show that three aspects (namely energy consumption, volatile organic compound emissions and coat application technique) are mainly responsible for the overall impact of

[1]  G. Noci,et al.  Sustainability Report in Small Enterprises:Case Studies in Italian Furniture Companies , 2009 .

[2]  Jens Horbach,et al.  What Triggers Environmental Management and Innovation? Empirical Evidence for Germany , 2008 .

[3]  Caroline E. Scruggs.  Reducing hazardous chemicals in consumer products: proactive company strategies , 2013 .

[4]  Leo Breedveld,et al.  A Dutch Approach to the European Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control: Using Life‐Cycle Assessment for the Integrated Assessment of Technologies , 2000 .

[5]  Mary Ann Curran,et al.  Environmental life-cycle assessment , 1996 .

[6]  Bruce Taylor,et al.  Encouraging industry to assess and implement cleaner production measures , 2006 .

[7]  Sergio Terzi,et al.  A state-of-the-art of industrial sustainability: definitions, tools and metrics , 2009 .

[8]  María D. Bovea,et al.  Redesign methodology for developing environmentally conscious products , 2007 .

[9]  Ole Jørgen Hanssen,et al.  Strategy tool trial for office furniture , 2012, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[10]  F. Testa,et al.  Case study evidence that direct regulation remains the main driver of industrial pollution avoidance and may benefit operational efficiency , 2012 .

[11]  K. Sriramesh,et al.  Corporate social responsibility among SMEs in Italy , 2013 .

[12]  O. Rentz,et al.  Multi‐criteria Analysis for Technique Assessment:Case Study from Industrial Coating , 2005 .

[13]  Samir K. Srivastava,et al.  Green Supply-Chain Management: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review , 2007 .

[14]  Francesca Lotti,et al.  Innovation and Productivity in SMEs - Empirical Evidence for Italy , 2009 .

[15]  Rosario Vidal,et al.  Materials selection for sustainable product design: a case study of wood based furniture eco-design , 2004 .

[16]  Dennis M. Hussey,et al.  Linking Industrial Ecology with Business Strategy: Creating Value for Green Product Design , 2001 .

[17]  Katriina Parikka-Alhola,et al.  Promoting environmentally sound furniture by green public procurement , 2008 .

[18]  R. Heijungs,et al.  Life cycle assessment An operational guide to the ISO standards , 2001 .

[19]  Mark A. J. Huijbregts,et al.  Human Health Damages due to Indoor Sources of Organic Compounds and Radioactivity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Dwellings - Part 2: Damage Scores (10 pp) , 2005 .

[20]  Xavier Gabarrell,et al.  Assessing the global warming potential of wooden products from the furniture sector to improve their ecodesign. , 2011, The Science of the total environment.

[21]  María D. Bovea,et al.  A taxonomy of ecodesign tools for integrating environmental requirements into the product design process , 2012 .

[22]  P. Pontrandolfo,et al.  Investigating corporate social responsibility in supply chains: a SME perspective , 2008 .

[23]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Life cycle assessment: past, present, and future. , 2011, Environmental science & technology.

[24]  Pål Börjesson,et al.  Life cycle assessment in green chemistry , 2006 .

[25]  Bert Bras.  Sustainability and product life cycle management – issues and challenges , 2009 .

[26]  Valérie Laforest,et al.  Using BAT performance as an evaluation method of techniques , 2013 .

[27]  Remko Helms,et al.  PLM roadmap: stepwise PLM implementation based on the concepts of maturity and alignment , 2006 .