“Eco-tool-seeker”: A new and unique business guide for choosing ecodesign tools

Environmental sustainability has emerged as a key issue amongst governments, policymakers, researchers, companies and the general public. In Europe, governments are trying to encourage companies to integrate ecodesign into their processes. A great variety of ecodesign tools exists but the actual implementation level of such tools remains limited or not successfully integrated throughout the different company processes. Having identified the main barriers to ecodesign implementation, this article provides a literature review of the existing tools that can be used in various company departments. From this review, 629 tools were found and characterized. Taxonomy was established to classify these tools into 22 categories of ecodesign tools and 5 departments in companies. These tools are classified as normative or non-normative which can be generic or sectorial as well as “environmental” or “improvement”. A guide (or information system) has been then developed to help companies to choose ecodesign tools for three targets: production, management or communication. The proposed guide can also be useful for researchers, teachers, and trainers. In order to facilitate these choices, a free computerized version of this guide, called “Eco-tool-seeker”, has been developed.

[1]  Vicky Lofthouse,et al.  Ecodesign tools for designers: defining the requirements , 2006 .

[2]  Jacqueline Cramer,et al.  Barriers and stimuli for ecodesign in SMEs , 2002 .

[3]  Mattias Lindahl,et al.  Structure for Categorization of EcoDesign Methods and Tools , 2013 .

[4]  Vincent R. Gray.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers , 2007 .

[5]  R. Slade,et al.  Uncertainty in the availability of natural resources: Fossil fuels, critical metals and biomass , 2015 .

[6]  Yanpeng Cai,et al.  Sustainable urban water resources management considering life-cycle environmental impacts of water utilization under uncertainty , 2016 .

[7]  Marly Monteiro de Carvalho,et al.  From 50 to 1: integrating literature toward a systemic ecodesign model , 2015 .

[8]  Peggy Zwolinski,et al.  Toward an systemic navigation framework to integrate sustainable development into the company , 2013 .

[9]  Hong Wang,et al.  The influence of climate change and human activities on ecosystem service value , 2016 .

[10]  Benoît Eynard,et al.  Using eco-design tools: An overview of experts' practices , 2013 .

[11]  Li Zhang,et al.  The relative roles of climate variations and human activities in vegetation change in North China , 2015 .

[12]  Jinhui Li,et al.  Environmental pollution of electronic waste recycling in India: A critical review. , 2016, Environmental pollution.

[13]  Han Brezet,et al.  Ecodesign : a promising approach to sustainable production and consumption , 1997 .

[14]  M. Janin,et al.  Écoconception : état de l’art des outils disponibles , 1999, Environnement.

[15]  Robin Roy,et al.  The evolution of ecodesign , 1994 .

[16]  E. Vasseur.  United Nations Conference on the Human Environment: Stockholm, 5–16 June 1972 , 1973 .

[17]  Richard York,et al.  The human dimensions of climate change: A micro-level assessment of views from the ecological modernization, political economy and human ecology perspectives. , 2016, Social science research.

[18]  Kendall Roth,et al.  Why Companies Go Green: A Model of Ecological Responsiveness , 2000 .

[19]  Maria J Grant,et al.  A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. , 2009, Health information and libraries journal.

[20]  Gwenola Bertoluci,et al.  Integrating ecodesign by conducting changes in SMEs , 2006 .

[21]  Peggy Zwolinski,et al.  Contribution to the characterisation of eco-design projects , 2011 .

[22]  Anna Björklund,et al.  Empirical study on integration of environmental aspects into product development: processes, requirements and the use of tools in vehicle manufacturing companies in Sweden , 2014 .

[23]  Pierre-Alain Yvars,et al.  A method for identifying the worst recycling case: Application on a range of vehicles in the automotive sector , 2012 .

[24]  Xuemei Xie,et al.  Assessing the environmental management efficiency of manufacturing sectors: evidence from emerging economies , 2016 .

[25]  Carlo Vezzoli,et al.  Life Cycle Design: from general methods to product type specific guidelines and checklists: a method adopted to develop a set of guidelines/checklist handbook for the eco-efficient design of NECTA vending machines , 2006 .

[26]  Michele Germani,et al.  Review of ecodesign methods and tools. Barriers and strategies for an effective implementation in industrial companies , 2016 .

[27]  Naeem,et al.  Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis , 2005 .

[28]  Steven A. Melnyk,et al.  THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE , 2006 .

[29]  Bernard Yannou,et al.  Eco-ideation and eco-selection of R&D projects for complex systems , 2016 .

[30]  Marly Monteiro de Carvalho,et al.  Ecodesign in project management: a missing link for the integration of sustainability in product development? , 2014 .

[31]  Michael Zwicky Hauschild,et al.  Drivers and barriers for implementation of environmental strategies in manufacturing companies , 2013 .

[32]  Jamie O'Hare,et al.  Defining the challenges for ecodesign implementation in companies:development and consolidation of a framework , 2016 .

[33]  Manfred Lenzen,et al.  Trends in Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 1990 to 2010. , 2016, Environmental science & technology.

[34]  Paul Knight,et al.  Adopting and applying eco-design techniques: a practitioners perspective , 2009 .

[35]  Bernard Yannou,et al.  Eco-ideation and eco-selection of R&D projects portfolio in complex systems industries , 2016 .

[36]  Mattias Lindahl.  Engineering Designers' Requirements on Design for Environment Methods and Tools , 2005 .

[37]  Ligia Tiruta-Barna,et al.  An integrated “process modelling-life cycle assessment” tool for the assessment and design of water treatment processes , 2013, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[38]  Daniel Brissaud,et al.  An integrated method for environmental assessment and ecodesign of ICT-based optimization services , 2014 .

[39]  David G. Woodward,et al.  Life cycle costing—Theory, information acquisition and application , 1997 .

[40]  J. Dutoit.  The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , 2007 .

[41]  Sofia Poulikidou.  Literature review: Methods and tools for environmentally friendly product design and development : Identification of their relevance to the vehicle design context , 2012 .

[42]  Mattias Lindahl,et al.  Engineering designers’ experience of design for environment methods and tools : Requirement definitions from an interview study , 2006 .

[43]  Rainer Seidel,et al.  A Systems Modeling Approach to Support Environmentally Sustainable Business Development in Manufacturing SMEs , 2008 .

[44]  Ruth Hillary.  Environmental management systems and the smaller enterprise , 2004 .

[45]  Henrikke Baumann,et al.  Mapping the green product development field: engineering, policy and business perspectives , 2002 .

[46]  Anders S. G. Andrae,et al.  Practical Eco-Design and Eco-Innovation of Consumer Electronics—the Case of Mobile Phones , 2016 .

[47]  Casper Boks,et al.  The soft side of ecodesign , 2006 .

[48]  Benoît Eynard,et al.  A method to ecodesign structural parts in the transport sector based on product life cycle management , 2015 .

[49]  S. Schneider,et al.  Climate Change 2007 Synthesis report , 2008 .

[50]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Characterization of the State-of-the-art and Identification of Main Trends for Ecodesign Tools and Methods: Classifying Three Decades of Research and Implementation , 2016 .

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