Environmental Attributes Assessment of Product Green Design and Its Application Based on the Eco-indicator99

It is very convenient to identify the main environmental problems in the product's life cycle and setup green design strategies for the green design based on the Eco-indicator99 method and its database developed by Dutch Pre Consultants. Taking a vacuum cleaner's green design for example, the materials and processes of the product were optimized and redesigned using Eco-indicator99 software and data of environmental eco-indicators. As a result, the total relative environmental burden of the product decreased by 28.4% and the cost of product decreased by about 5.4% than the other same pattern of product. The recycling rate of the product was to reach to 76%. It is proved that Eco-indicator99 method and its software are a very helpful tool in green design, which will reduce design costs and shorten green design cycle greatly.