Identify Applicable Design for Environment (DfE) Tools at the Early Stages of Product Development

Awareness of people, organizations and societies about environmental impacts has been dramatically increased in last decade. This has caused many firms and practitioners to consider environmental aspects in various areas such as product development, service, and so forth. Nowadays, manufacturing companies have come to the conclusion that making environmentally sustainable products can be their competitive advantage in the global market. To make sustainable products, organizations need to incorporate environmental issues into their product development processes. For this purpose, plenty of Design for Environment (DfE) tools have been developed thus far. Majority of these tools can be applied only at later stages of the product development process for the purpose of redesigning of products. However, the most effective way to consider environmental factors is to integrate these issues at the early stages of the process. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying applicable design for environment tools into the early stages of the product development process. In this paper, seventy-seven design for environment tools were analyzed in-depth in accordance with their fundamental attributes and features, and then were classified systematically. Based on this analysis, applicable design for environment tools into the early stages of the product development were distinguished, and recommended appropriately. Regarding to the findings of this research, only limited number of design for environment tools can be used for the early integration of environmental impacts into the product development process. It is expected that this study will help design for environment practitioners choose a proper design for environment tool for the early introduction of environmental issues, and consequently to design and develop environmentally sustainable products.