Sustainable product development and manufacturing by considering environmental requirements

Sustainability in the development and manufacture of new products is a strategy that is widely accepted in principle, although not yet widely practiced. The integration of environmental requirements throughout the entire lifetime of a product needs a new way of thinking and new decision tools to be applied. This paper describes the concept of an approach to product development, based on a paradigm for sustainable manufacturing. Four examples of methodologies and decision tools are discussed, representing the most important sources of environmental impacts of a product. The emphasis lies on the integrating concept rather than on the details of the methodologies.