Approaches for sustainability assessment in the conceptual design phase

Abstract

This paper presents two different approaches to support the development of sustainable products. One approach is management-oriented. A sustainability dashboard has been developed to visualize the impact of different design alternatives on sustainability dimensions as well as the technical performance. The second approach directly assists the designer to narrow the design solution space when taking sustainability demands and technical performances into consideration. Both approaches are demonstrated on the example of a technical product. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation and a comparison of the two approaches. © Springer-Verlag London 2013.