Review of sustainable product design from life cycle perspectives

Abstract

Design stages have been widely recognized as a key phase in a product's life cycle in implementing sustainability. Since the late 1990s, various sustainable design methods and techniques have been developed in response to the requirements of sustainable product development. Understanding what types of sustainable methods have been applied in which design phases is advantageous for determining future research directions. The main purpose of this study is to systematically review past studies on sustainable product design. These studies are categorized into different types according to a two dimensional framework. The ideas and limitations of representative approaches in each category are discussed. The results show important findings and implications. © KSPE and Springer 2012.