Assessment of sustainable practices in new product development

Abstract

Decisions during NPD process have impact on 80-90% of a product's life cycle sustainability performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the integration of sustainability into product design, mainly focusing on the environmental aspects. The investigation has been carried out by means of a questionnaire developed based on a 3-pillar framework outlining the essential elements for successful integration of sustainability and Life Cycle thinking in NPD process. 10 manufacturing companies with high innovation cycles, operating in Italy in mechanical, electrical and automotive sectors was assessed, supporting the questionnaire with 2 complementary case studies. The results revealed that companies fail to implement sustainability in product development process and gap exists in all the enablers since companies just try to tackle the legislations, considering sustainability as a constraint rather than exploiting the opportunities for eco-innovation. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.