Survey of Sustainable Life Cycle Design and management

Abstract

The impacts of our increasingly unsustainable production and consumption has necessitated a major change in product design and development. This change is embodied in the vision of sustainability, which is attained through Sustainable Life Cycle Design (SLCD). This paper analyses the current practice of SLCD in the UK manufacturing industry by conducting a survey of companies in five major sectors. A case study is also presented to discuss the implementation of SLCD strategies in practice. A critical analysis of the trends obtained from the survey and a comparison of the results are presented. The paper is concluded by summarising the main findings of the survey and proposing a set of guidelines and recommendation for planning and implementing sustainable life cycle design in industry, thus suggesting change of course from conventional product design and manufacture towards sustainable production and consumption.