The interdependence between the environment and the global economy has been emerging as a cornerstone of attention and concern for both companies and the general society. One of the companies’ greatest environmental impacts is related to the material life cycle of their products, from the raw material extraction to the final disposal.
The development of products with improved environmental performance plays an essential role in creating powerful environmental strategies and in helping companies towards sustainability. Within this context, the concept of ecodesign arises as an approach for integrating environmental aspects into the product development and related processes, such as manufacturing, marketing, procurement, quality etc.
This research aims at addressing the challenges related to quantitatively assessing the potential ecodesign benefits as well as improving the decision-making processes regarding its implementation. The main objective of this research is to develop a quantitative framework for managers to measure performance of ecodesign implementation in order to capture the potential economic, environmental and social benefits.
The main
expected outcomes of this research include, but are not limited to:
- a common reference for measuring and evaluating the impacts of the implementation of EcoM2 management practices based on sustainability performance;
- a framework-based enablement of decision-making regarding EcoM2 management practices;
- a structured relationship between sustainability performance indicators and ecodesign implementation indicators;
- the advancement of the application of quantitative methods in sustainability performance assessment of ecodesign.
DOWNLOADS
- Database of process-related performance indicators for product development (link)
- List of logic model approaches (link)
- Thematic clusters, outputs and initial outcomes (link)
- Database of business performance outcomes (link)
- Database with the selected studies on the relationships between clusters and the business performance outcomes (link)
- Business Case Simulator (link)