Design for Environment
The aim of this strategy is to fulfill environmental requirements of a
product in the design phase. The strategy is based on an example from
the railway industry and it is documented by Industrial Environmental
Informatics at Chalmers University of Technology.
This strategy describes how market requirements can be included in the design
phase and how to design products with lower environmental impact. The strategy
explains how to work with
Design for Environment (DfE), in terms of a
method based on
Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs), a
common material list and
material property data for each material in the list.
The Nordic rail operator initiative on common environmental requirements on
rolling stock, Nordic Manual, revealed the need for tools and methods of
measuring the environmental performance already at the design stage. This
rendered in the EU co-funded project
RAVEL (Rail Vehicle Eco-Efficient Design)
running 1998-2001, where the method on which this strategy is based was
developed.
The RAVEL project was followed by
REPID (Rail sector framework and tools for
standardizing and improving usability of Environmental Performance Indicators
and Data formats) running 2002-2004, where the method and tools from RAVEL were
further developed and implemented within the railway industry. REPID was co-ordinated by the
railway operators trade organization
UIC (International Union of Railways) and
the European railway manufacturers organization
UNIFE (the Union
of European Railway Industries), and it resulted in a practical agreement on
a set of EPIs, a practically useful and common material list, and an open data
format. The focus of this strategy is on
how a company can work practically according to the REPID methodology to
decrease the environmental impact of their products.
Intended users and benefits
The intended users of the strategy are designers, environmental coordinators
and decision-makers at management level in any manufacturing company. The
strategy provides comprehensible and verifiable communication of environmental
requirements from the customer, through different company functions and all the
way to the designer in terms of EPIs. This strategy focuses on the details in
the DfE methodology and how to practically work with it in the product
development process. To use the
full potential of the DfE methodology common agreements are needed in
specific industry sectors where the whole supply chain is involved. This is
further described in the DANTES strategy:
EPIs in supply chain communication.
Working procedure
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