PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
MINIMISING MATERIALS CONSUMPTION
- Dematerialise the product or some of its components Ripple table – Layer Design
- Digitalise the product or some of its components
- Miniaturise
- Avoid over-sized dimensions
- Reduce thickness ‘Riciclantica’ door for kitchen furniture – Valcucine
- Apply ribbed structures to increase structural stiffness Futurcraft 3D – Adidas; Redesign of airplane components using additive manufacturing – EOS and AIRBUS; Mirra chair – Herman Miller
- Avoid extra components with little functionality Silver care toothbrush with replaceable brushes – Spazzolifico Piave; From plastic waste to furniture with 3D printing – The New Raw
- Select processes that reduce scraps and discarded materials during production Silver care toothbrush with replaceable brushes – Spazzolifico Piave
- Engage simulation systems to optimise transformation processes
- Avoid packaging-lancome, -Lush shampoo
- Apply materials only where absolutely necessary -Packaging for Bicycle, -Televison set
- Design the package to be part (or to become a part) of the product – Wafer for ice cream – Packapplique
- Design for more efficient consumption of operational materials Leafy green machine – Freight-farm -Ceramica dolomite toilet -The ecloth system
- Design for more efficient supply of raw materials -Novap
- Design for more efficient use of maintenance materials
- Design systems for consumption of passive materials – Algreen
- Design for cascading recycling systems -Roca
- Designing Materials Recovery Systems
- Facilitate the user to reduce material consumption -Water consumption limiter Grohe
- Set the product’s default state at minimal materials consumption
- Engage digital support systems with dynamic configuration
- Design variable material consumption systems for different operating requirements -Cesame
- Use of sensors to adjust material consumption to operational requirements -Washing machine Bosch 8
- Reduce resource consumption in the product’s default state
- Minimise the consumption of stationery goods and their packages
- Engage digital tools in designing, modelling and prototyping
- Engage digital tools for documentation, communication and presentation
MINIMISING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
- Select materials with low energy intensity
- Select processing technologies with the lowest energy consumption possible
- Engage efficient machinery
- Use heat emitted in certain processes for preheating other process flows
- Engage pump and motor speed regulators with dynamic configuration
- Equip the machinery with intelligent power-off utilities
- Optimise the overall dimensions of the engines
- Facilitate engine maintenance
- Define accurately the tolerance parameters
- Optimise the volumes of required real estate
- Optimise stocktaking systems
- Optimise transportation systems and scale down the weight and dimensions of all transportable materials and semi-products
- Engage efficient general heating, illumination and ventilation in buildings
- Design compact products with high storage density storage products -Fly Sled
- Design concentrated products -Disposabile Soap Tabilets
- Equip products with onsite assembly at the point of use -‘UP’ vacuum packed seat collection – B&B Italia; Flat packed and easy assembled stool – King & Webbon; -Pikkpack
- Scale down the product weight
- Scale down the packaging weight -Air cushion packing system
- Decentralise activities to reduce transportation volumes -Electronic Enel
- Select local material and energy sources Hack table system – Vitra; -Solar Cooker
- Design products for collective use -Disan
- Design for energy-efficient operational stages -Samsung Washing Machine； -Electric Cooker Aufla
- Design for energy-efficient maintenance -Ably Clothing
- Design systems for consumption of passive energy sources -The Passive House
- Adopt high-efficiency energy transformation systems -Lucepla Led Mix
- Design/adopt more efficient motors -Volkswagen; -Milan ATM Trolleybuses
- Design/adopt highly efficient energy transmission systems -Oxford PV; -Scotchlite Street light 3M
- Use highly caulked materials and technical components
- Design systems with insulation or point resources -Aeroshield MIT
- Scale down the weight of transportable goods
- Design energy recovery systems Energy recovery dancefloor – Energy floors; -Green Energy Gym
- Design energy-saving systems
Engage digital dynamic support systems product default state at minimal energy consumption
- Design dynamic energy consumption systems for differentiated operational stages
- Use sensors to adapt consumption to operational needs -Zumtobel
- Incorporate auto switch-off mechanisms into products -TV lights group
- Program product default state at minimal energy consumption -Microsoft windows 11
- Engage efficient workplace heating, illumination and ventilation
- Engage digital tools for communicating with remote working sites
MINIMISING RESOURCES TOXICITY AND HARMFULNESS
- Avoid toxic or harmful materials for product components -Woodly
- Minimise the hazard of toxic and harmful materials
- Avoid materials that emit toxic or harmful substances during pre-production -Foxfiber Cotton
- Avoid additives that emit toxic or harmful substances -EcoBalanza
- Avoid technologies that process toxic and harmful materials
- Avoid toxic or harmful surface treatments Plant-based fibres clothes – Flavia Aranha
- Design products that do not consume toxic and harmful materials
- Avoid materials that emit toxic or harmful substances during usage
- Avoid materials that emit toxic or harmful substances during disposal
- Select energy resources that reduce dangerous emissions during pre-production and production -Thorens AG; -Ljusa Crank Torch; -Seiko
- Select energy resources that reduce dangerous emissions during distribution
- Select energy resources that reduce dangerous emissions during usage -CR-V Honda; -Sunride Politecnico; -Hydra Light
- Select energy resources that reduce dangerous residues and toxic and harmful waste
OPTIMISING RESOURCES RENEWABILITY AND BIO-COMPATIBILITY
- Use renewable materials -Bamboocycles; -Peacok Designs; -Palm Fiber Sandals; -Pumpkin Soap Be9; -FSC the body shop; -Footwear Rothys
- Avoid exhaustive materials
- Use materials derived from production waste -Tulip Box；–Orange Fiber
- Use retrieved components from disposed products -Ecolo Project; -Alan Thompson; -Recycled bags Freitag; –Replastic Table Pype Office
- Use recycled materials, alone or combined with primary materials –Navy Chair Emeco; -Abet Laminati; -Nylon Aquafil; -Ecolaf
- Use bio-degradable materials
- Use renewable energy resources -Evoluxeco Solar Ceam Group; -The offgrid solar Bankpack
- Engage the cascade approach -Denim Saitex
- Select energy resources with high second-order efficiency
PRODUCT LIFESPAN OPTIMISATION
- Design durable components, choosing materials and the appropriate ways to preserve performances in relationship with the foreseen usage conditions -D.Light
- Design components with co-extensive lifespan -Kyocera
- Design lifespan of replaceable components according to scheduled duration
- Enable and facilitate the separation of parts with different useful lives -Canon
- Select durable materials according to the product performance and lifespan -Nobili Tab cartridge
- Avoid selecting durable materials for temporary products or components -Novamont wet waste bags
- Reduce overall number of components
- Simplify products
- Eliminate weak liaisons
- Enable and facilitate software upgrade
- Enable and facilitate hardware upgrade –Modular and easy to repair smartphone – Fairphone
- Design modular and dynamically configured products to facilitate their adaptability for changing environments –The movable dividing office walls – Sorin; -Office chairs Wilkhahn; –Let it be modular sofa – Poltrona Frau
- Design multifunctional and dynamically configured products to facilitate their adaptability for changing cultural and physical individual backgrounds –Busunge extendable bed – Ikea; -Lemuria; -Petit Pil; -Stokke AS
- Design to facilitate upgradability and adaptability at the point of use -Eket Modular Shelving Systen Ikea
- Design complementary tools and documentation for product upgrade and adaptation
- Facilitate the replacement of maintenance parts by simplifying accessibility and removal -De’Longhi
- Avoid narrow slits and holes to facilitate access for cleaning
- Pre-arrange and facilitate the substitution of short-lived components –Silver care toothbrush with replaceable brushes – Spazzolifico Piave; -Re-soleable’ mountain boots – La Sportiva
- Equip the product with easily usable tools for maintenance
- Set up systems for diagnosis and/or self-diagnosis of the parts to be maintained -Electrolux dishwashers
- Arrange and design for easy maintenance, making it possible at the place of use to clean and/or replace certain parts -Charlie Banana;
- Design complementary maintenance tools and documentation -Riva 1920
- Design products that need less maintenance
- Arrange and facilitate disassembly and re-attachment of easily damageable components Mirra chair – Herman Miller
- Design components according to standards
- Equip products with automatic damage diagnostics system
- Design products for facilitated onsite repair
- Design complementary repair tools, materials and documentation
- Increase the resistance of easily damaged and expendable components
- Arrange and facilitate access and removal of retrievable components -Gispen Modular furniture
- Design modular and replaceable components –Natura office chair – Grammer;
- Design components according to standards to facilitate replacement
- Design re-usable auxiliary parts
- Design re-filling and re-usable packaging Refillable glue stick – Henkel; -Returnable-Reusable refrigerator shipping packages – Samsung
- Design products for secondary use Nutella glass bottle – Ferrero -Reuse of glass bottles
- Design and facilitate removal and substitution of easily expendable components
- Design structural parts that can be easily separated from external/visible ones
- Provide easier access to components to be re-manufactured
- Calculate accurate tolerance parameters for easily expendable connections
- Design for excessive use of material for easily deteriorating surfaces
- Design product-services for a shared use Power bank sharing system – Anker;
- Design multifunctional products with common substitutable components
- Design products with integrated functions Skypass access – Swatch
- Design for products or products parts on demand
- Design for products or products parts on availability -Car sharing service Statt Auto
EXTENDING THE LIFESPAN OF MATERIALS
- Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower mechanical requirements
- Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower aesthetical requirements
- Arrange and facilitate energy recovery from materials throughout combustion
- Select materials that easily recover its original performance characteristics after recycling
- Avoid composite materials or, when necessary, choose easily recyclable ones
- Engage geometrical solutions like ribbing to increase polymer stiffness instead of reinforcing fibres
- Prefer thermoplastic polymers to thermosetting
- Prefer heat-proof thermoplastic polymers to fireproof additives
- Design considering the secondary use of the materials once recycled
- Design in compliance with product retrieval system
- Minimise overall weight
- Minimise cluttering and improve stackability of discarded products -Re(new) compressive water bottle after use Evian; -Can compactor Attila;
- Design for the compressibility of discarded products
- Provide the user with information about the disposing modalities of the product or its parts
- Codify different materials to facilitate their identification
- Provide additional information about the material’s age, number of times re- cycled in the past and additives used
- Indicate the existence of toxic or harmful materials
- Use standardised materials identification systems
- Arrange codifications in easily visible places
- Avoid codifying after component production stages
- Integrate functions to reduce the overall number of materials and components
- Monomaterial strategy: only one material per product or per sub-assembly -CAB Chair System Cassina; -Mirandolina aluminum chair – Zanotta; -Packaging of absorption bends – Cutisorb; -Celle office armchair – Herman Miller; -Paneer Meel;
- Use only one material, but processed in sandwich structures -Monomaterial Green Forest
- Use compatible materials (that could be recycled together) within the product or sub-assembly
- For joining use the same or compatible materials as in components (to be joined)
- Avoid unnecessary coating procedures
- Avoid irremovable coating materials
- Facilitate removal of contaminants
- Use coating procedures that comply with coated materials
- Avoid adhesives or choose ones that comply with materials to be recycled
- Prefer the dyeing of internal polymers, rather than surface painting
- Avoid using additional materials for marking or codification
- Mark and codify materials during moulding
- Codify polymers using lasers
- Select materials that degrade in the expected end-of-life environment
- Avoid combining non-degradable materials with products that are going to be composted
- Facilitate the separation of non-degradable materials
- Select high energy materials for products that are going to be incinerated
- Avoid materials that emit dangerous substances during incineration
- Avoid additives that emit dangerous substances during incineration
- Facilitate the separation of materials that would compromise the efficiency of combustion (with low energy value)
FACILITATING DISASSEMBLY
- Prioritise the disassembly of toxic and dangerous components or materials
- Prioritise the disassembly of components or materials with higher economic value
- Prioritise the disassembly of more easily damageable components
- Prioritise the disassembly of the parts that are more subject to technological/aesthetic obsolescence
- Engage modular structures
- Divide the product into easily separable and manipulable sub-assemblies -Leased flooring Interface flooring system;
- Minimise overall dimensions of the product
- Minimise hierarchically dependent connections between components
- Minimise different directions in the disassembly route of components and materials
- Increase the linearity of the disassembly route
- Engage a sandwich system of disassembly with central joining elements
- Avoid difficult-to-handle components
- Avoid asymmetrical components, unless required
- Design leaning surfaces and grabbing features in compliance with standards
- Arrange leaning surfaces around the product’s centre of gravity
- Design for easy centring on the component base
- Avoid joining systems that require simultaneous interventions for opening
- Minimise the overall number of fasteners -DRY collection of armchair and easy demountable tables Giorgetti Matrix
- Minimise the overall number of different fastener types (that demand different tools)
- Avoid difficult-to-handle fasteners
- Design accessible and recognisable entrances for dismantling
- Design accessible and controllable dismantling points
- Employ two-way snap-fit -Ara Chair Orangebox
- Employ joints that are opened without tools Wristwatch – Alessi
- Employ joints that are opened with common tools
- Employ joints that are opened with special tools, when opening could be dangerous
- Design joints made of materials that become reversible only in determined conditions -Shape memory polymer screws Brunel university
- Use screws with hexagonal heads
- Prefer removable nuts and clips to self-tapping screws
- Use screws made of materials compatible with joint components, to avoid their separation before recycling
- Use self-tapping screws for polymers to avoid using metallic inserts
- Avoid rivets on incompatible materials
- Avoid staples on incompatible materials
- Avoid additional materials while welding
- Weld with compatible materials
- Prefer ultrasonic and vibration welding with polymers
- Avoid gluing with adhesives
- Employ easily removable adhesives
- Design thin areas to enable the taking off of incompatible inserts, by pressurised demolition
- Co-design cutting or breaking paths with appropriate separation technologies for incompatible materials separation -Vertech 75 sky shoes Nordica
- Equip the product with a device to separate incompatible materials
- Employ joining elements that allow their chemical or physical destruction
- Make the breaking points easily accessible and recognisable
- Provide the products with information for the user about the characteristics of crushing separation