A Probabilistic Approach for Estimating the Environmental Impact of Novel Product Concepts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Ferrero ◽  
Chris Hoyle ◽  
Bryony DuPont
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Component Level ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Product Concepts

Abstract Global concerns about climate change and resource management have escalated the need for sustainable consumer products. In light of this, sustainable design methodologies that supplement the product design process are needed. Current research focuses on developing sustainable design curricula, adapting classical design methods to accommodate environmental sustainability, and sustainability tools that are applicable during the early design phase. However, concurrent work suggests that sustainability-marketed and innovative products still lack a reduction of environmental impact compared to conventional products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proven to be an exceptional tool used to assess the environmental impact of a realized product. However, LCA is a reactive tool that does not proactively reduce the environmental impact of novel product concepts. Here we develop a novel methodology, the PeeP method, using historical product LCA data with kernel density estimation to provide an estimated environmental impact range for a given product design. The PeeP method is tested using a series of case studies exploring four different products. Results suggest that probability density estimations developed through this method reflect the environmental impact of the product at both the product and component level. In the context of sustainable design research, the PeeP method is a viable methodology for assessing product design environmental impact prior to product realization. Our methodology can allow designers to identify high-impact components and reduce the cost of product redesign in practice.

scholarly journals A Sustainable Design Repository for Influencing the Eco-Design of New Consumer Products

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Ferrero ◽  
Addison Wisthoff ◽  
Tony Huynh ◽  
Donovan Ross ◽  
Bryony DuPont
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Design Knowledge ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
The Creation

Engineering designers are constantly seeking ways to be more innovative, decisive, and informed of emerging technologies in the design of consumer products. Design tools, such as functional decomposition, morphology, and Pugh charts help stimulate the design process. However, many early-design-phase design tools require designers to have experiential or empirical design knowledge; many of these approaches are intractable for use by novice designers or designers with little experience designing for certain new objectives. In contrast to these current tools, using repositories to store product design information can provide additional and extensive design knowledge to the global design community. Using repository data—and resultant data-driven design approaches—in the design of new products can be especially impactful for DfX design objectives such as product sustainability, about which many engineering designers have limited knowledge. In this paper, we discuss the creation of a sustainable design repository – a collection of product data that includes environmental impact information. Through the initialization of a 47-product repository case study, we seek to create data-driven design processes that can influence designers to consider environmental sustainability. We found, for example, that in the first year of a product’s life, 29-64% of the environmental impact occurs during the product’s use phase, and that uncertainty in input data (such as component manufacturing location and disposal method) can significantly contribute to environmental impact variation. The creation of this sustainable design repository highlights the need for the consideration of input uncertainties when conducting environmental impact analysis. Additionally, the repository has also been used in tandem with machine learning to understand design decisions that lead to more sustainable products. This sustainable design repository enables subsequent data-driven design research in that it provides a large dataset on which machine learning approaches can operate.

A Modular Design Approach to Support Sustainable Design

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cari R. Bryant ◽  
Karthik L. Sivaramakrishnan ◽  
Michael Van Wie ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Modular Design ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Pair Wise Comparison

This paper presents a redesign method supporting sustainable design of products. The method correlates product modularity with various life cycle directions at the conceptual stage of design. In the case of product redesign, the modular design approach allows designers to focus on increasing the sustainability of a product in terms of recyclability, disassembly and reduction of resource usage at the conceptual stage. By stepping back to the conceptual design phase and analyzing the product free from its current embodiment solutions, the scope of redesign and the potential product improvement increases. At this stage of design, the comprehension of the relationship between the various life cycle aspects of the product and the product design is essential. The elimination preference index (EPI) metric, calculated by pair-wise comparison of various factors governing the product design, quantifies the effect of redesign alternatives on product sustainability. The method is applied to the redesign of twelve small-scale consumer products, of which one example is presented here. In all cases, the redesigned products exhibited enhancement in modularity and part count reduction.

scholarly journals Consumer Product Design: Patterns of Innovation, Market Success and Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Robin Roy
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Design Patterns ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Consumer Product ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

This article summarizes some of the content and conclusions of the author’s recent book, Consumer Product Innovation and Sustainable Design, which discusses the innovation, design and evolution of six consumer products –bicycles, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric lamps, television and mobile (cell) phones – from their original inventions to the present. It discusses common patterns of innovation, how environmental concerns and legislation have influenced design, and some of the effects these products have had on the environment and society. The article also uses lessons from the successes and failures of examples of these products to draw out guidelines for designers, engineers, marketers, managers and educators on how to design successful new products and to design for the environment. It concludes with trends and sustainability challenges for future consumer product design and innovation.

Policy and Demand as Drivers for Product Quality and Sustainability: A Market Systems Approach

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hoffenson ◽  
Rikard Söderberg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Consumer Demand ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Consumer Decision Making

The market is a complex system with many different stakeholders and interactions. A number of decisions within this system affect the design of new products, not only from design teams but also from consumers, producers, and policy-makers. Market systems studies have shown how profit-optimal producer decisions regarding product design and pricing can influence a number of different factors including the quality, environmental impact, production costs, and ultimately consumer demand for the product. This study models the ways that policies and consumer demand combine in a market systems framework to influence optimal product design and, in particular, product quality and environmental sustainability. Implementing this model for the design of a mobile phone case shows how different environmental impact assessment methods, levels of taxation, and factors introduced to the consumer decision-making process will influence producer profits and overall environmental impacts. This demonstrates how different types of policies might be evaluated for their effectiveness in achieving economic success for the producer and reduced environmental impacts for society, and a “win-win” scenario was uncovered in the case of the mobile phone.

Functional Impact Comparison of Common and Innovative Products

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brady Gilchrist ◽  
Douglas L. Van Bossuyt ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer ◽  
Ryan Arlitt ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Design Phase ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Energy Materials ◽  
Component Level ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Intended Use

Innovation has been touted as a means toward providing sustainability. Innovations in materials, manufacturing, and product design can lead to a reduction of global environmental impacts while helping to realize the goals of a sustainable society. This research aims to explore whether or not product functionality has an effect on environmental impact and if the flow of energy, materials, and signals (EMS) have an effect on product environmental impact. Innovative and common products are identified and life cycle assessment is performed for each product at the component level. Using function impact matrices, the environmental impacts of the product components are propagated back to the functional level, where their impacts are compared. The innovative products of the comparisons conducted appear to be more environmentally impact; more work must be done to understand whether the result is generalizable. The intended use of this research is during the conceptual design phase when little is known about the final form of a product. With approximate impacts of functions known, designers can better utilize their design efforts to reduce overall product environmental impact.

scholarly journals Textile fibres in product design

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (03) ◽  
pp. 340-345
Author(s):  
İFFET ERCAN PALA ◽  
ÇIĞDEM PAZARBAŞI KAYA
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Fibre Production ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Glass Fibres ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Performance Analyses ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Selection Of

High-performance fibres, especially carbon and glass fibres are used typically in many industries due of theirperformance. In addition to being widely used in industry, these fibres have attracted the attention of designers in recentyears. In this research, a selection of innovative products that have received awards in international design competitionssuch as RedDot and IF and the use of carbon and glass fibres have been examined.Research topics and objectives in the textile engineering literature include fibre production and performance analyses,but there are limited studies on their use and their impact in daily life. In this research, the use of high-performance fibresdesigned in innovative consumer products will be demonstrated to provide information on how these fibres meeteveryday people as consumers to improve their lives. This research also aims to create common studying areas for twodifferent disciplines.

Assessing the Impact of Product Use Variation on Environmental Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Tensa ◽  
Vincenzo Ferrero ◽  
Donovan Ross ◽  
Bryony DuPont
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Household Products ◽  
Life Cycle Phase ◽  
Use Phase ◽  
The Impact

The goal of this research is to characterize the effects of use patterns on the environmental sustainability of consumer products, and to enable decision making throughout design processes that encourages product sustainability. Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) are currently used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product, but there can be considerable uncertainty in these analyses, especially relating to the use phase of the product. To better understand this uncertainty, we conducted environmental impact assessments of 20 household products, and employed two uncertainty quantification approaches to accommodate variation in the use phase of these products. The results from each product were then compared to products with similar attributes to find generalizations. This knowledge was integrated into decision trees so designers can better understand the degree to which use-phase uncertainty can affect quantitative measures of environmental impact before performing LCAs. This work enables designers to make more informed decisions about the intended use and use lifetimes of consumer products, potentially leading to a reduced environmental impact of this life cycle phase.

Quantifying the Impact of Sustainable Product Design Decisions in the Early Design Phase Through Machine Learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addison Wisthoff ◽  
Vincenzo Ferrero ◽  
Tony Huynh ◽  
Bryony DuPont
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Design Phase ◽  
Product Attributes ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Early Design ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Early Design Phase

As more companies and researchers become interested in understanding the relationship between product design decisions and eventual environmental impact, proposed methods have explored meeting this demand. However, there are currently limited methods available for use in the early design phase to help quantify the environmental impact of making design decisions. Current methods, primarily vetted Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods, require the designer to wait until later in the design phase, when a product’s design is more defined; alternatively, designers are resigned to relying on prior sustainable design experience and empirical knowledge. There is a clear need to develop methods that quantitatively inform designers of the environmental impact of design decisions during the early design phase (particularly during concept generation), as this allows for reexamination of decisions before they become costly or time-intensive to change. The current work builds on previous research involving the development of a search tree of sustainable design knowledge, which, applied during the early design phase, helps designers hone in on the impact of product design decisions. To assist in quantifying the impact of these design decisions, the current work explores the development of a weighting system associated with each potential design decision. The work presented in this paper aims to quantify the general environmental impact potential design decisions have on a consumer product, by using a multi-layer perceptron neural network with back propagation training — a method of machine learning — to relate the life-cycle assessment impact of 37 case study products to product attributes. By defining the relationship between LCA data and product attributes, designers in the early design phase will be more informed of which product attributes have the largest environmental impact, such that the designer can redesign the product to have reduce this impact.

Taxation and Transparency: How Policy Decisions Impact Product Quality and Sustainability

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hoffenson ◽  
Rikard Söderberg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Consumer Demand ◽  
Material Design ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Optimal Product Design

Product markets can be modeled as complex systems that account for a diverse set of stakeholders and interactions. Decisions by all of the stakeholders in these systems can affect the design of new products, not only from design teams but also from consumers, producers, and policymakers. Studies of market systems have shown how producers can make profit-optimal decisions on product design and pricing, and how those decisions influence a number of different factors including the quality, environmental impact, production costs, and ultimately consumer demand for the product. This study presents and demonstrates the use of a framework for modeling the ways that policies and consumer demand influence optimal product design and, in particular, product quality and environmental sustainability. Employing this model for the tolerance and material design decisions for a mobile phone case shows how different environmental impact scales, taxation levels, and information available to consumers will influence producer profits and overall environmental impacts. This demonstrates how different policies can be evaluated for their impacts on economic success for producers and reduced environmental impacts for society, and a “win–win” scenario is found for the mobile phone case.

scholarly journals Challenges of Applying Simplified LCA Tools in Sustainable Design Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2406
Author(s):  
Suphichaya Suppipat ◽  
Kulthida Teachavorasinskun ◽  
Allen H. Hu
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Simplified Lca ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Sustainable Innovation ◽  
Study Product ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

The growing recognition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been integrated globally into product design and business activities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is considered a useful tool for designers to apply in the early stages of product design to mitigate the environmental impact. The study aims to identify the challenges of applying simplified LCA tools to improve the eco-efficiency of products and achieve a higher level of sustainable innovation. The study was conducted in a sustainable design course at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, for four consecutive years. All challenges and opportunities by using ECO-it, Eco-indicators, and the Materials, Energy use, and Toxic emissions (MET) matrix to assess the environmental impact in each phase of 11 home appliances are presented and discussed. Results show the positive potential of applying the tools to achieve function innovation in design for sustainable innovation. The needs for guided instruction, the availability of the database, the complexity of a study product, and the overlooking of social dimensions are four major challenges in applying the tools in the early stages of product redesign. Further study in testing the tools and developing a database in collaboration with industries should be conducted to compare and validate the results.

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