Abstract:

Nowadays, society is more and more aware of the environmental impact of industry, therefore, care for the environmental impact of the products commercialized by a company became a current and pressing demand of customers when they make purchase choices. Consequently, individuals prefer eco-friendly and durable products and are interested in buying from companies that have implemented environmental protection measures. Due to these aspects and also due to the tightening of EU regulations imposed for environmental protections, organizations should implement environmental management systems in order to reduce the impact of their products and services in accordance with sustainable development goals. Particularly, in regard to product development companies, a fundamental aspect of an environmental management system is the use of eco-design as a design methodology.  Eco-design can help companies minimize the environmental impact of their products over their entire lifecycle, reduce the use of raw materials, energy and water, produce less waste and pollution and increase the products’ efficiency and service life. Introducing eco-design into the product development process requires a high level of expertise regarding the potential environmental impact and advanced knowledge of the methods and tools that can be used to support this initiative. In this context, the present paper tries to highlight the importance of using the eco-design process when developing new products and proposes a selection of relevant methods and tools that can be used during the eco-design phases in order to help designers accomplish their environmental targets and obtain eco-friendly products. The research conducted in this paper is based on the standards outlined by the ISO 14006:2020 Environmental management systems - Guidelines for incorporating ecodesign.