Current Status of Environmentally Conscious Design Among Japanese Manufacturers

The importance of the environmentally conscious design (ECD) continues to increase because the approach enterprises take to environmental protection is shifting from environmental considerations in the factory to the development of environmentally conscious products (ECP). It is important that excellent practices concerning ECD processes be introduced into companies that have been slow to respond and that common problems with ECD processes be identified. To these ends, our survey research team investigated the current status of ECD among Japanese manufacturers through interviews and mail-in surveys. In this paper, we first describe our survey results on the current status of ECD in each industrial sector. Secondly, we propose an ideal ECD scheme for implementation in companies.