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Environmentally Conscious Product Design: A Collaborative Internet‐based Modeling Approach
Author(s) -
Borland Nick,
Wallace David
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/108819899569539
Subject(s) - computer science , design for the environment , life cycle assessment , product lifecycle , product design , product (mathematics) , the internet , new product development , environmental impact assessment , focus (optics) , process management , systems engineering , engineering , world wide web , production (economics) , ecology , business , geometry , mathematics , biology , physics , marketing , optics , economics , macroeconomics
Summary This paper proposes a computer‐based method for providing product designers with real‐time environmental impact assessment. In this concurrent modeling approach, environmental experts build life‐cycle models, define their interfaces, and publish them as distributed objects on the Internet. Traditional designers integrating these objects into their design models have access to the impact assessment methods provided by the environmental expert. In this paradigm, the focus shifts from providing techniques that let non‐expert designers perform life‐cycle impact assessments to tools that facilitate timely communication and information transfer between designers and appropriate environmental experts. Establishing real‐time communication between the product design models and the environmental life‐cycle models is the primary focus of this paper. Methods for establishing and maintaining the interaction between life‐cycle and product design models are described. A beverage container design example illustrates how this collaborative approach can use environmental and traditional design goals to determine effective tradeoffs between design alternatives.