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LIFE CYCLE DESIGN FRAMEWORK AND DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS - PROFILES OF AT&T AND ALLIED SIGNAL
Citation:
Keoleian, G. A., J. E. Koch, D. Menerey, AND M A. Curran*. LIFE CYCLE DESIGN FRAMEWORK AND DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS - PROFILES OF AT&T AND ALLIED SIGNAL. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-95/107 (NTIS 95-268033), 1995.
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
This document offers guidance and practical experience for integrating environmental considerations into product system development. Life cycle design seeks to minimize the environmental burden associated with a product's life cycle from raw materials acquisition through manufacturing, use, and end-of-life management. The following key elements of the life cycle design framework are outlined: a firm's environmental management system, needs analysis and project initiation, specification of design requirements, selection and synthesis of design strategies for minimizing environmental burden, and evaluation of design alternatives using environmental analysis tools. Life cycle design emphasizes integrating environmental requirements into, the earliest phases of design and successfully balancing these requirements with all other necessary performance, cost, cultural, and legal criteria. As an extension of concurrent design, life cycle design addresses both product and process design across the full product life cycle. Two demonstration projects with industry were conducted to test, evaluate, and refine the life cycle design framework presented in Life Cycle Design Guidance Manual (EPA/600/R-92/226); the predecessor to this report. Both AT&T Bell Labs and AlliedSignal, Filters and Spark Plugs applied this framework to the development of cleaner products. AT&T focused on achieving greater material and energy efficiency, improving recyclability, and using and releasing fewer toxic constituents in their design of a business telephone terminal. AlliedSignal developed design criteria to guide the improvement of future engine oil filters. The AlliedSignaJ team considered a cartridge filter with a reusable housing and a single-use, spin-on design. Both AT&T and AlliedSignal concluded that multicriteria requirements matrices are a useful tool for organizing, identifying, and evaluating the complex set of life cycle issues affecting the design of a product system. Major accomplishments and difficulties in implementing life cycle design are highlighted for each project. Research for this report covers the period from January 1992 to August 1994.