Ecodesign
Integrates environmental aspects into the design and development of a product to reduce its impact across its whole life cycle, from materials and manufacturing to use and end of life.
What problem it addresses
Many decisions that set a product’s impact, such as the material, the energy it uses or whether it can be repaired, are made during design and are hard to change later.
Principles
The whole life cycle
Every stage is considered, so impact isn’t just shifted from one to another.
Biggest impact first
Find where the largest impact is and act there before the details.
Several strategies at once
Less material or lower-impact material, less energy in use, more years of use and a good end of life.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Review the impact of each stage of the product’s life before settling materials and manufacturing, also when redesigning one.
Avoid
Improving one stage by making another worse, like a lighter material that can’t be recycled afterwards.
Don’t fall for it
If you say a product is “eco-friendly,” you have to be able to prove it.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1997
Han Brezet and Carolien van Hemel
Wrote a manual for the United Nations Environment Programme that guides companies step by step through ecodesign, with a wheel of eight strategies.
- 2020
ISO 14006
Gives guidelines for incorporating ecodesign into an organization’s environmental management system, without setting performance figures.
- 2024
European Union
Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 allows durability, repairability or recycled content to be required by law, creates the digital product passport and bans large companies from destroying unsold clothing and footwear from 19 July 2026.
Sources
Original sources
- Brezet, H., & van Hemel, C. (1997). Ecodesign: A promising approach to sustainable production and consumption. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Rathenau Instituut & Delft University of Technology.
- International Organization for Standardization (2020). ISO 14006:2020. Environmental management systems — Guidelines for incorporating ecodesign. ISO. View source: International Organization for Standardization (2020)
- Reglamento (UE) 2024/1781 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de June 13, 2024, por el que se instaura un marco para el establecimiento de requisitos de diseño ecológico aplicables a los productos sostenibles. Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, serie L, June 28, 2024. View source: Reglamento (UE) 2024/1781 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de June 13, 2024, por el que se instaura un marco para el establecimiento de requisitos de diseño ecológico aplicables a los productos sostenibles. Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, serie L, June 28, 2024.)
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