LAPSE:2023.32917
Published Article
LAPSE:2023.32917
Metrics for Measuring Sustainable Product Design Concepts
Ji Han, Pingfei Jiang, Peter R. N. Childs
April 20, 2023
Although products can contribute to ecosystems positively, they can cause negative environmental impacts throughout their life cycles, from obtaining raw material, production, and use, to end of life. It is reported that most negative environmental impacts are decided at early design phases, which suggests that the determination of product sustainability should be considered as early as possible, such as during the conceptual design stage, when it is still possible to modify the design concept. However, most of the existing concept evaluation methods or tools are focused on assessing the feasibility or creativity of the concepts generated, lacking the measurements of sustainability of concepts. The paper explores key factors related to sustainable design with regard to environmental impacts, and describes a set of objective measures of sustainable product design concept evaluation, namely, material, production, use, and end of life. The rationales of the four metrics are discussed, with corresponding measurements. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the metrics for evaluating product design concepts. The paper is the first study to explore the measurement of product design sustainability focusing on the conceptual design stage. It can be used as a guideline to measure the level of sustainability of product design concepts to support designers in developing sustainable products. Most significantly, it urges the considerations of sustainability design aspects at early design phases, and also provides a new research direction in concept evaluation regarding sustainability.
Keywords
concept evaluation, conceptual design, design sustainability, product design, Renewable and Sustainable Energy, sustainable product design
Suggested Citation
Han J, Jiang P, Childs PRN. Metrics for Measuring Sustainable Product Design Concepts. (2023). LAPSE:2023.32917
Author Affiliations
Han J: School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Jiang P: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kingston University, London SW15 3DW, UK
Childs PRN: Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2DB, UK [ORCID]
Journal Name
Energies
Volume
14
Issue
12
First Page
3469
Year
2021
Publication Date
2021-06-11
Published Version
ISSN
1996-1073
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PII: en14123469, Publication Type: Journal Article
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doi:10.3390/en14123469
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