Introduction of the Research Project EcoING …
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phase. A high practical relevance within the project is ensured by an interdisciplinary
project consortium. Experienced partner companies from the manufacturing industry
represent the engineering perspective (e.g. Vorwerk Elektrowerke or Ingpuls GmbH).
One partner, a resource efficiency consulting agency (Effizienz-Agentur NRW), for
example, has already initiated and accompanied more than 3500 projects to increase
the resource efficiency in companies and can thus provide a good insight into the challenges of organizational constraints in practice. Other professional perspectives are
represented by project partners from product design (Elbe Eichhorn/Duesseldorf),
consumer protection, environmental authorities, associations and other academic
chairs and faculties. The transferability of the concept to other teaching institutions
is ensured by a practical guide that describes the conception and implementation of
the Ecodesign learning factory.
2.1 Challenges of Environmentally Compatible Product
Development
The terms Sustainable Design or Design for Sustainability are linked closely to
the concept of a sustainable development and provide a framework for Ecodesign.
Ecodesign (usually used synonymously with environmentally compatible product
development) adds an additional requirement, the environment, to the classic product
development objectives such as safety, reliability, technical feasibility or ergonomics
(Tischner and Moser 2015) without losing sight of social aspects (Verhulst and
van Doorsselaer 2015, p. 774). In the industry however, products are mostly optimized based on financial or technical criteria. Ecological product properties are
often not prioritized. This is primarily due to the fact that the environmental requirements compete with numerous other requirements in product development and these
conflicting objectives cannot be balanced in a trivial way (Luttropp and Lagerstedt
2006, p. 1397). As a result of these complex requirements and boundary conditions,
the decision for a best possible compromise to solve this problem has to be reached
in product development based upon a multitude of possible, sometimes contradictory
combination of product characteristics. Thereby, it is not always possible to derive
the actual properties of a product (e.g. the weight) from the previously chosen characteristics (e.g. the choice of material and the geometry) (see Fig. 2) (Weber et al.
2004, p. 2). In reality, most of the times the actual product properties (P Actual ) differ
(P) from the targeted properties (P Target ), because of external interferences (e.g. the
user and the surroundings) that influence the system itself as well as a change of the
system over time. For example, a mishandling or incorrect operation of a product
can increase the immediate resource consumption and lead to a premature wear in
the future.
Figure 2 illustrates the complex relations within the environmentally compatible
product development. Here the product developer can principally choose between
two central strategies. On the one hand, it can be evaluated which actual product
545
phase. A high practical relevance within the project is ensured by an interdisciplinary
project consortium. Experienced partner companies from the manufacturing industry
represent the engineering perspective (e.g. Vorwerk Elektrowerke or Ingpuls GmbH).
One partner, a resource efficiency consulting agency (Effizienz-Agentur NRW), for
example, has already initiated and accompanied more than 3500 projects to increase
the resource efficiency in companies and can thus provide a good insight into the challenges of organizational constraints in practice. Other professional perspectives are
represented by project partners from product design (Elbe Eichhorn/Duesseldorf),
consumer protection, environmental authorities, associations and other academic
chairs and faculties. The transferability of the concept to other teaching institutions
is ensured by a practical guide that describes the conception and implementation of
the Ecodesign learning factory.
2.1 Challenges of Environmentally Compatible Product
Development
The terms Sustainable Design or Design for Sustainability are linked closely to
the concept of a sustainable development and provide a framework for Ecodesign.
Ecodesign (usually used synonymously with environmentally compatible product
development) adds an additional requirement, the environment, to the classic product
development objectives such as safety, reliability, technical feasibility or ergonomics
(Tischner and Moser 2015) without losing sight of social aspects (Verhulst and
van Doorsselaer 2015, p. 774). In the industry however, products are mostly optimized based on financial or technical criteria. Ecological product properties are
often not prioritized. This is primarily due to the fact that the environmental requirements compete with numerous other requirements in product development and these
conflicting objectives cannot be balanced in a trivial way (Luttropp and Lagerstedt
2006, p. 1397). As a result of these complex requirements and boundary conditions,
the decision for a best possible compromise to solve this problem has to be reached
in product development based upon a multitude of possible, sometimes contradictory
combination of product characteristics. Thereby, it is not always possible to derive
the actual properties of a product (e.g. the weight) from the previously chosen characteristics (e.g. the choice of material and the geometry) (see Fig. 2) (Weber et al.
2004, p. 2). In reality, most of the times the actual product properties (P Actual ) differ
(P) from the targeted properties (P Target ), because of external interferences (e.g. the
user and the surroundings) that influence the system itself as well as a change of the
system over time. For example, a mishandling or incorrect operation of a product
can increase the immediate resource consumption and lead to a premature wear in
the future.
Figure 2 illustrates the complex relations within the environmentally compatible
product development. Here the product developer can principally choose between
two central strategies. On the one hand, it can be evaluated which actual product