Life cycle oriented designing

Many life cycle assessments (LCAs) are performed on existing products. However, it is of more interest to take environmental considerations into account when designing new products. With environmental aspects involved from the very beginning, the number of uncertainties becomes overwhelming. To deal with this initial lack of product specification data, the LCA-procedure is divided into steps, which are integrated into the design method. The life cycle oriented design procedure consists of a goal and procedure definition phase, generation and selection of alternatives (with the aid of an adjusted life cycle assessment) and, finally, the complete design and LCA phase. There are also some suggestions on how to take exergy use into consideration during this design procedure.