Design for environment-a computer-based cooperative method to consider the entire life cycle

In this paper, a new approach is introduced that supports a designer considering all environmental aspects of the entire product lifecycle. Within the scope of this project, a computer supported design environment is developed. By means of this software system, a designer can determine the environmental impact of all phases of a product lifecycle. In this way, he is able to reduce the total environmental impact which is caused by the various processes of the product life phases-such as raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, recycling and waste management. This is supported by the design environment which is based on a CORBA-system architecture and integrates the CAD-software, a design rule library, a comprehensive database with technical, economical and ecological data of materials, products and processes as well as a tool for assessing the environmental impact. The integration of all these systems is based on a coherent object oriented information model. The recycling phase is used as an example to explain the architecture of the design environment and the use of it by the designer.