Using empirical data to build an advisory tool for eco-design

Many product manufacturers are now implementing eco-design principles, albeit to varying degrees. It is these degrees of variance that were of particular interest in the research presented in this paper. Based on the hypothesis that there exists no single systematic approach to eco-design, which allows for the consideration of environmental issues in every stage of the product development process, an exploratory study sought to identify the various stages that companies travelled through when implementing eco-design principles. The electrical/electronics industry was the chosen subject for the study. Results from this empirical research revealed that there is a common sequence of events that many companies go through when integrating eco-design into their product development processes, as presented in the model of eco-design integration in this paper. This sequence of events would be easily recognised by change management practitioners. Further to the common sequence of change in the companies, it was found that there were also common issues which companies aimed to improve when attempting to learn more about eco-design. Plotting the model of eco-design integration against the common issues it was possible to develop a tool that was useful for industry, allowing companies to chart their progress in the eco-design issues of greatest concern to themselves. The "eco-design advisor" presented is the result of the development of the model into a tool.