Product sustainability improvement based on performance of product components

The sustainability target method (STM) provides a practical sustainability target for individual businesses and products through determining the relative indicator resource productivity (RP) for environmental performance and the absolute indicator eco-efficiency (EE) for sustainability. This paper investigates an optimal decision making approach for a company to improve its product's sustainability using the STM indicators RP and EE of the product components. Sensitivity analysis is used to provide a methodology to indicate which components should receive attention to make the overall product more sustainable. The feasibility of the approach is validated using a case study of a generalized product consisting of multiple components, which relates easily to circuit board assemblies and other types of electronic products.