Purpose

The purpose of this section is to provide a tool to perform an easy environmental assessment already at the very early stage of product development, when the product concept is being determined. At this stage no decisions have necessarily been taken concerning the physical structure of the product. Product development is often an iterative process. This definitely also applies to environmental assessment of products. Assessment of the product concept is the first step in this process and has the purpose to establish the first set of environmentally relevant information about the product category and its lifecycle. The life cycle also includes the market the product concerned has to adapt to.

It is the ambition to form a general view of environmental issues being of relevance to the product and to acquire a basic understanding about the environmental aspects of the product and the life the product will lead, once it has left the drawing board and the manufacturing facilities. On the basis of this understanding it will also be possible to set up environmental targets and objectives for the specification of the product and the continuation of the product development process.

When the following steps in the product development process have been taken, you will probably acquire new information that will make it sensible to adjust the conclusions reached from the concept phase. If it is not possible to apply this new knowledge to the present product it can be used by developing future product generations or “sister products” with similar characteristics.

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