Textil- och klädindustrin är identifierad som en av dem största bidragande faktorerna som frigör växthusgaser över hela världen. Produktionen har en lång och komplex försörjningskedja vilket redan från råvaruutvinning släpper ut enorma mängder växthusgaser. Den här kandidatuppsatsen går igenom hela försörjningskedjan för hemtextilsektorn vad gäller olika processer från fiber till färdiga produkter och deras miljöpåverkan. Den undersöker miljöpåverkan från olika stadier i textilprodukters livscykel från vaggan till graven. Uppsatsen belyser också konceptet och principerna för mätning av koldioxidavtryck, vatten och energianvändning för hemtextilprodukter, metoder för att mäta det och dess tillämpning i textilförsörjningskedjan. I produktens livscykelanalys beräknas avtrycket från resursutvinning (vagga) till fabriksporten (grind), i de faserna inkluderas försörjning av fiber, trim och förpackning, textilbearbetning, transporter i produktion, lagring och förpackning, samt distribution. Syftet med arbetet är att beräkna koldioxidavtryck, vatten- och energianvändning och jämföra mellan två påslakanset i 100% bomull tillverkade i två olika länder. Studien ämnar ge en bättre förståelse kring koldioxidutsläppen och miljöpåverkan som dessa produkter frigör under produktion. För att senare kunna jämföras, analyseras och föreslå eventuella förbättringar för att minska produktionens utsläpp. / The textile and clothing industry has been identified as one of the biggest contributing factors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Production has a long and complex supply chain, which already emits enormous amounts of greenhouse gases from raw material extraction. This bachelor's thesis goes through the entire supply chain for the home textile sector in terms of various processes from fiber to finished products and their environmental impact. It examines the environmental impact from different stages in the life cycle of textile products from the cradle to the grave. The thesis also highlights the concept and principles for measuring carbon footprint, water and energy use for home textile products, methods for measuring it and its application in the textile supply chain. The product life cycle analysis calculates the footprint from resource extraction (cradle) to the factory gate (gate), in which phases supply of fiber, trim and packaging, textile processing, transport in production, storage and packaging, and distribution are included. The purpose of the work is to calculate the carbon footprint, water and energy use and compare between two duvet cover sets in 100% cotton made in two different countries. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the carbon dioxide emissions and environmental impact that these products release during production. In order to later be able to compare, analyze and suggest possible improvements to reduce production emissions.

Many specific methods and tools have been developed to deal with sustainability problems. However, without a unifying theory it is unclear how these relate to each other and how they can be used strategically. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is being developed to cover this need for clarity and structure. It includes backcasting from a principled definition of sustainability as a key feature. The aim of this thesis is to study how this framework can guide the use and improvement of detailed methods and tools, in particular to support sustainable product innovation (SPI). First, a new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the selection of aspects to be considered are not based on typical down-stream impact categories, but on identified major violations of sustainability principles. Ideas of how this approach can inform various specific methods and tools are also presented, as a basis for an integrated “toolbox” for SPI. As part of such, a new “template” approach for sustainable product development (TSPD) is developed through a sustainability assessment case study of TVs. That study indicates that this approach can create a quick and strategically relevant overview of critical sustainability aspects of a product, as well as facilitate communication between top management, product developers and external stakeholders. Based on such an assessment, it is sometimes necessary to go deeper into details, including the use of specific engineering methods and tools. To facilitate a coordinated assessment of sustainability aspects and technical aspects, an introductory procedure for sustainability-driven design optimization is suggested trough a water jet cutting case study. Equally important, to get a breakthrough for SPI, it is essential to integrate sustainability aspects into the overall decision-making process at different levels in companies. An approach to assessing sustainability integration in strategic decision systems is therefore also developed through a case study involving several companies. Finally, the integration between the FSSD and general systems modeling and simulation (SMS) is discussed and tested in another water jet cutting case study. It is shown feasible to start with the FSSD to create lists of critical flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS can be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the FSSD. This research shows that the combination of the FSSD with detailed methods and tools cohesively provides decision-makers with both a robust overview and, when needed, a more coordinated and effective detailed support. To utilize its full potential, this approach should now be integrated into decision processes, software and manuals for SPI.

<p>U disertaciji je predložen opšti model za upravljanje uticajima na životnu sredinu u okviru proizvodnih procesa proizvodnje podnih obloga, zasnovan na metodi ocenjivanja životnog ciklusa proizvoda i procesa. Model je sistematično predstavljen kroz opis osnovnih delova - modela inventara životnog ciklusa i modela za ocenjivanje uticaja životnog ciklusa. Disertacija sadrži i detaljan opis podloga na kojima je model razvijen. Verifikacija razvijenog modela je sprovedena kroz tri studije slučaja.</p> / <p>The dissertation proposes a general model for managing environmental impacts within the manufacturing process of flooring coverings, based on the method of life cycle assessment of products and processes. The model is systematically present by describing the main parts - the life cycle inventory model and a model for the life cycle impact assessment. Dissertation contains a detailed description of the background bases on which the model is developed. Verification of the model is carried out through three case studies.</p>

The use of microalgae culture to convert CO2 from power plant flue gases into biomass that are readily converted into biofuels offers a new frame of opportunities to enhance, compliment or replace fossil-fuel-use. Apart from being renewable, microalgae also have the capacity to utilise materials from a variety of wastewater and the ability to yield both liquid and gaseous biofuels. However, the processes of cultivation, incorporation of a production system for power plant waste flue gas use, algae harvesting, and oil extraction from the biomass have many challenges. Using SimaPro software, Life cycle Assessment (LCA) of the challenges limiting the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) biofuel production process was performed to study algae-based pathway for producing biofuels. Attention was paid to material use, energy consumed and the environmental burdens associated with the production processes. The goal was to determine the weak spots within the production system and identify changes in particular data-set that can lead to and lower material use, energy consumption and lower environmental impacts than the baseline microalgae biofuel production system. The analysis considered a hypothetical transesterification and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) transformation of algae-to- biofuel process. Life cycle Inventory (LCI) characterisation results of the baseline biodiesel (BD) transesterification scenario indicates that heating to get the biomass to 90% DWB accounts for 64% of the total input energy, while electrical energy and fertilizer obligations represents 19% and 16% respectively. Also, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results of the baseline BD production scenario show high proportional contribution of electricity and heat energy obligations for most impact categories considered relative to other resources. This is attributed to the concentration/drying requirement of algae biomass in order to ease downstream processes of lipid extraction and subsequent transesterification of extracted lipids into BD. Thus, four prospective alternative production scenarios were successfully characterised to evaluate the extent of their impact scenarios on the production system with regards to lowering material use, lower energy consumption and lower environmental burdens than the standard algae biofuel production system. A 55.3% reduction in mineral use obligation was evaluated as the most significant impact reduction due to the integration of 100% recycling of production harvest water for the AD production system. Recycling also saw water demand reduced from 3726 kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 to 591kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 after accounting for evaporative losses/biomass drying for the BD transesterification production process. Also, the use of wastewater/sea water as alternative growth media for the BD production system, indicated potential savings of: 4.2 MJ (11.8%) in electricity/heat obligation, 10.7% reductions for climate change impact, and 87% offset in mineral use requirement relative to the baseline production system. Likewise, LCIA characterisation comparison results comparing the baseline production scenarios with that of a set-up with co-product economic allocation consideration show very interesting outcomes. Indicating -12 MJ surplus (-33%) reductions for fossil fuels resource use impact category, 52.7% impact reductions for mineral use impact and 56.6% reductions for land use impact categories relative to the baseline BD production process model. These results show the importance of allocation consideration to LCA as a decision support tool. Overall, process improvements that are needed to optimise economic viability also improve the life cycle environmental impacts or sustainability of the production systems. Results obtained have been observed to agree reasonably with Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, with the production scenario proposing the exploitation of wastewater/sea water to culture algae biomass offering the best result outcome. This study may have implications for additional resources such as production facility and its construction process, feedstock processing logistics and transport infrastructure which are excluded. Future LCA study will require extensive consideration of these additional resources such as: facility size and its construction, better engineering data for water transfer, combined heat and power plant efficiency estimates and the fate of long-term emissions such as organic nitrogen in the AD digestate. Conclusions were drawn and suggestions proffered for further study.

Global warming is one of the biggest challenges of our society. The road transport sector is responsible for a big share of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which are considered to be the dominant cause of global warming. Although most of those emissions are associated with traffic operation, road infrastructure should not be ignored, as it involves high consumption of energy and materials during a long lifetime. The aim of my research was to contribute to improved road infrastructure planning by developing methods and models to include a life cycle perspective. In order to reach the aim, GHG emissions and energy use at different life cycle stages of road infrastructure were assessed in three case studies using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These case studies were also used for development of methodology for LCA of road infrastructure. I have also investigated the coupling of LCA with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the possibility to integrate LCA into Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The results of the first case study indicated that operation of the tunnel (mainly, lighting and ventilation) has the largest contribution in terms of energy use and GHG emissions throughout its life cycle. The second case study identified the main hotspots and compared two methods for asphalt recycling and asphalt reuse. The results of the third case study indicated that due to the dominant contribution of traffic to the total impact of the road transport system, the difference in road length plays a major role in choice of road alternatives during early planning of road infrastructure. However, infrastructure should not be neglected, especially in the case of similar lengths of road alternatives, for roads with low volumes of traffic or when they include bridges or tunnels. This thesis contributed in terms of foreground and background data collection for further LCA studies of road infrastructure. Preliminary Bill of Quantities (BOQ) was identified and used as a source for site-specific data collection. A new approach was developed and tested for using geological data in a GIS environment as a data source on earthworks for LCA. Moreover, this thesis demonstrated three possible ways for integrating LCA in early stages of road infrastructure planning. / <p>QC 20160329</p>

The use of microalgae culture to convert CO2 from power plant flue gases into biomass that are readily converted into biofuels offers a new frame of opportunities to enhance, compliment or replace fossil-fuel-use. Apart from being renewable, microalgae also have the capacity to utilise materials from a variety of wastewater and the ability to yield both liquid and gaseous biofuels. However, the processes of cultivation, incorporation of a production system for power plant waste flue gas use, algae harvesting, and oil extraction from the biomass have many challenges. Using SimaPro software, Life cycle Assessment (LCA) of the challenges limiting the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) biofuel production process was performed to study algae-based pathway for producing biofuels. Attention was paid to material use, energy consumed and the environmental burdens associated with the production processes. The goal was to determine the weak spots within the production system and identify changes in particular data-set that can lead to and lower material use, energy consumption and lower environmental impacts than the baseline microalgae biofuel production system. The analysis considered a hypothetical transesterification and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) transformation of algae-to- biofuel process. Life cycle Inventory (LCI) characterisation results of the baseline biodiesel (BD) transesterification scenario indicates that heating to get the biomass to 90% DWB accounts for 64% of the total input energy, while electrical energy and fertilizer obligations represents 19% and 16% respectively. Also, Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results of the baseline BD production scenario show high proportional contribution of electricity and heat energy obligations for most impact categories considered relative to other resources. This is attributed to the concentration/drying requirement of algae biomass in order to ease downstream processes of lipid extraction and subsequent transesterification of extracted lipids into BD. Thus, four prospective alternative production scenarios were successfully characterised to evaluate the extent of their impact scenarios on the production system with regards to lowering material use, lower energy consumption and lower environmental burdens than the standard algae biofuel production system. A 55.3% reduction in mineral use obligation was evaluated as the most significant impact reduction due to the integration of 100% recycling of production harvest water for the AD production system. Recycling also saw water demand reduced from 3726 kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 to 591kg (freshwater).kgBD- 1 after accounting for evaporative losses/biomass drying for the BD transesterification production process. Also, the use of wastewater/sea water as alternative growth media for the BD production system, indicated potential savings of: 4.2 MJ (11.8%) in electricity/heat obligation, 10.7% reductions for climate change impact, and 87% offset in mineral use requirement relative to the baseline production system. Likewise, LCIA characterisation comparison results comparing the baseline production scenarios with that of a set-up with co-product economic allocation consideration show very interesting outcomes. Indicating -12 MJ surplus (-33%) reductions for fossil fuels resource use impact category, 52.7% impact reductions for mineral use impact and 56.6% reductions for land use impact categories relative to the baseline BD production process model. These results show the importance of allocation consideration to LCA as a decision support tool. Overall, process improvements that are needed to optimise economic viability also improve the life cycle environmental impacts or sustainability of the production systems. Results obtained have been observed to agree reasonably with Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, with the production scenario proposing the exploitation of wastewater/sea water to culture algae biomass offering the best result outcome. This study may have implications for additional resources such as production facility and its construction process, feedstock processing logistics and transport infrastructure which are excluded. Future LCA study will require extensive consideration of these additional resources such as: facility size and its construction, better engineering data for water transfer, combined heat and power plant efficiency estimates and the fate of long-term emissions such as organic nitrogen in the AD digestate. Conclusions were drawn and suggestions proffered for further study.

Resumo: Em virtude da pressão exercida pelos diversos segmentos da sociedade, para que o setor da construção civil se torne ambientalmente mais adequado, muito tem se discutido a respeito do aproveitamento de resíduos na produção de materiais de construção e uma infinidade de pesquisas vem sendo desenvolvidas com este objetivo. Porém, antes que estes produtos possam ser chamados de "sustentáveis" e que efetivamente um sitema de reciclagem seja implantado, é imprescindível que se compreendam todas as consequências envolvidas nesta ação e, principalmente, quais os reais ganhos para o ambiente (e para o setor) se isto ocorrer. Para que se possa obter um quadro geral dos impactos ambientais associados a estes produtos, uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas é a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV), que vem sendo cada vez mais aceita como resposta às indagações ambientais do novo milênio. Diante do exposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para um maior entendimento a respeito dos impactos ambientais na construção civil, por meio da realização de um estudo comparativo de ACV dos diferentes tipos de chapas de partículas fabricadas a partir de resíduos, que vêm sendo desenvolvidas na Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus de Bauru. As chapas foram fabricadas a partir dos seguintes resíduos: bagaço de cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp); folhas caulinares do bambu (Dendrocalamus giganteus); cavacos provenientes do beneficiamento das madeiras pinos (Pinus elliotti) e imbuia (Ocotea porosa). O estudo foi desenvolvido com base nas orientações metodológicas da série de Normas NBR ISO 14040 (2009), a unidade funcional adotada foi o m² das chapas e para avaliação dos impactos foi empregado o método EDIP. De acordo os resultados, as chapas produzidas a partir das folhas do bambu apresentaram o menor potencial de impacto ambiental, na maioria das categorias avaliadas. Em ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Regarding the pressure from various sectors of the society, the construction industry is becoming more concerned about the environment impacts associated at its activities, and recently, particular attention has being devoted to the use of waste in construction materials ans several research projects have been developed in this field. However, before labeling these products as "sustainable" and before initiate the production of any product based on recycling, it is necessary to comprehend all the steps involved in this action, and mainly, to quantify the real gains for the environment (and for the industry) associated to it. In the evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with these products, the most used tool is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is being increasingly accepted in research for the environmental goals of the new millennium. Therefore, the main objective of this master thesis was to study the environmental impacts in the construction, namely through the completion of a comparative LCA of different types of particleboards made of residues, which have being developed at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus of Bauru. The boards were manufactured using the following residues: sugar cane bagasse (saccharum spp); bamboo stalk leaves (Dendrocalamus giganteus); pieces from the processing of pine wood (Pinus elliottii) and imbuia (Ocotea porosa). The study was developed based on the methodological guidelines included in the standards series NBR ISO 14040 (2009). The functional unit adopted was the square meter of boards, and the EDIP method was employed for the impacts assessment. The results demonstrate that the boards produced of bamboo stalk leaves had the least environmental impact potential in most the evaluated categories. In contrast, the boards made of pine particles showed the largest environmental impact potential. Among the factors that most ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Rosane Aparecida Gomes Battistelle / Coorientador: Ivaldo De Domenico Valarelli / Banca: Humberto S. A. Varum / Banca: Adilson Renofio / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-09-24Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:54:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_mfn_me_bauru.pdf: 2258051 bytes, checksum: ed707b2833785d94e16b821f4bdc2630 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Em virtude da pressão exercida pelos diversos segmentos da sociedade, para que o setor da construção civil se torne ambientalmente mais adequado, muito tem se discutido a respeito do aproveitamento de resíduos na produção de materiais de construção e uma infinidade de pesquisas vem sendo desenvolvidas com este objetivo. Porém, antes que estes produtos possam ser chamados de sustentáveis e que efetivamente um sitema de reciclagem seja implantado, é imprescindível que se compreendam todas as consequências envolvidas nesta ação e, principalmente, quais os reais ganhos para o ambiente (e para o setor) se isto ocorrer. Para que se possa obter um quadro geral dos impactos ambientais associados a estes produtos, uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas é a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV), que vem sendo cada vez mais aceita como resposta às indagações ambientais do novo milênio. Diante do exposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para um maior entendimento a respeito dos impactos ambientais na construção civil, por meio da realização de um estudo comparativo de ACV dos diferentes tipos de chapas de partículas fabricadas a partir de resíduos, que vêm sendo desenvolvidas na Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus de Bauru. As chapas foram fabricadas a partir dos seguintes resíduos: bagaço de cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp); folhas caulinares do bambu (Dendrocalamus giganteus); cavacos provenientes do beneficiamento das madeiras pinos (Pinus elliotti) e imbuia (Ocotea porosa). O estudo foi desenvolvido com base nas orientações metodológicas da série de Normas NBR ISO 14040 (2009), a unidade funcional adotada foi o m² das chapas e para avaliação dos impactos foi empregado o método EDIP. De acordo os resultados, as chapas produzidas a partir das folhas do bambu apresentaram o menor potencial de impacto ambiental, na maioria das categorias avaliadas. Em... / Regarding the pressure from various sectors of the society, the construction industry is becoming more concerned about the environment impacts associated at its activities, and recently, particular attention has being devoted to the use of waste in construction materials ans several research projects have been developed in this field. However, before labeling these products as sustainable and before initiate the production of any product based on recycling, it is necessary to comprehend all the steps involved in this action, and mainly, to quantify the real gains for the environment (and for the industry) associated to it. In the evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with these products, the most used tool is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is being increasingly accepted in research for the environmental goals of the new millennium. Therefore, the main objective of this master thesis was to study the environmental impacts in the construction, namely through the completion of a comparative LCA of different types of particleboards made of residues, which have being developed at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus of Bauru. The boards were manufactured using the following residues: sugar cane bagasse (saccharum spp); bamboo stalk leaves (Dendrocalamus giganteus); pieces from the processing of pine wood (Pinus elliottii) and imbuia (Ocotea porosa). The study was developed based on the methodological guidelines included in the standards series NBR ISO 14040 (2009). The functional unit adopted was the square meter of boards, and the EDIP method was employed for the impacts assessment. The results demonstrate that the boards produced of bamboo stalk leaves had the least environmental impact potential in most the evaluated categories. In contrast, the boards made of pine particles showed the largest environmental impact potential. Among the factors that most ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Le développement durable est la conceptualisation de la transition imposée de la Société humaine vers un modede développement soutenable pour la planète, pour trouver une solution de sortie à la crise de l’Environnement. Acet égard, l’écoconception est l’une des solutions que le monde industriel et entrepreneurial se propose de mettreen application. Elle consiste à prendre en compte les impacts environnementaux sur l’ensemble du cycle de vied’un produit (bien ou service) lors de la conception de celui-ci. L’intégration de la dimension Environnementsoulève une triple complexité : (i) celle liée à la nature multicritère de la dimension Environnement, (ii) celle liéeà la compréhension de la dimension Environnement par les acteurs de la conception de produits dont la résistancepeut être un frein à une bonne intégration, et (iii) celle liée au processus de conception et d’innovation d’un produit,spécialement dans le cas des produits complexes. Or malgré la multitude d’outils d’écoconception qui a étédéveloppée, peu de sujets de recherche s’intéressent à la prise en compte à la fois des aspects techniques etorganisationnels, lors de l’intégration de la dimension Environnement en phase d’innovation d’un produitcomplexe. Cette thèse vise donc à expérimenter, chez un constructeur d’automobiles, une stratégie d’intégrationde l’évaluation environnementale d’innovations incrémentales nommée E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutiveintegration of the Evaluation of the Environmental Performances of Innovative Complex Sub-systems). Mise enforme par des contraintes à la fois techniques et organisationnelles, la stratégie E3PICS emploie une démarcheprogressive d’intégration d’un référentiel évolutif d’écoconception dans les processus d’ingénierie avancéed’éléments innovants qui seront raccordés à des projets de développement des véhicules. La première étape estcelle de la conception itérative du référentiel évolutif d’écoconception avec l’équipe écoconception (au sein duservice Environnement) et les pilotes d’innovations, permettant ainsi un apprentissage croisé. La deuxième étapeest celle de l’accompagnement de l’ensemble des pilotes d’innovations dans l’utilisation systématique duréférentiel d’écoconception. La troisième étape consiste à développer un outil analytique d’évaluation de l’impactd’innovations sur la recyclabilité en fin de vie des véhicules. Elle nécessite la création de modèles de véhiculesafin de contourner le manque de données sur le système complet en cours de conception et de faire une projectioncet impact. La quatrième et dernière étape concerne le développement d’un deuxième outil analytique pourl’évaluation de l’impact d’innovations sur la performance environnementale sur le cycle de vie des véhicules. Dela même manière, cet outil nécessite une méthode de développement de modèles environnementaux de véhicules ;cependant, pour les impacts environnementaux calculés sur le cycle de vie, contrairement à la recyclabilité qui estcalculée sur le véhicule en fin de vie, ces modèles sont basés sur le traitement par classification ascendantehiérarchique de résultats d’analyse de cycle de vie de véhicules. Les expérimentations ont été réalisées chez PSAPeugeot Citroën. La stratégie E3PICS a permis d’intégrer dans les processus d’innovation, l’utilisation duréférentiel d’écoconception et de systématiser son utilisation, dans l’optique d’une amélioration continue pérennedes véhicules du constructeur. / Sustainable development is the conceptualization of transition imposed from human society towards a sustainableway of development for the world to find a solution to the crisis of the Environment. In this regard, ecodesign isone of the solutions that the industrial and business world proposes to implement. It consists of taking into accountthe environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product (good or service) in the design of it. Integratingthe Environment dimension raises a triple complexity: (i) the one related to the multi-criteria nature of theEnvironment dimension, (ii) the one related to understanding the Environment dimension by actors designingproducts who may resist and be a barrier to successful integration, and (iii) the one related to process design andinnovation of a product, especially in the case of complex products. But despite the multitude of ecodesign toolsthat has been developed, few research topics are interested in taking into account both technical and organizationalaspects, while integrating environment in the innovation phase of a complex product. Therefore this thesis aims toexperiment, by a car manufacturer, an integration strategy of the environmental evaluation of incrementalinnovations, named E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutive integration of the Evaluation of the EnvironmentalPerformances of Innovative Complex Sub-systems). Framed by constraints on the technical and organizationalconstraints, E3PICS strategy employs a progressive approach to integrate a scalable ecodesign repository inadvanced process engineering of innovative features that are connected to development projects vehicles. The firststep is the iterative design of the scalable ecodesign repository with the ecodesign team (in the EnvironmentDepartment) and innovation leaders, allowing cross learning. The second step is to accompany all the innovationleaders in the systematic use of the ecodesign repository. The third step is to develop an analytical tool for assessingthe impact of innovations on the recycling end of life vehicles. It requires the creation of models of vehicles tobypass the lack of data on the complete system under design and project impact. The fourth and final step is thedevelopment of a second analytical tool for assessing the impact of innovations on environmental performanceover the life cycle of vehicles. Similarly, the tool requires a method of developing environmental models ofvehicles; however, for environmental impacts calculated on the life cycle, unlike recyclability which is calculatedon the vehicle end of life, these models are based on the treatment by hierarchical clustering of vehicle life cycleassessment results . The experiments were performed at PSA Peugeot Citroen. The E3PICS strategy has helped tointegrate the processes of innovation using the eco-design repository and systematize its use in the context of asustainable continuous improvement of vehicle manufacturer.

Decision makers are challenged by complex sustainability problems within the socio-ecological system. In response, a vast range of sustainability-related methods/tools have been developed, each focusing on certain aspects of this challenge. Without a unifying theory it is, however, unclear how these methods/tools can support strategic progress towards sustainability and how they relate to each other. This need for clarity and structure urged some sustainability pioneers to start develop an overarching framework for strategic sustainable development (SSD), often called “The Natural Step (TNS) framework”, from the NGO that has facilitated its development and application, or the “backcasting from sustainability principles (BSP) framework” from its main operational philosophy. The aim of this thesis is to study if, and in that case how, this framework can aid coordination and further development of various sustainability-related methods/tools, specifically to increase their capacity to support sustainable product development (SPD). Life-cycle assessment (LCA), “templates” for SPD and systems modeling and simulation (SMS) are the methods/tools in focus. A new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the main sustainability aspects, LCA “impacts”, are identified through socioecological sustainability principles. This creates new opportunities to avoid the reductionism that often follows from traditional system boundaries or from a focus on specific impacts. Ideas of how this approach can inform the studied tools are given. This may eventually lead to a whole integrated toolbox for SPD (a “Design Space”). As part of such a Design Space, a new “template” approach for SPD is developed. A case study of a sustainability assessment of TVs at the Matsushita Electric Group indicates that this approach can create a quick overview of critical sustainability aspects in the early part of the product development process and facilitate communication of this overview between top management, product developers, and other stakeholders. A potential integration between BSP and SMS is also discussed. It is suggested that this should start with BSP to create lists of critical presentday flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS should be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the BSP framework. v Decision makers seem to need more of an overview and of simplicity around sustainability issues. A general conclusion is, however, that it is important that this is achieved without a loss of relevant aspects and their interrelations. Over-simplifications might lead to sub-optimized designs and investments paths. Combining the BSP framework with more detailed methods/tools seems to be a promising approach to finding the right balance and to get synergies between various methods/tools.