Continuous improvements are an integral part for the development of everyday life. These improvements do not only ascertain financial gain but also lessening the environmental impact. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the design process and the decisions required to achieve an optimal design with respect to weight reduction, while retaining the required strength. The study will also investigate the choice of material. This will be done through material and design studies, along with strength calculations of the product in question. The conclusion from this study is that it is possible to save a certain percentage of the material used, while keeping the strength, form, fit and function intact. The material study provided with a recommendation of the zinc alloy ZA-8. It is an alloy with a good combination of great strength, low density and price.

Bakgrund: För att underlätta organisationers ansvarstagande gällande miljöpåverkan har standarder införts med syfte att ge stöd i utformning av miljöledningssystem. Ett vida använt verktyg är ISO 14001 vilken framhåller ständiga förbättringar i förhållande till den enskilda organisationens satta miljömål. På grund av standardens generella utformning är det upp till den enskilda organisationen att implementera denna på ett sätt som bäst passar verksamheten. Forskning pekar på att ISO 14001 innehar en ledande roll då det kommer till tillverkande företags miljöengagemang. Dock påvisar forskare att standarden inte är tillräcklig när det kommer till kommersiella produkters miljöpåverkan, men att företag som varit ISO 14001-certifierade en längre tid ändå i stor utsträckning arbetar systematiskt med denna aspekt. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur miljöhänsyn utformas och implementeras i ISO 14001-certifierade företags produktutveckling då man utifrån tidigare forskning kan anta att detta innebär organisationsspecifika varianter. Metod: För att uppfylla studiens syfte har fallstudier i fyra svenska företag genomförts. Dessa företag har representerats av personer vilka besitter ansvar gällande miljöaspekter i produktutvecklingsprocessen. Vidare har studien baserats på sekundärkällor. Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen består av forskning kring miljöledningssystem, ISO 14001 och design med miljöhänsyn samt Røviks översättningsteori. Slutsats: Studien visar på att företag har utvecklade system kring tillämpning av miljöhänsyn i produktutveckling. Dessa stammar från rutiner härledda från de miljömål som formulerats enligt ISO 14001. Vidare engageras personal som arbetar i anslutning till produktutveckling genom utbildningar i miljöfrågor och det enskilda företagets miljöpåverkan. / Background: To facilitate environmental responsibility among organisations, standards with the purpose to provide support in the implementation of environmental management systems have been introduced. A widely used tool is the ISO 14001-standard which highlights continual improvements in relation to the environmental goals of the specific organisation. Due to the generic design of the standard it is up to the organisation to implement it in a way that is most appropriate. Research shows that ISO 14001 makes a difference when it comes to the engagement for the environment of producing companies. However, scholars stress that the standard is not sufficient regarding commercial products, but also highlights findings which suggest that companies that have been ISO 14001-certified during a longer period of time in a greater extent have conducted systems that manage these aspects. Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate how environmental responsibility is designed and implemented in the product development of ISO 14001-certified companies since one due to previous research can assume that this implies individual variances of the specific organization. Method: Case studies of four Swedish companies have been conducted in order to fulfill the aim of the study. These companies have been represented by individuals that possess positions concerning environmental aspects in the product development process. Additionally the study has been based on secondary sources. Theories: Research regarding environmental management systems, ISO 14001 and eco-design together with translation theory according to Røvik. Conclusion: The study shows that companies have developed systems regarding implementation of environmental aspects in their product development. These aspects derive from routines based on environmental goals formulated according to ISO 14001. Further, employees connected to the product development are educated in environmental aspects and the environmental impact of the individual company which accordingly affects the product development processes.

abstract: Urban water systems face sustainability challenges ranging from water quality, leaks, over-use, energy consumption, and long-term supply concerns. Resiliency challenges include the capacity to respond to drought, managing pipe deterioration, responding to natural disasters, and preventing terrorism. One strategy to enhance sustainability and resiliency is the development and adoption of smart water grids. A smart water grid incorporates networked monitoring and control devices into its structure, which provides diverse, real-time information about the system, as well as enhanced control. Data provide input for modeling and analysis, which informs control decisions, allowing for improvement in sustainability and resiliency. While smart water grids hold much potential, there are also potential tradeoffs and adoption challenges. More publicly available cost-benefit analyses are needed, as well as system-level research and application, rather than the current focus on individual technologies. This thesis seeks to fill one of these gaps by analyzing the cost and environmental benefits of smart irrigation controllers. Smart irrigation controllers can save water by adapting watering schedules to climate and soil conditions. The potential benefit of smart irrigation controllers is particularly high in southwestern U.S. states, where the arid climate makes water scarcer and increases watering needs of landscapes. To inform the technology development process, a design for environment (DfE) method was developed, which overlays economic and environmental performance parameters under different operating conditions. This method is applied to characterize design goals for controller price and water savings that smart irrigation controllers must meet to yield life cycle carbon dioxide reductions and economic savings in southwestern U.S. states, accounting for regional variability in electricity and water prices and carbon overhead. Results from applying the model to smart irrigation controllers in the Southwest suggest that some areas are significantly easier to design for. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2012

Products make substantial impact on environment. Design for Environment (DfE) is an approach to design where all the environmental impacts of a product are considered over entire products life. Since over 80% of the product costs are committed during the early stages, design can play a central role in reducing this environmental overloading by product. However, unlike cost and performance, use of environmental criteria and DfE is far from part of mainstream designing. Individual guidelines often exist for DfE but these are not integrated with design tools. There is a need for capture of the rationale in design process as a know how backup for later use. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is currently the most promising and scientifically proven technique for estimating environmental impacts of a product during its lifecycle. Current LCA tools are not well integrated with design process and CAD tools. Consequently, there is a need for an LCA tool integrated into the natural design process that can be applied to early as well as detailed design stages. Detailed LCA is critically dependent on high volumes of product specific data, time consuming, often unaffordable and used after the detailed stages of design. Current approximate LCA methods are either incomplete, inaccurate or require prior knowledge of what data is important There is substantial uncertainty involved in the environmental impact calculations in LC. While Literature discusses uncertainty of impact data, there is no discussion on how to calculate and represent the total uncertainty in the potential impact of a product proposal at any given stage in design with respect to LCA. There is a need for a method that can aid in decision making by supporting quantitative comparison of available alternatives to identify the best alternative, under uncertain information about alternatives. Often the likely performance, cost or environmental impacts of a product proposal could be estimated only with certain confidence, which may vary from one proposal to another. The overall objective of this thesis is to “Develop a support to the designers using which they can develop environmentally friendly product lifecycles in much the same way as they currently design products, at all stages of their design, while reusing information from their past design activities”. For this the specific objectives are to: 1.Understand how designers currently design products and what they need for developing environmentally friendly product design. 2.Develop a holistic framework for both generation and evaluation of environmentally friendly life cycle proposals. 3. Capture rationale as part of the design process. 4. Estimate uncertainty in the environmental impact assessment during design. 5. Evaluate product lifecycle proposals with multiple criteria under uncertainty. 6. Integrate design process with environmental impact assessment. 7. Apply environmental impact assessment through the design process. From the descriptive studies we found that there is substantial difference in the environmental impact among products having the same functionality generated during the same design process. Analysis of industrial products available in the market show similar results. This means that design can substantially affect the impact created by a product. In our studies, designers did not consider environmental impact as a criterion in evaluation and we also identified the typical activities performed by designers during An Interactive Support for Developing Environmentally Friendly Product Lifecycles designing that must be allowed, supported or taken into account while developing a support for environmentally friendly product lifecycle design (EFPLD). The requirements of the designer for support are: tools should be proactive, easy to learn, understand and use, allow understanding of design rationale, act as a checklist, reduce total time, store knowledge and experience as know‐how backup, useful in all stages of design, not require too much extra effort for analysis, integrated to CAD, aid in trade off between choices, show uncertainty analysis, aid in analysis & improvement, and consider all lifecycle phases. A holistic framework, ACLODS (is a acronym of the six dimensions) constituting the following six dimensions: a) Activities, b) Criteria, c) Lifecycle phases, d) Outcomes, e) Design stages, and f) Product Structure was proposed for development of environmentally friendly product lifecycle designs. Through descriptive studies we found mainly 4 categories and associated sub categories of uncertainty in information with respect to LCA in design. The four categories are uncertainty in product structure, lifecycle phases, data quality, and methodological choices. The sub categories are assemblies, sub- assemblies, parts, relations, and features in product structure, material, production, distribution, usage, and after‐usage in lifecycle phases, temporal relevance, spatial relevance and sample size in data quality, and temporal relevance, spatial relevance, and comprehensiveness in methodological choices. At any point of time, uncertainty in information available is an accrual of the combination of the individual uncertainties. A method called confidence weighted objectives method is developed to compare the whole lifecycle of product proposals using multiple evaluation criteria under various levels of uncertainty. It is compared with normal weighted objectives method and found to be better since it estimates the overall worth of proposal nd confidence on the estimate, enabling deferment of decision making when decisions cannot be made using current information available. A new integrated platform IDEA‐SUSTAIN is developed in this thesis for supporting synthesis in product development on a commercial CAD workspace, while also aiding automated capture and storage of the rationale behind the decisions for retrieval whenever required during design. It is extended to support life cycle assessment of product proposals created by automatically extracting the information already stored while designing and ask for other information required to model the lifecycle without much extra effort from the designer. Then it uses the method for uncertainty reasoning developed also as a part of this research to estimate the level of confidence on the impact value owing to the incompleteness in knowledge available. The estimation is possible at part, assembly or product levels, for a single lifecycle phase or multiple phases. Using in‐house design exercises and feedback questionnaire evaluation of support is done. The usage of Idea‐Sustain has been found to be the best for both generation and evaluation of product proposals. The two computer aided tools – software (LCA) and Idea-Sustain-are compared with each other for fulfilling the functional requirements by analysing the feedbacks given by the designers on these tools against these requirements. Idea‐Sustain fulfilled well most of the requirements while the software (LCA) fulfilled only some of the needs, that too less effectively.

ISO 14001:2015 is a certifiable environmental management standard applicable to any enterprise, large or small, in all fields of manufacturing or trades and services. It is the updated version of the previous ISO 14001:2004 standard. The updated standard contains a new High Level Framework which is expected to be used in the future by all ISO management system standards. ISO 14001:2015 sets out to implement methodologies such as the environmental management system and prescribes certification criteria including environmental policy and goals, important environmental issues, pollution reduction and continuous improvement of environmental efficiency. This report starts by looking into the documentation regarding life cycle perspective in the context of the ISO 14001:2015 standard. The revised model adopts a holistic approach across the value chain and encourages companies to accept a "life cycle perspective" with regard to the product and service design and development process. The methodology of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is also explored. The report goes on to examine another important aspect in environmental management which is the concept of Design For Environment (DFE). More specifically it is examined whether adhering to DFE principles can also help companies to adapt to the ISO 14001:2015 requirements. The concept of sustainable development in the context of ISO 14001 was given due precedence and it was found that ISO certified organizations will have an implicit awareness of sustainability because of the way ISO 14001 is structured. Corporate sustainability strategies were also discussed and this shed more light into how companies can

Design for Environment (DfE) promotes the systematic consideration of environmental aspects during product design and development. Despite the maturity of concepts and tools in literature, efficient implementation in industries is reported to be low. A need to bridge this gap is identified with studies that look on DfE practices as well as the use and potential of DfE tools. This thesis is part of a research project that investigates DfE practices and the use of tools during vehicle design and development. The aim is to investigate the ways that environmental constraints can be efficiently integrated into product development processes thus assist in improving the environmental performance of products from a life cycle perspective. The scope of the study includes four vehicle manufacturing companies in Sweden. The development and utilization of tools has been also investigated aiming to increase the opportunities for effective use within this product category. Case study methodology, research interviews and literature reviews constitute the research strategy followed in this work. The empirical results presented in this thesis indicated that vehicle manufacturing companies in Sweden are continually working to improve the environmental performance of their products and meet legal and costumer demands. Despite similarities regarding the type of environmental requirements considered, the companies studied have adopted different ways to identify and integrate environmental requirements into their product development process and use DfE tools to different extents. Such variations reflect differences in the success and maturity levels of the DfE practices adopted. A need for increased and more systematic use of tools is identified for all studied companies and especially for analytical tools. Results from the literature review showed that a variety of tools are available that have the potential to support vehicle design processes. However, only a few cover a broad set of aspects identified to be relevant from a vehicle design perspective. For DfE tools to become effective and be used during product development, they need to cover aspects that are relevant for the company and product designers. A need towards the development of tools that assist vehicle or product designers in general, to make informed and comprehensive choices based on a variety of requirements associated to the product, is identified. / Coupling Materials Environmental Analysis - Environmental Effects

The Swedish company Kockums AB, at the forefront within maritime and naval technology, is in need of a tool, document, and/or method to include environmental aspects in their product development process. This is mainly because of additional requirements put on Kockums AB from their main customer. Ship recycling is the major issue that has to be addressed and included in Kockums AB’sworking procedures. Moreover, ship recycling is a pressing issue to handle due to horrible conditions in South Asian countries, where most ship dismantling is taking place. For these reasons, the objective of this M.Sc. thesis was to integrate environmental aspects in the product development process at Kockums AB by designing and proposing a way of implementing a tool, document, and/or method. Environmental product requirements that Kockums AB is demanded to fulfill mainly derives from customers, classification societies, laws and legislations, and themselves. The Hong Kong Convention has been adapted, in 2009, but is yet to enter into force. Ship recycling is covered by the convention,and an ‘Inventory of Hazardous Materials’ has to be provided from the ship builder, and hence this is the main aspect for Kockums AB to consider. Naval ships are, however, excluded from the Hong Kong Convention. Kockums AB does not have a routine on how to handle environmental requirements nor are environmental aspects included in their product development process. Consequently, Kockums AB’senvironmental ambition should not be put too high and rather aim at follow laws. In an empiricalstudy, regarding environmental aspects at Kockums AB, difficulties were identified. Lack of environmental knowledge, communication problems, and misunderstandings regarding the ambiguous term environment showed to be most notable. The three most prominent success factors for asuccessful integration of ecodesign, from the conducted literature review and empirical findings, are education for employees, existence of an environmental champion, and top management support. A Long-term Environmental Action Plan (LEAP), which took the success factors into account and contains 18 Actions, was developed for Kockums AB, and is the ultimate result of this research. The LEAP was developed in accordance with ISO 14006, a new standard for incorporation of ecodesign in Environmental Management Systems, with the aim of reducing adverse environmental impactsthroughout a product’s lifecycle. Moreover, the proposed way of implementing the LEAP was based on a ”Plan, Do, Check, Act” methodology from Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS). POEMS focus on a product’s environmental efficiency throughout its lifecycle, by a systematic integration of ecodesign in the company’s strategies and practices, and hence continual improvements. This way of implementation should be familiar to Kockums AB because the company is certified according to ISO 14001, where continual improvement of environmental performance is a key factor. The proposed LEAP includes tools, documents, and methods that are to be used in daily work and product development at Kockums AB. It is a step towards environmentally conscious design and enhanced environmental knowledge at Kockums AB. Additionally, as a result of the LEAP, the expectation is that environmental conscious mindsets of employees arise.

Det är inte längre bara ekonomiska faktorer som bidrar till ett företags långsiktiga framgång, utan numera blir också sociala och miljömässiga faktorer allt mer påtagliga. För dagens moderna konsumenter blir hållbarhet ett mer centralt kriterium och allt fler anser att det är viktigt att företag arbetar aktivt med hållbarhetsfrågor. Produkter är en essentiell del i företags arbete med hållbarhet och de förväntas inte bara att skapa produkter som bidrar med nytt värde, utan de förväntas även göra detta på ett hållbart sätt. En övervägande del av produktens nivå av hållbarhet bestäms i produktutvecklingen, då dennes attribut i stort sett är fixerade när den är klar för produktionslinjen. Detta innebär att det är av central vikt att integrera hållbarhet redan i produktutvecklingen.   Denna studie kommer att fokusera på hållbar produktutveckling, där vi kommer ta en bred och okonventionell ansats genom att titta på designbeslut kopplat till produktlivscykeln, tillsammans med interna förutsättningar för utvecklingen av hållbara produkter, samt hållbara innovationer. Detta kommer sedan att appliceras i den svenska båtindustrin, vilket dels är en bransch vi är intresserade av och dels är en bransch där hållbarhet blir alltmer aktuellt. Det teoretiska ramverket är grundpelaren i studien och vår intention är att bidra med större förståelse för hur dessa teorier kan associeras med det som faktiskt sker i branschen idag. Vårt syfte är således att undersöka på vilket sätt och till vilken grad företag inom den svenska båtindustrin implementerar hållbarhet vid utvecklingen av nya båtar. Studien syftar vidare att fylla luckan gällande hållbar produktutveckling i den svenska båtindustrin, då detta är outforskat i dagsläget. Studien syftar även på att ge en mer sammansvetsad bild av hållbar produktutveckling och bidra med ett bredare perspektiv än enbart de individuella ämnesdelarna.    För att uppfylla syftet har vi genomfört en kvalitativ studie, där vi genom sex stycken djupgående semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare av svenska båtföretag har skapat oss en god inblick i hållbarhetens roll vid utvecklingen av nya båtar. Studien har präglats av ett deduktivt angreppssätt där vi har varit teoridrivna, samt att vi subjektivt har försökt att tolka och förstå informanternas syn och ageranden gällande hållbar produktutveckling i branschen. För att analysera det empiriska materialet har en tematisk analys använts, och det resulterade i att våra tre huvudämnen även bildade de tre huvudtemana.    Utifrån studiens resultat kan vi konstatera att hållbarhet i dagsläget inte har en övervägande roll vid designen och utvecklingen av nya båtar inom den svenska båtindustrin. Vissa delar av produktlivscykeln ser ljusa ut från ett hållbarhetsperspektiv, men det finns mer att göra i framtiden för att cykeln ska vara fullt ut optimerad. Rådande interna förutsättningar finns det också ljusglimtar när det kommer till hållbarhetsaspekter, men även här finns det stor utvecklingspotential för framtiden. Företagens innovationsarbete när det gäller hållbarhet präglas till stor del av försiktighet, vilket förmodligen lämpar sig bäst för marknaden i dagsläget. Marknadskraven på hållbarhet förväntas dock öka i framtiden och i takt med att företagen ser det som en affärsmöjlighet kommer förändringar mycket troligt att ske i deras innovationsarbete.

<p>This investigation strives to determine the level of ecodesign awareness as well as to map the use of methods and tools for this concept in the electrical and electronics industries of Thailand.</p><p>The foundation of the thesis is eight semi-structured qualitative research interviews performed with various people at Thai organisations, an electronics manufacturer in Thailand, and experts from Swedish, Danish and Thai universities. The research method has yielded the following results:</p><p>The level of ecodesign awareness within the country is low, and so is the general level of environmental knowledge. The concept of Life Cycle thinking is mostly unknown, and at best used only to parts of its full potential. The ecodesign education is limited to basic courses at university level and much of the problems with the use of methods and tools for ecodesign can be traced to the lack of ecodesign knowledge amongst its presumptive users. Respondents of this research suggests that the ecodesign knowledge and awareness is significantly higher amongst larger companies with foreign connections than it is amongst Small and Medium sized Enterprises of Thailand, which often have no such contacts.</p><p>At present, efforts are being made to educate Thai companies in ecodesign through networking, seminars, workshops and student/expert internships. These endeavours have been arranged by various organizations with the aid from foreign experts and have resulted in successful ecodesign/redesign of products within Thailand.</p><p>Stakeholder demands such as cost-down or legislation compliance demands are the main driving forces for ecodesign in Thailand, and very few attempts at ecodesign for the pure benefit of the environment are being made.</p><p>Present trends suggest that the future of ecodesign in Thailand will include the finalisation of a Thai-RoHS directive and possibly further work on a Thai-WEEE directive as well.</p><p>As for Life Cycle thinking, practices of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are still basic, but some uses of such LCA tools as SimaPro and GaBi have been proven. Commercial LCA software licenses are considered expensive by most Thai companies and it has become common practice to utilize licenses bought by organisations instead of buying licenses for one’s own company. This results in high costs having to be carried by the organisations and diminishes investment possibilities in other ecodesign fields. At current, LCI data is being requested by companies and might lead to more work being made in this area in the future.</p><p>In conclusion, more effort needs to be put into education on all levels and the application of educational methods and tools is advised.</p><p> </p>

This investigation strives to determine the level of ecodesign awareness as well as to map the use of methods and tools for this concept in the electrical and electronics industries of Thailand. The foundation of the thesis is eight semi-structured qualitative research interviews performed with various people at Thai organisations, an electronics manufacturer in Thailand, and experts from Swedish, Danish and Thai universities. The research method has yielded the following results: The level of ecodesign awareness within the country is low, and so is the general level of environmental knowledge. The concept of Life Cycle thinking is mostly unknown, and at best used only to parts of its full potential. The ecodesign education is limited to basic courses at university level and much of the problems with the use of methods and tools for ecodesign can be traced to the lack of ecodesign knowledge amongst its presumptive users. Respondents of this research suggests that the ecodesign knowledge and awareness is significantly higher amongst larger companies with foreign connections than it is amongst Small and Medium sized Enterprises of Thailand, which often have no such contacts. At present, efforts are being made to educate Thai companies in ecodesign through networking, seminars, workshops and student/expert internships. These endeavours have been arranged by various organizations with the aid from foreign experts and have resulted in successful ecodesign/redesign of products within Thailand. Stakeholder demands such as cost-down or legislation compliance demands are the main driving forces for ecodesign in Thailand, and very few attempts at ecodesign for the pure benefit of the environment are being made. Present trends suggest that the future of ecodesign in Thailand will include the finalisation of a Thai-RoHS directive and possibly further work on a Thai-WEEE directive as well. As for Life Cycle thinking, practices of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are still basic, but some uses of such LCA tools as SimaPro and GaBi have been proven. Commercial LCA software licenses are considered expensive by most Thai companies and it has become common practice to utilize licenses bought by organisations instead of buying licenses for one’s own company. This results in high costs having to be carried by the organisations and diminishes investment possibilities in other ecodesign fields. At current, LCI data is being requested by companies and might lead to more work being made in this area in the future. In conclusion, more effort needs to be put into education on all levels and the application of educational methods and tools is advised.