Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been successfully used as an environmental assessment tool for the development of ecologically sustainable products. The application of LCA in the early design stage has been constrained by the requirement of large amounts of data and time for carrying out the assessment. In addition, the complexity of LCA causes further difficulties for product developers. In order to integrate the environmental assessment into the process of product development, this research proposes an integrated decision model for sustainable product development and a simplified LCA approach for the application in the early stage of product design. The main advantage of the proposed model is that it incorporates the environmental aspects of product development into the existing product development framework. It enables designers to strike a balance between the product???s environmental performance and other traditional design objectives. The simplified LCA approach is based on the concept and application of Environmental Impact Drivers. Material-based environmental impacts and Energy-based environmental impacts are used to predict the total environmental impact of a product. Two sets of impact drivers were developed accordingly. The Material-based Impact Drivers were identified by classifying materials into 16 groups according to the nature of the materials and their environmental performance. Energy-based Impact Drivers were developed for various energy sources in major industrial regions. Product LCA cases were used to verify the proposed methods. The results computed by the application of the impact drivers were compared with the results of full LCA studies. It is concluded that with the proposed approach, the product???s environmental performance can be assessed in a very short time and with very basic data input requirements and acceptable accuracy.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003

Thesis (MBusiness-Research)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, March, 2001. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economics, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-251).

Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 15, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2004. / Also available online.

Thesis (doctoral)--Delft University, 1991. / Summary in Dutch. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-206).

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2009. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed April 27, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.