Ecodesign is an approach for product development, which focuses on minimizing
the environmental impacts of the product during the whole life cycle while
maintaining the major concerns such as function, usability, aesthetic and
ergonomic qualities. This approach is regarded as a fundamental step to achieve
sustainable production, consumption and development.
The thesis examines the current situation of ecodesign in Turkish Industry, in
relation to design and manufacturing. First, it introduces the literature on
ecodesign in general, and more specifically, it presents a comparative analysis
of six international studies with an aim to explore internal and external stimuli
for promoting ecodesign, as well as reflections on barriers that were
encountered. Then, literature review on ecodesign activities in Turkish industry
is discussed. To complement these findings, the results of the interviews
conducted with three stakeholder groups (i.e. government, universities and
industry) are presented. Finally, the results of a study that was conducted in
Turkish packaging, and electric & / electronics sectors to understand approaches
of environmentally-conscious product development, the drivers and the barriers
of ecodesign implementation into these sectors are revealed.
The level of ecodesign implementation is found to be strongly related with the
economic situation of Turkish context, which is the most important determining
factor for the drivers and barriers found in the study. Acquiring a more stable
economic situation, ecodesign will become a considerable competitive advantage
through: (i) reduction of manufacturing costs in the long term, (ii) innovational
approach in the manufacturing process and product development, and (iii)
increasing brand awareness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12610013/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 October 2008 |
| Creators | Gurakar, Ece |
| Contributors | Sener-pedgley, Bahar |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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