GREEN DESIGN - AN INTRODUCTION TO ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Great hopes are being pinned on the potential of green design for reducing the lifetime environmental impact of products. However, before industry can make significant progress in implementing effective green design programs, many issues remain to be resolved and challenges met. A major current challenge, for example, is the still embryonic state of the science and methodologies at the foundations of green design. Furthermore, product design does not take place in a vacuum. It is impacted by a company's other practices and initiatives, and on an even larger scale by factors beyond the control of an individual manufacturing enterprise. Accordingly, this paper first explores challenges faced by product designers and environmental design specialists developing green design tools, then it examines green design issues challenges from the perspective of an individual company, and, finally, it discusses external factors and forces that impact green design.