Sustainability principles for product design

Sustainable Development encompasses three aspects: care for the environment, responsible social concern and economic viability. How can these principles be incorporated into product design? Historically it is the third principle, economic viability, which has driven the agenda. Classically the challenge has been to optimise the three "P"s - promise, performance, price. Today, the other two principles must be factored into the design process if products are to be successful in the market-place and ensure the sustainability of the business which created them. Environmental design principles are built around life cycle assessment (LCA) understanding the environmental impacts throughout the whole value chain "from cradle to grave". Social factors to be considered include sourcing policies for raw materials, health and safety at work in manufacture, health and safety in use and disposal. Regulation is an increasingly important design driver. For example, European Directives on Packaging Waste, End of Life Vehicles, and Waste Electronic Equipment are setting new constraints and opportunities. Also society and the investment community are looking for measures of environmental and social performance in addition to the traditional financial measures. Indices such as Dow-Jones SAM and Business in the Environment (BiE), underpinned by criteria developed through the Global Reporting Index (GRI) are being used to discriminate business performance in sustainable development.