The relationship between environmental analyses and the dialogue process in product development

Eco-design tools ought to be made more useful, so that they become effectively used in companies to support improvements of product systems. This article discusses the interconnections between environmental analysis and integrative cooperation in the product development processes. The study focuses on two different assessment tools, life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental effect analysis (EEA), in three different combined uses. The discussion of the Eco-design methods focuses on integration in product development processes considering the relation to a product competitiveness perspective. The interviews indicate that the interconnection of methods is important as a key to real transformation of design practices. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.