Eco-design

Looking for a new 'take' on innovative product development? Interested in manufacturing your product more efficiently? Then discover eco-design as a method for obtaining a more complete product.

Every product exerts a certain impact on the environment. Minimising this impact is beneficial to the environment and in other areas as well. Analysing the environmental impact caused by a product during the design process allows product adjustments to be implemented without involving substantial investments or costs. The use of eco-design in the design process takes a product to a higher innovative plane. For example, a product may remain on the market longer or position itself more effectively. Both small, simple and large, complex products are suitable for eco-design. It is all about gaining an insight into the environmental impact of each phase of the product's life cycle.

OVAM (the Public Waste Agency of Flanders) sees huge potential in eco-design as an eco-efficiency application and as part of prevention at the source. Eco-design also aims to provide information to and support those involved in the product chain. Activities range from disseminating information through workshops and seminars, publications, the electronic newsletter and this website, to identifying needs as they present themselves and evaluating initiatives that may correspond to these. In this way, we stimulate the use of and develop instruments for utilising eco-design.

What is Eco-design?

The aim of eco-design is to integrate environmental aspects into the design phase of a product alongside traditional criteria such as functionality, aesthetics, ergonomics and safety. The most commonly used definition of eco-design is that it is an integral design activity that aims to ensure that the designer/product developer, when making design decisions, considers the environmental consequences throughout all phases of the product's life cycle: from obtaining raw materials to the moment at which the product is disposed of and is again used as a base material for new products.

Eco-design therefore enables the environmental impact of products to be limited right from the design and development phase. This may involve reducing energy consumption, for example, by reducing the total environmental impact of materials used, by avoiding hazardous substances or by seeking an optimum combination. It is extremely important that eco-design is implemented during the design phase because significant product adjustments can still be made at this stage without having to make substantial investments or incur heavy costs. If this is implemented at a later stage in production development it will have a much bigger impact on the development's cost price. Using eco-design in the design process also often leads to the product design being much more innovative than if a classic design process had been used.