Table Of ContentSpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology
Suphichaya Suppipat · Treechada Chotiratanapinun ·
Kulthida Teachavorasinskun · Allen H. Hu
Design for Enhancing
Eco-efficiency of
Energy-related Products
The Integration of
Simplified LCA Tools
in Industrial Design
Education
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Suphichaya Suppipat •
Treechada Chotiratanapinun •
Kulthida Teachavorasinskun •
Allen H. Hu
Design for Enhancing
Eco-efficiency
of Energy-related Products
The Integration of Simplified LCA Tools
in Industrial Design Education
123
Suphichaya Suppipat Treechada Chotiratanapinun
Institute of Environmental Engineering Department of Product Design
and Management Silpakorn University
National Taipei University of Technology Bangkok, Thailand
Taipei, Taiwan
Allen H. Hu
Kulthida Teachavorasinskun Institute of Environmental Engineering
Department of Industrial Design and Management
Chulalongkorn University National Taipei University of Technology
Bangkok, Thailand Taipei, Taiwan
ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology
ISBN 978-3-031-15059-3 ISBN 978-3-031-15060-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15060-9
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Sustainability, Innovation and Assessment Center
(SIAC), National Taipei University of Technology, and the sustainable design
course teaching team in the Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Archi-
tecture, Chulalongkorn University.
Special thanks go to all industrial design students who participated in the sus-
tainable design course at Chulalongkorn University from the academic year 2012 to
2021. The authors also thank KG Support Limited for their English editing services
of this textbook.
v
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Sustainable Consumption and Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Energy-related Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 Restriction of Hazardous Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Eco-efficiency and Sustainable Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Sustainable Design and LCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Designer’s Guide for Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 What Is the Product Life Cycle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 LCA Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.1 Goal and Scope Definition and How to Define
a Functional Unit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.2 Inventory Analysis and How to Create Inventory Data? . . . 21
2.2.3 Impact Assessment and How to Indicate Environmental
Impacts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.4 Interpretation and How to Interpret the Result? . . . . . . . . . 26
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 LCA-based Design Strategies and Simplified LCA Tools
for Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Prescriptive and Qualitative Approach Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1.1 LiDS Wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.2 Ten Golden Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2 Comparative and Semi-quantitative Approach Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2.1 MET Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.2 Ecodesign Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.3 Analytical and Quantitative Approach Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.1 Eco-indicator 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.2 ECO-it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
vii
viii Contents
4 Challenges and Opportunities of Implementing Simplified LCA
Tools in Industrial Design Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5 Social Aspect of Sustainability in the LCA Methodology . . . . . . . . . 55
5.1 More Holistic Approach to LCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2 How to Put People Back in the LCT Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2.1 What Is S-LCA? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2.2 Timeline of S-LCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2.3 S-LCA Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2.4 Challenges of S-LCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.3 Implementation of a More Holistic Approach to LCT
in the Design Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6 LCA-based Tool Practice: Seven Steps for ErP Design
Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1 Define a Functional Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.2 Scope a Product System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.3 Investigate an Inventory Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.4 Draw a Process Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.5 Analyze the Environmental and Social Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.6 Define the Environmental and Social Hotspots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.7 Propose a New Concept Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Introduction 1
In response to the needs of the sustainability issues in design and manufacturing
industries, equipping engineering and design students in higher education with life
cycle thinking through the use of life cycle-based design methods and tools can
help them in enhancing their sustainable design performance. This textbook aims to
demonstrate how to integrate the concept of life cycle analysis and its practice into
the design curriculum. In addition, this textbook can be used as a guideline for
design practitioners to follow and explore how to combine life cycle thinking into
their daily sustainable design process. The first chapter, which focuses on the design
of the energy-related products (ErPs), begins with the foundational knowledge of
sustainable consumption and production (SCP), related directives for ecodesign and
ErPs, design for improving environmental performance and sustainable innovation,
and life cycle thinking application in design for sustainability.
1.1 Sustainable Consumption and Production
According to the Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption in 1994, SCP was
defined as “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs
and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and
toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of
the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations” [1].
To ensure SCP patterns, this Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12) consists
of 11 targets that should be met by 2030 and 13 indicators that are used to evaluate
the progress [2]. Among these 11 targets, eight outcome targets and three means of
achievement targets are shown in Table 1.1. Comprehension of the SCP framework
is essential for product engineers and designers who can create products and ser-
vices to visualize environmental information and offer the benefits of sustainability
to customers and end-users. The three main goals of SCP are (1) to decouple
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1
S. Suppipat et al., Design for Enhancing Eco-efficiency of Energy-related Products,
SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15060-9_1
2 1 Introduction
Table 1.1 Targets and indicators of SDG 12 (adapted from UN [2])
Targets Indicators
12.1 Implement the 10-year framework of 12.1.1 Number of countries developing,
programs on SCP patterns, all countries adopting, or implementing policy instruments
taking action, with developed countries aimed at supporting the shift to SCP
taking the lead, taking into account the
development and capabilities of developing
countries
12.2 Achieve the sustainable management 12.2.1 Material footprint, material footprint
and efficient use of natural resources by 2030 per capita, and material footprint per GDP
12.2.2 Domestic material consumption,
domestic material consumption per capita,
and domestic material consumption per GDP
12.3 Halve per capita global food waste at the 12.3.1 (a) Food loss index and (b) food waste
retail and consumer levels and reduce food index
losses along production and supply chains,
including post-harvest losses, by 2030
12.4 Achieve the environmentally sound 12.4.1 Number of parties to international
management of chemicals and all wastes multilateral environmental agreements on
throughout their life cycle by 2020 in hazardous waste and other chemicals that
accordance with the agreed international meet their commitments and obligations in
frameworks and significantly reduce their transmitting information as required by each
release to air, water, and soil to minimize relevant agreement
their adverse effects on human health and the 12.4.2 (a) Hazardous waste generated per
environment capita and (b) proportion of hazardous waste
treated by type of treatment
12.5 Substantially reduce waste generation 12.5.1 National recycling rate, tons of
through prevention, reduction, recycling, and materials recycled
reuse by 2030
12.6 Encourage companies, especially large 12.6.1 Number of companies publishing
and transnational companies, to adopt sustainability reports
sustainable practices and integrate
sustainability information into their reporting
cycle
12.7 Promote public procurement practices 12.7.1 Degree of sustainable public
that are sustainable in accordance with procurement policies and action plan
national policies and priorities implementation
12.8 Ensure that people everywhere have the 12.8.1 Extent to which (i) global citizenship
relevant information and awareness for education and (ii) education for sustainable
sustainable development and lifestyles in development are mainstreamed in (a) national
harmony with nature by 2030 education policies, (b) curricula, and
(c) teacher education, and (d) student
assessment
12.a Support developing countries in 12.a.1 Installed renewable energy-generating
strengthening their scientific and capacity in developing countries (in watts per
technological capacity to move toward more capita)
sustainable patterns of consumption and
production
(continued)
