Use of Ecobalances in an Innovation Project for New Packaging
New laws, labels, and increased customer awareness are boosting demand for eco-friendly products and services. The ecobalance or lifecycle assessment (LCA) is a means of assessing a product's environmental impact.
Procedure:
- Ecobalance philosophy incorporated into concept design at an early stage
- Rough concepts defined
- System limit for ecobalance assessments set
- Energy consumption and EcoIndicator99 values calculated for the entire lifecycle
- Costs estimated for the various concepts
- Critical factors and potential for improvement identified
- Concepts compared from ecological and economic perspectives
- Outcome documented for marketing purposes
Customer: household appliance manufacturer
