1. course System Design for Sustainability . subject 2. Introduction to product Life Cicle Design (LCD) .
learning resource 2.2 Product Life Cycle Design . year 2007-2008
learning resource 2.2
Product Life Cycle Design
course System Design for Sustainability
subject 2. Introduction to product Life Cycle Design (LCD)
carlo vezzoli
politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . Italy
Learning Network on Sustainability
contents
Minimize the inputs and the outputs
Life cycle approach
Functional approach
LCD: environmental criteria/guidelines
carlo vezzoli . politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . italy
Learning Network on Sustainability

2. course System Design for Sustainability . subject 2. Introduction to product Life Cicle Design (LCD) .
learning resource 2.2 Product Life Cycle Design . year 2007-2008
2.2.1 Product Life Cycle Design: approach
Well finally, the discipline integrating environmental requirements within the design process it is
called Life Cycle Design, LCD1.
The environmental aim of Life Cycle Design is to reduce the input of materials and energy, as well
as the impact of all emissions and waste, both quantitatively and qualitatively; that also means to
assess the harm done (with LCA or other tools) by the processes at every stage of the product’s life
cycle (in relation to a give functional unit).
The economic/environmental presupposition of a life cycle development approach attempts to
intervene upstream in order to prevent dangerous emissions and reduce consumption of resources.
It is more effective and cheaper to prevent harm to the environment at the design stage than to try to
remedy things once the product is on the market. The importance of an LCD approach is therefore
to identify and bring together the environmental advantages with the economic and competitive
ones, i.e. to intervene upstream identifying all the opportunities for eco-efficiency.
In summary, there are two key concepts introduced by a LCD approach as described before:
• First to adopt an extended design horizon moving from product design to the design of the
product life cycle stages.
• Second the design “reference” that has moved from designing the product's function instead of
product itself.
To speak about LCD does not mean to focus on only environmental requirements, it is intended to
be a more general approach to design. Nevertheless, when we do consider, as it is our interests, the
environmental requirements, then the objectives will be to minimize the inputs and the outputs both
quantitatively and qualitatively. Obviously in relation to life cycle and functional unit and with
developed methods and tools to assess the environmental impact. The most reliable method is, as
mentioned before, the LCA.
2.2.2 LCD: environmental criteria/guidelines
When discussing LCD it is useful to bear in mind some of the following strategies that can direct
product development towards smaller environmental impact:
• minimizing resources
• choosing resources with low environmental impact
• optimizing the lifespan of products
• extending the lifespan of materials
• design for disassembly.
Minimizing resources denotes design aimed at reducing the usage of materials and energy of given
product or, more precisely, of given service offered by that type of product.
1 Among other similar terms, the most common are Eco-design and Design For Environment. They all indicate a designing
approach that aims at reducing environmental impact. However, Life Cycle Design expresses the basic criterion more forcefully:
the reduction of environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle.
carlo vezzoli . politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . italy
Learning Network on Sustainability

3. course System Design for Sustainability . subject 2. Introduction to product Life Cicle Design (LCD) .
learning resource 2.2 Product Life Cycle Design . year 2007-2008
Choosing resources with low environmental impact implies to design that selects materials and
energy sources with the highest environmental quality. It is a qualitative impact reduction.
To be more clear, selection of low impact resources means both:
• design for renewable resources (for future generations) and
• design for atoxic and harmless resources for all the life cycle phases.
Optimizing the lifespan of products is to design for extending product (and its components) life
span and for intensifying product (and its components) use2.
A product with longer lifespan than another similarly functioning one, generally determines smaller
environmental impact. A product with accelerated wear will not only generate untimely waste, but
will also determine further impact due to the need to replace it. Production and distribution of a
new product to replace its function involves the consumption of new resources and the further
generation of emissions.
Extending the lifespan of materials means design that valorises material from scrapped products,
so rather than ending up in landfills, they can be re-processed to obtain new secondary raw
materials, or incinerated (burned) to recover their energy content.
Now, speaking about post-consumption recycling we have to recognise its different phases:
• the collection,
• the transportation from collection place to recycling site
• the separation, meaning the disassembly and/or crushing the materials that are not compatible:
metals from plastic, but also the plastic that cannot be recycled together
• the identification of various materials
• the cleaning, for example from contaminating substances or adhesive label
• and finally the production of secondary materials .
All this means that, while designing for recycling, we should facilitate all those phases. Or rather
that design for the extension of the lifespan of materials does not mean simply choosing materials
with efficient recycling or combustion technologies, but designing to facilitate collection and
transport after use, identify materials, minimize the number of incompatible materials, facilitate
their separation and cleaning.
Finally, design for disassembly means better design for the separation of parts (for maintenance,
repairs, updating or re-use) or incompatible materials (waiting to be recycled or incinerated for
energy recovery). This strategy is therefore helpful in optimizing the duration of products and
extending the lifespan of materials.
2.2.2.1 Criteria priorities
For a given product, when speaking for example about a refrigerator or a chair or any other object,
some criteria have higher relevance than others.
So for a chair the life span extension will be more important than reducing resources of usage,
because the chair is not as consuming article as refrigerator.
Finally the criteria could also be conflicting. For example the use of a biodegradable material is
worth while, but for many products the duration is more important and a biodegradable material
2 Intensifying usage means that a (greater) number of people use the same product (or component) at different times. A product
used more intensely than others leads to a reduction in the quantity of product present at a given time or in a given place in order
to meet a given/the same demand for a function; i.e. it determines a reduction in environmental impact.
carlo vezzoli . politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . italy
Learning Network on Sustainability

4. course System Design for Sustainability . subject 2. Introduction to product Life Cicle Design (LCD) .
learning resource 2.2 Product Life Cycle Design . year 2007-2008
could compromise it. Therefore before even start to design, is important to identify the strategic
priorities, in other words the relative degree of importance of several strategies.
carlo vezzoli . politecnico di milano . INDACO dpt. . DIS . faculty of design . italy
Learning Network on Sustainability