Design for Environment (DfE) is the systematic application of environmental and human health considerations at the product design stage. With a strong focus at the design stage, we can avoid or minimise significant environmental impacts and increase resource efficiency at all stages of a product’s life cycle – raw material extraction and processing, innovation, design, development, manufacturing, packaging and distribution, product use, and end-of-life.
Three key approaches shape the framework and practice of eco-design:
- Life cycle thinking
- Decrease environmental impacts early in the design process
- Environment as an additional design requirement.
We use the term Design when talking about Design for Environment throughout this website. In this broader sense, we implicitly include the innovation function as well; that is, that most of the guidance can be applied to the innovation process as well.