From LCA to PSS – Making leaps towards sustainability by applying product/service-system thinking in product development

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the standardised and globally recognised tool for quantifying environmental impact of goods and services. A key aspect in LCA is the consideration of whole life cycle systems. The application of LCA in product development inherently comprises the quest for optimisations on all system levels. However, as the act of ecodesign conventionally focuses on physical products, the search for potential optimisations is usually directed 'downwards', i.e. towards lower system levels, resulting in optimised components within products rather than optimised products within their surrounding systems. This paper will exemplify that when broadening the ecodesign horizon to environmental product/service system (PSS) design, there is a better possibility of applying a system-oriented life cycle thinking approach, and therefore a potential to yield extreme improvements towards sustainability

Design for Sustainability and Project Management Literature – A Review

AbstractThe growing pressure on natural resources and increasing global trade have made sustainability issues a prime area of concern for all businesses alike. The increased focus on sustainability has impacted the way projects are conceived, planned, executed and evaluated in industries. Since project management literature has hardly been considered in design for sustainability research, this article attempts to review the points of intersection between these two fields, and explores the potential that knowledge from project management literature has in improving efficiency and effectiveness of development and implementation of design for sustainability tools