Product Innovations and Eco-Sustainability: An Approach to Evaluate the Relationships

Abstract

The academic and industrial literature presents a lot of innovations to improve the energy efficiency of the home appliances around the world. However, few methodologies are able to combine innovations and eco-sustainability, during the design phase of green products.In this context, the paper defines an approach to analyse the relationships between different types of innovation and the relative environmental impacts, during the product lifecycle. The analysis has been performed by defining innovations categories and comparing the product Life Cycle Assessment before and after their implementation. This approach represents the preliminary phase of the innovation process, required to support the product manager.The approach has been experimented within a household appliances company, highlighting that there are innovations able to reduce the energy and water consumption respectively of 25% and 30%.