Integration of LCA and EcoDesign Guidelines in a Virtual CAD Framework

The necessity to create products and services qualified in terms of Environmental Sustainability is more and more growing in Europe, as in the other parts of the world. On this general assumption, it is important to develop an environmental methodology, matching the CAD/3D modelling tools, the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) tools and the EcoDesign guidelines. This paper intends to show how some defined environmental parameters, currently used within the Life Cycle Assessment procedures, can be transferred to the traditional design approach, adding another element of qualification to the design. In particular, the methodology will show how, at pilot scale, some defined environmental indicators, related to the design products, can be inserted into the traditional design processes and then can be used by the designer for improving some quality aspects of its activity. The selection of several defined indicators comes from the intention of not adding too many heavy procedures to the activity of the designer, otherwise there is the risk that the environmental information can be not appreciated and correctly used for improving the product in the design phase. This methodology is addressed to develop a tool easily usable from the designers and, in the same time, able to give them some quality information for improving their current project.