Improvement of products' environmental sustainability through usage of life cycle modelling

The attention of regulators to environmental sustainability has deeply changed industrial strategies in product development and manufacturing. At the same time, customer awareness towards environmental performances is becoming even more important. In this context, ecodesign has to be considered as the most effective approach to optimize product development activities preserving at the same time companies' bottom line. On these considerations, the research focuses on the integration of product’s life-cycle simulation within product development strategies, with the aim of optimizing the life span of a product, tailoring its use phase, including maintenance and refurbishing/reconditioning operations, on the needs of users. In this ambit, a framework of a general nature, which could be used for the assessment and the improvement of maintenance activities from an environmental perspective, was developed and tested through its application to a gardening machine. Results show an improvement in the efficiency of the product in terms of technical and environmental performances, as well as an optimization of end-of-life strategies.