Design Management for Sustainability: An integrated approach for the development of sustainable products

The need for sustainable products has sensibly increased in recent years. Even though well-established tools have been developed to help designers in facing with environmental problems (i.e., ecodesign), a more user-centred approach which follows design for sustainability issues has not been proposed yet. On these considerations, a specific design for sustainability procedure, named Design Management for Sustainability (DMS), is outlined and tested through its application to the re-design of an engine driven grass trimmer. The proposed framework resulted in an effective design management tool, allowing us to perform design activities in compliance with the goal of sustainability. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.