Development of a Methodology for Containment of Solution Spaces to Identify Eco-Friendly Product Concepts

Recently, awareness of environmental issues like resource scarcity has increased sharply. Consequently, governments and international organizations have enacted regulations, prompting companies to establish sustainability targets. In the concept phase of product development, foundations are laid for the product’s environmental impact. However, assessing these impacts is challenging due to insufficiently specified product details especially in the early development phase. The aim of this approach is to develop a method for breaking down ecological sustainability targets into product concepts and to narrow down the solution space in order to support decision making in early development stages towards reaching regulatory sustainability targets.