Environmental Complexity and Designing Activity

Abstract

In this part we describe the supporting methods and tools for analysis and design for environmental sustainability.Including the environmental variable in the design process makes the whole activity more complex (and interdisciplinary). New requirements (environmental ones) have to be taken into account and extended along all the stages and among all the actors of the life cycle. Actually, one has to have more information and assess more relationships:

• Between the production–consumption system and the environment

• Between different actors of the product development system

• Between the latter and the actors involved in the products’ life cycle