Combining technical, environmental, social and economic aspects in a life-cycle ecodesign methodology: An integrated approach for an electronic toy

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:278

Article

Margallo, Maria¹  Ruiz-Salmon, Israel¹  Laso, Jara¹  Bala, Alba²  Colome, Rosa²  Gazulla, Cristina³  Fullana-i-Palmer, Pere²  Aldaco, Ruben¹ 

[1] Univ Cantabria, Dept Ingn Quim & Quim Inorgan, Avda Los Castros S-N, Santander 39005, Spain

[2] Univ Pompeu Fabra, Escola Super Comerc Int, UNESCO Chair Life Cycle & Climate Change, Pg Pujades 1, Barcelona 08003, Spain

[3] Elisava Univ, Sch Design & Engn, La Rambla 30-32, Barcelona 08002, Spain

关键词: Eco-design;    Electronic equipment;    Life cycle assessment;    Sustainability;    Toy;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123452

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The aim of this paper is to analyse the environmental impacts of the Conector (R) Enciclopedia, and to recommend and apply improvement strategies based on eco-design principles. For this purpose, the work develops a methodology that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) and eco-design. The LCA was performed using the GaBi 9.2 software and the CML 2002 method. To evaluate the influence of the operating hours of the toy two use scenarios were defined: 'minimum use' and 'continuous use'. The comparison was made on a common functional unit of 'hour of use'. Results showed that the environmental impact of the original toy was heavily dependent on the use phase, given the comparatively large impact caused by employed batteries. Beside the batteries, the electrical and electronic circuit and the game board were the components with the greatest environmental impact in the production stage. Based on the environmental profile of the toy, different strategies were identified, proposed to the company and developed in an eco-designed toy version. The new eco-designed version of the toy achieved approximately 50% impact reductions in all impact categories in the production stage, with very small investments. Despite the environmental benefits found in the eco-design product, the paper concludes that also the consumer acceptance and the technical and economic viability should be considered, trying to maximize the ecoefficiency of the solutions. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free