Stakeholders such as environmental directives and customer demands for reducing environmental impacts of a product require innovative and environmentally improved products. Therefore a systematic approach and effective methods and tools are needed in the early phase of product development.

The basic elements for optimized process management in the design department are described in this book.

The book provides twelve easy to follow steps for implementing ECODESIGN in a company. It gives clear advice how to integrate environmental considerations into product design and development, and combines ECODESIGN with Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Communication. Chapters on Product modeling, Life Cycle Assessment, ECODESIGN tasks, Product Improvement and Environmental Communication use the previously developed ECODESIGN PILOT (www.ecodesign.at/pilot) and show its application to a real product example.

The book comes with two web tools: one is the ECODESIGN PILOT, used to find measures to environmentally improve a product within a short time. The other is the ECODESIGN PILOT's Assistant (www.ecodesign.at/assist): an expert system, which helps to find the right improvement strategy for a product.

Audience: This book will be of interest to environmental and sustainability managers, engineers in research and product development, to designers, environmental experts, and consultants, as well as to students working in this field.