IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4488-d1656086.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From General to Company-Specific Ecodesign Strategies: Developing Guidelines for Eco-Efficient Product Design Across the Entire Product Portfolio of an Appliance Company

Author

Listed:
  • Enrica Monticelli

    (Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milano, MI, Italy)

  • Carlo Vezzoli

    (Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milano, MI, Italy)

Abstract

Increasing consumer awareness on significant environmental challenges, in addition to forthcoming regulations, is driving domestic appliance manufacturers to adopt an Ecodesign approach to more effectively and significantly reduce the environmental impacts along all of the life cycle phases of their products, minimising energy and material consumption, optimising the life of the product, facilitating recycling, facilitating disassembly, optimising material conservation/renewability, and minimising toxicity. This paper emphasises and discusses the significance of supporting this process by creating a company-specific handbook of guidelines and checklists to design low-environmental-impact products across an entire company’s appliance range. Checklists are design support tools intended to qualitatively assess whether, and to what extent, an Ecodesign guideline has been applied, enabling the evaluation of existing products or newly developed concepts, while also serving to guide and inspire sustainable design decisions. It is argued that these are effective tools in translating eco-efficient design into practice and guiding the whole of product development organisation through a knowledge-based approach. The Handbook of Guidelines to Design Low Environmental Impact Products is the result of a project commissioned by a home appliance company to the LeNSlab (research group on Design and System Innovation for Sustainability) of the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano, elaborated, after preliminary desk research, through a series of activities, interactions, knowledge exchanges, and operative workshops in cooperation with the company team of experts. The handbook contains 7 Ecodesign strategies, 27 sub-strategies, 157 guidelines, and related checklists, to be specific to such a level that they can effectively be applied to all types of company appliances.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrica Monticelli & Carlo Vezzoli, 2025. "From General to Company-Specific Ecodesign Strategies: Developing Guidelines for Eco-Efficient Product Design Across the Entire Product Portfolio of an Appliance Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-11, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4488-:d:1656086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4488/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4488/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shove, Elizabeth & Walker, Gordon, 2010. "Governing transitions in the sustainability of everyday life," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 471-476, May.
    2. Anna Yström & Marine Agogué & Romain Rampa, 2021. "Preparing an Organization for Sustainability Transitions—The Making of Boundary Spanners through Design Training," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Dongfang Yang & Carlo Vezzoli, 2024. "Designing Environmentally Sustainable Furniture Products: Furniture-Specific Life Cycle Design Guidelines and a Toolkit to Promote Environmental Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-26, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chan, Tommy Ho-Yin, 2025. "Socio-material perspectives on perceived accessibility of cycling: A sociological inquiry into practices, regulations and informal rules," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    2. Okereke, Chukwumerije & Coke, Alexia & Geebreyesus, Mulu & Ginbo, Tsegaye & Wakeford, Jeremy J. & Mulugetta, Yacob, 2019. "Governing green industrialisation in Africa: Assessing key parameters for a sustainable socio-technical transition in the context of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 279-290.
    3. Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen, 2021. "Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 241-260, January.
    4. Järvensivu, Paavo, 2013. "Transforming market–nature relations through an investigative practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 197-205.
    5. Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2017. "A Framework for Decoupling Human Need Satisfaction From Energy Use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 43-52.
    6. Lowes, Richard & Woodman, Bridget, 2020. "Disruptive and uncertain: Policy makers’ perceptions on UK heat decarbonisation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Jan Eelco Jansma & Sigrid CO Wertheim-Heck, 2024. "A city of gardeners: What happens when policy, planning, and populace co-create the food production of a novel peri-urban area?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(3), pages 705-720, March.
    8. Atsushi Watabe & Simon Gilby, 2020. "To See a World in a Grain of Sand—The Transformative Potential of Small Community Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Cherunya, Pauline C. & Ahlborg, Helene & Truffer, Bernhard, 2020. "Anchoring innovations in oscillating domestic spaces: Why sanitation service offerings fail in informal settlements," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    10. Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Huttunen, Suvi, 2018. "Linking practices of multifunctional forestry to policy objectives: Case studies in Finland and the UK," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 35-44.
    11. Dolores Koenig, 2021. "Labor‐saving technologies in Manantali, Mali," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 219-233, June.
    12. Maki Hatanaka, 2020. "Technocratic and deliberative governance for sustainability: rethinking the roles of experts, consumers, and producers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 793-804, September.
    13. Chad M. Baum & Christian Gross, 2017. "Sustainability policy as if people mattered: developing a framework for environmentally significant behavioral change," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 53-95, April.
    14. Fabíola Sostmeyer Polita & Lívia Madureira, 2021. "Transition Pathways of Agroecological Innovation in Portugal’s Douro Wine Region. A Multi-Level Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Torriti, Jacopo, 2024. "Governance perspectives on achieving demand side flexibility for net zero," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    16. Wifo, 2015. "WIFO-Monatsberichte, Heft 7/2015," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 88(7), July.
    17. Julien Vastenaekels, 2023. "Degrowth and Capital: Assembling a Power-Centred Theory of Change," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/362596, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Tallgauer, Maximilian & Schank, Christoph, 2024. "Challenging the growth-prosperity Nexus: Redefining undergraduate economics education for the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    19. Seyfang, Gill & Gilbert-Squires, Amber, 2019. "Move your money? Sustainability Transitions in Regimes and Practices in the UK Retail Banking Sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 224-235.
    20. Ilaria Vigna & Jessica Balest & Wilmer Pasut & Roberta Pernetti, 2020. "Office Occupants’ Perspective Dealing with Energy Flexibility: A Large-Scale Survey in the Province of Bolzano," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4488-:d:1656086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.