Understanding the real impact of DFE guidelines: A case study of four generations of telephones

This research addresses a fundamental question regarding the effectiveness of existing design for environment (DFE) guidelines. The study attempts to understand the improvement in a product's environmental performance directly attributable to the DFE tools and how much results simply from other design objectives or enabling technologies. Four generations of a business telephone, with the latest version designed using state-of-the-art DFE guidelines, are examined using lifecycle assessment and demanufacturing analysis to evaluate environmental lifecycle performance. This information is used to forecast the progression to a present day, non-DFE phone. By overlaying comparable information generated by analyzing the current DFE-designed phone, the true impact of DFE on the product can be assessed.