Together with LCE Srl, I’ve developed the EcoAudit tool that supports the designer during the decision-making phase through more sustainable solutions. As one of the most important requirements beside reliability, the EcoAudit tool needs to speak “LCA” in a designer’s language in order to support as much as possible the creative process.
The EcoAudit procedure is a useful tool in both the preliminary design analysis, when it necessary to outline the current situation, and when designing future strategies. The choice among different design solutions, in order to make a real-time environmental assessment of the different project hypothesis, is presented. In this way designers are able to manage the decision-making phase by taking into account the environmental burden connected with the hypothesis.
The EcoAudit Procedure derives from the LCA methodology in terms of structure, framework and requirements, but the procedure itself is simplified and refer to a limited amount of input data (defined as primary data, if the LCA terminology is adopted) and to data coming from very well established LCA databases (defined as secondary data, if the LCA terminology is adopted).
EcoAudit considers a limited number of impact indicators: e.g. the Gross Energy Requirement (GER) and the Global Warming Potential (GWP). However, it is easily possible to go through details when a more accuracy is needed.
By adopting the EcoAudit procedure, the eco-designer is able to assess rapidly the environmental burdens of a product, according to its whole life cycle phases. As a consequence the eco-designer is able to manage his design hypothesis and choices in a real and objective sustainable way.
The EcoAudit tool development has been performed with the cooperation of Life Cycle Engineering Srl and Granta Design Ltd.
|| B.De Benedetti, D.Toso, G.L. Baldo, S.Rollino (2009) – ECOAUDIT: a renewed simplified approach to facilitate the environmentally informed material choice, orienting the further life cycle analysis for ecodesigners – 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ECOMATERIALS (Japan), 2009
