Dear Colleagues,

The design and development of products for daily use is changing due to the new drivers derived by the paradigm of sustainability with its three pillars: economic, environmental, social. Product manufacturing plays a critical role in the product’s life cycle, thus designers and engineers are encouraged to rethink the way products are conceived, integrating sustainable manufacturing aspects in the early phases of product design and development, anticipating the issues related to the production phase which include the reduction of environmental impacts by increasing efficiency of resource consumption and minimizing wastes/scraps, the improvement of working conditions and social equalities by carefully taking into account human resources and its integration within production systems, as well as the management of manufacturing costs for increasing the product and company-added value.

Consequently, the importance of manufacturing and assembly considerations in product development need to be viewed as a key subject for the overall sustainability of companies, since product development merges current markets, technology trends and regulatory demands into product features.

Papers exploring novel eco-designed products and the implications of eco-design methods in product development for a sustainable manufacturing with a critical focus on production technologies, sustainable management of production systems and product assembly are invited. Case studies focusing on the adoption of sustainable practices in the context of product manufacturing and assembly (i.e., reduction of energy/water consumption, reduction of emission, advance in social equality and human wellbeing) are also welcome.

The papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Claudio Favi
Prof. Marco Marconi
Guest Editors

Keywords

• eco-design
• sustainable design
• sustainable manufacturing and production
• product development
• design for manufacturing and assembly
• life cycle engineering

and related topics.  

More informations:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/eco_design