Development of a framework for assessing sustainability in new product development

Abstract

The area of sustainability in business is crowded with discussion and tools that are geared towards change at the organisational level (e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility). At the product level, there is a predominance of work focusing on environmental sustainability (e.g. Design for Environment). This work addresses the multiple aspects of sustainability that are involved in making decisions in new product development (NPD). A framework is proposed that maps different facets of sustainability against each stage of the product life cycle. This framework will provide the basis for an assessment tool to improve Design for Sustainability capabilities in NPD.