ISSN:
0956-6163
Source:
Emerald Fulltext Archive Database 1994-2005
Topics:
Medicine
,
Economics
Notes:
In Belgium, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not very aware of the possibility of integrating the life cycle concept in the development of products. "Ecodesign" is more a topic of interest for larger companies. In this context, the Flemish Government, more specifically the Public Waste Agency of the Flemish Region (OVAM), launched a demonstration project, which aimed to check whether SMEs are capable of taking account of the environmental aspects of their products over the entire life cycle and creating more environment-friendly products. The results of this project in the participating companies were fairly positive. However, the project also showed that there are several factors that influence the failure or success of ecodesign in a company. To screen the ecodesign potential of a company, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) developed a tool, called the "Quick Scan". Another conclusion of the demonstration project was that a very important success factor for an ecodesign project is the tool the company applies to analyse the environmental impacts of the product over the entire life cycle. Anticipating this problem, Vito developed a selection scheme that allows a company to select the most appropriate tool for the environmental analysis of their products, based on a number of criteria.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005706
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