Design for the Environment

The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft

An approach to achieve the ISO 14000 international standardization
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Keywords ISO 14000, Design, Environment, International standards, Product life cycle Abstract It is proposed that by adopting design for the environment (DFE) principles, US companies can easily comply with the environmental portion of the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14000 standards and become competitive in today 's global market. DFE concepts present unique challenges to designers and introduce significant changes in the company 's market share and profitability without sacrificing sustainable development. The design engineers must ask and answer questions about the life cycle of the product and its production process. Their goal is reducing overall production costs and environmental impact of waste production and disposal by optimizing energy and material consumption, minimizing waste generation, or by reusing process output waste streams as raw materials for other processes. Application of DFE principles in the first stages of process design can change a product life cycle by not only reducing overall cost, but also the environmental impact of production and disposal.

Design for the environment (DFE)
M. DeMendonca and T.E. Baxter Ë

Design for the environment (DFE) 51

Introduction The International Standards Organization (ISO) has initiated proactive environmental practices as a requirement for conducting business overseas with the release of ISO 14000 standards. Market forces are driving US companies to adopt ISO standards. The extent of worldwide participation on ISO environmental standards is a prime motivation for businesses of all sizes to conform to these standards as a condition for international trade. The

References: Altung, L. (1992), ``Editorial: the new milieu of manufacturing ' ', Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 11 No. 2, p. 1. Altung, L. (1994), Manufacturing Engineering Processes, 2nd ed., Marcel Decker, New York, NY. Billatos, S.B. and Basaly, N.A. (1997), Green Technology and Design for the Environment, Taylor & Francis, New York, NY. EMH 12,1 56 Boothroyd, G. and Dewhurst, P. (1987), Product Design for Assembly Handbook, BoothroydDewhurst, Warfield, RI. Clark, J.P., Nevell, S. and Field III, F.R. (1996), ``Valuing private and social costs of automobile emissions ' ', Proceedings of VDI Conference on Life Cycle Analysis, Wolfsburg, p. 15. Philip, A.M. and Willig, J.T. (1997), Moving Ahead With ISO 14000, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. Reijnders, L. (1996), Environmentally Improved Production Processes and Products: An Introduction, Kluwer Academic Publishing, New York, NY. Sasseville, D.R., Wilson, W.G. and Lawson, R.W. (1997), ISO 14000 Answer Book, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. Shina, S.G. (1991), Concurrent Engineering and Design for Manufacture of Electronics Products, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY. Wilder, R.V. (1990), ``Designing for disassembly: durable goods makers build in recyclability ' ', Modern Plastics, November, Vol. 67, pp. 16-17. Ë (Marcia DeMendonca is an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University. She has a BS degree in Civil Engineering from UFMG, Brazil and an MS degree and PhD degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her areas of expertise are biological treatment processes and drinking water quality. She is a member of the US Association of Environmental Engineering Professors (AEEP) and works in collaborative projects at the US-Mexico border. Terry Baxter is an Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University. He has a BS, MS and PhD degrees from the University of Kansas. He is a member of several professional societies, including AEEP and the National Society of Professors Engineers. Professor Baxter is also co-author of the book Environmental Management, Problems and Solutions.)