A Sustainable Design Repository for Influencing the Eco-Design of New Consumer Products

The goal of this research is to inform eco-design methods through the development of a large sustainable design repository, to provide a substantial amount of product data with which we can research and explore the relationship between product environmental impact and design attributes. The key research challenge being addressed through the completion of this research is one that has greatly limited prior research in sustainable product design – the preclusion of advanced sustainable design analyses due to a lack of comprehensive, accurate, and thorough product data collections. In this research, a sustainable design repository is developed to encourage meta-analysis of products, including using machine learning techniques to derive relationships between product environmental impact and product attributes, such as material selection, component geometry, and many others. Best practices for repository development and application are discussed in the context of applying eco-design knowledge in the creation of new consumer goods.