Development of a low-carbon product design system based on embedded GHG emissions

The GHG emissions of a product throughout its life cycle must be estimated, with problematic parts and/or materials identified to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the product. Products are made of parts; thus, the amount of GHG emissions of a product depends on the GHG emissions of the individual parts. Parts suitable for product specification are chosen to form the bill of materials (BOM) of the product. This paper proposes a low-carbon product design system based on BOM using the embedded GHG emissions data of the parts. The embedded GHG emissions of a part represent the GHG emissions of the part for its entire life cycle, which is defined as the sum of two sets of GHG emissions: the first from the use of raw materials, manufacturing and transport of the part itself, and the second from the emissions allocated to the part during the product's manufacturing, distribution, use and end of life stages. A low-carbon product design system consists of several steps. The major steps include setting up establishment of the GHG emission target, establishment of the BOM structure, formation of the g-BOM (green house gas-BUM), estimation of the GHG emissions of the product, identification of problematic parts, selection of alternative parts and evaluation of the GHG emissions of the newly designed product. The applicability of the proposed low-carbon product design system was evaluated using a liquid-crystal display (LCD) TV module. The low-carbon product design system allows quick calculation of the GHG emissions of a product. Thus, a designer can easily and quickly evaluate alternative parts for the design of a low-carbon product. Case study results showed that a low-carbon product design can be simple and easy to apply in the evaluation of alternative design solutions; thus, making low-carbon product design possible during the embodiment design stage. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.