1. Assessing environmental performance

Eco-design is generally based on three main successive stages.

• A preliminary environmental assessment of the reference product or service: this takes the form of the system you want to improve or competing alternatives. This initial phase will provide you with an overview of the environmental performance of these systems and enable you to define your environmental impact reduction targets.

• The development of an eco-innovative solution: this second phase draws on various design support tools and methods and may also be subject to environmental assessments.

• Capitalizing on knowledge acquired during the design process: this information will be reused in subsequent iterations and will feed into design support tools.

These three phases are therefore...