Sustainability criteria and sustainability compliance index for decision support in product development

Sustainability criteria used for decision support in the product innovation process and aligned throughout the design process is one key element to efficiently introduce a sustainability perspective early in product development. The aim of this paper is to present an approach for identifying such sustainability criteria and to suggest a process for how these can be developed in any manufacturing company. The sustainability criteria are presented in a set of matrices, separating the criteria into product life-cycle phases and socio-ecological sustainability principles. In addition the paper presents a qualitative measurement scale for the criteria, called a sustainability compliance index that indicates to what degree a product or process concept performs in relation to a sustainable solution. The sustainability criteria were tested in different settings at a case company within the aerospace industry to give a first indication and evaluation of the ability to give guidance and support in bringing in a sustainability perspective when developing, evaluating and selecting different concepts in the early phases of product development.