Integrating life cycle assessment in the product development process: A methodological approach

Discussions on sustainable development are increasingly present and essential in the current scenario. In this sense, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an important tool to help ensure adequate sustainability by assessing products' environmental impacts in the development stage. This work aims to propose a methodology for LCA integration in the product development process. The proposed methodology was conducted in three macro phases: Pre-integration, Integration and Post-integration. These macro phases consist of four stages: choice of the reference product, LCA of the reference product, LCA integration in the product development process (PDP) and analysis of LCA integration in the PDP. Each stage has specific activities to perform. In LCA integration in the PDP stage, actions are presented for integration in each phase of the PDP and the analysis of the results of the integration is carried out through an assessment matrix that considers the impact categories and the phases of the product life cycle. The validation of the proposed methodology was given through an example for the development of a softener package, assisted by the Umberto LCA software NXT Universal. The developed methodology can help companies in the process of developing more sustainable products.