According to the European Union, 80% * of the environmental impacts of a product are defined at the time of its design. This is because, in the design phase, all those elements that will define the impact of the project on the ecosystem are selected: materials, production processes and the product end of life.
Raw materials: the choice of materials requires a lot of time and extensive knowledge on what the raw materials market is, their characteristics and their possibility of implementation in scaled productions. Furthermore, organic materials cannot always be considered as a “low impact”: Consider cotton, which requires a large amount of water, energy and pesticides to be produced.
Production processes: a series of analysis can be activated that can determine the reduction of production waste, reduction in the handling of components / finished products, development of processes for recycling and use of water, etc.
Product end of life: the EU has given guidelines to ensure that European countries, and therefore companies, develop and implement policies aimed at encouraging the recovery, recycling or reuse of products. Take, for example, all household appliances, products with batteries, etc.