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Use of LCA in Green Product Design
Liila Woods,^*   PE Americas
Thaddeus Owen,   Herman Miller
Marc Binder,   PE Americas
Gabe Wing,   Herman Miller

Sustainable design is becoming an increasingly popular term used by product development companies. Design for the Environment (DfE) teams are often the structure for companies to address the elementary concerns such as recycled content and recyclability. As companies become more advanced, designing for disassembly and materials chemistry are additional DfE tools. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is another tool to examine the environmental impacts product in a multidimensional way. This case study will outline how a furniture company has incorporated LCA into its DfE process. A typical task chair will be assessed using DfE and LCA tools in order to highlight their relative strengths and demonstrate how they can complement one another.

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^* corresponding author: L.Woods@pe-international.com