Environmental Analysis of Designed Products Using Standalone and CAx-Integrated Tools

In light of the increasing environmental requirements and the need to optimize design processes, tools that enable the assessment of the environmental impacts of products throughout their entire life cycles are becoming increasingly important. In this study, we conducted an original comparative analysis of selected software programs that support eco-design to assess whether two IT tools with the implementation of identical life cycle assessment (LCA) methods provide similar results. We conducted the analysis using specially developed reference models of two products, and we focused on comparing two approaches: (1) the preparation of 3D CAD products and the performance of LCA analyses within an integrated environment—Eco Designer on the modern 3DExperience platform; (2) the development of the selected life cycle phases of the reference products and the performance of LCA in the SimaPro autonomous environment. The comparison showed that the choice of software can significantly affect the results, which means that using these tools requires expert knowledge. Conclusions drawn from this study highlight the need for the further development of tools supporting eco-design, particularly regarding their better integration with CAx systems, the increased automation of analyses, and the standardization and unification of databases in environmental assessment software.