An approach to the EuP Directive and the application of the economic eco-design for complex products

Current changes in European Union legislation forces design engineers to incorporate sustainable thinking, environmental protection and eco-design into their design considerations. Many companies are concerned that integrating the eco-design principle into their product design process could result in increasing product cost and a loss of their competitive edge. Within this paper recent and possible future developments of the ‘eco-design of energy using products’ (EuP) Directive are discussed as well as the effects this has on companies. The main outcome of this research is the development of a design decision methodology that helps the design engineer of complex products to apply the eco-design principles without a trade-off on economic issues. The paper explains how the framework takes into account the product hierarchy and supports changes to the product design. Furthermore the paper presents an example of how the basics of the methodology are applied to a small household item.