A Framework for Determining the Life Time Energy Consumption of a Product at the Concept Design Stage

As the world's population continues to increase so too does the demand for energy. The problem with this is that most countries’ energy comes from carbon based sources, which accounts for more than a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing of products is one of the largest contributors to environmental impacts such as CO2emissions. Designers and manufacturers play a significant part in determining a products environmental footprint. New methods are needed to assist designers to shift from the traditional method of design, which is cradle-to-gate to the whole product life cycle of cradle-to-grave. This paper presents a framework to assist designers in determining the energy consumption of product concept(s) at the early conceptual design stage. The presented methodology can help designers to understand the impact a decision has in the design stage on the whole product life cycle.