Customer benefits in the context of life cycle design

To reach eco-effective products, designers and managers must start an environmental dialogue. Products must be given a total environmental profile that the customers can rely on. Too many examples show that green products can be “green” just on the surface. Eco-performance must be optimised together with a preserved customer benefit of the product. One common tool to reach green products is life cycle assessments (LCA). However, the functional unit (benefit to the customer) is too vague in early product development to be of guidance and it is easy to manipulate the function of the product and in this way achieve a greener product