Integration of eco-design tools into the development of eco-lighting products

Lighting products are widely used nowadays; however, their environmental impact is considerable and should be reduced. In order to contribute to the reduction, a novel eco-lighting product has been developed. The product has a number of eco-features, such as using LED as its lighting source and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material for its casing. Different eco-design tools were integrated into the design process, to significantly reduce the product's environmental impact. In this paper, the eco-design tools are introduced first, including databases, prescriptive tools, and analytical tools; then a detailed presentation is given to show how the tools were integrated in the product design specification, conceptual design, detail design and evaluation. A prototype of the product has been tested and compared with an existing LED lighting product of the same category, which was designed not following an eco-design method. The test and comparison results show that the new eco-lighting product performs the required functions with less environmental impact than the existing lighting product.