Criteria and Guidelines: Minimising material consumption:

Minimise material content:
• Dematerialise the product or some of its components (eg. 01)
• Digitalise the product or some of its components (eg. 02)
• Miniaturise
• Avoid over sized dimensions
• Reduce thickness
• Apply ribbed structures to increase structural stiffness
• Avoid extra components with little functionality

Minimise scraps and discards:
• Select processes that reduce scraps and discarded materials during production.
• Engage simulation systems to optimise transformation processes.

Minimise or avoid packaging (eg. 03):
• Avoid packaging
• Apply materials only where absolutely necessary
• Design the package to be part of the product.

Engage more consumption-efficient systems:
• Design for the more efficient supply of raw materials. (eg.04 E-cloth system by Enviro Systems).
• Design for the more efficient use of maintenance materials
• Design systems for the consumption of passive materials
• Design for the cascading of recycling systems. (eg.05 Integrated washbasin and flush toilet, Huib van Glabeek)
• Facilitate reducing materials consumption for the user (eg.06 Dual control water tap, Grohe)
• Set the product’s default state at minimum materials consumption

Engage Systems of flexible materials consumption:
• Engage digital support systems with dynamic configuration.
• Design for dynamic material consumption according to differentiated operational stages (eg.07 Dual control flush toilet, Duetto Cesame).
• Engage sensors to adjust materials consumption according to differentiated operational stages (eg.08 Fuzzy Logic Dishwasher, Rex Izzi).
• Reduce materials consumption in the product's default state.

Minimise materials consumption during the product development phase:(eg.09)
• Minimising materials consumption of stationery goods and their packages
• Engage digital tools in designing, modelling and proto-type creating
• Engage digital tools for documentation, communication and presentation

Minimising Energy consumption:
Minimise energy consumption during pre-production and production

• Select materials with low energy intensity
• Select processing technologies with the lowest energy consumption possible
• Engage efficient machinery
• Use heat emitted in processes for per-heating other determined process flows
• Engage pump and motor speed regulators with dynamic configurations
• Equip the machinery with intelligent power-off utilities
• Optimise the overall dimensions of engines
• Facilitate engine maintenance
• Define accurately the tolerance parameters
• Optimise transportation systems and scale down weight and volume of the materials and products
• Engage efficient general heating/cooling, lighting and ventilation in buildings.

Minimise energy consumption during transportation and storage
• Design compact products with high storage density (eg.10)
• Design concentrated products (eg.11)
• Equip products with on-site assembly (eg.12)
• Scale down the product weight
• Scale down the packaging weight (eg.13)
• Decentralise activities to reduce transportation volumes
• Select local materials and energy sources (eg.14)

Select Systems with energy-efficient operation stage:
• Design attractive products for collective use
• Design for energy-efficient operational stages
• Design for energy-efficient maintenance (eg.15)
• Design systems for consumption of passive energy sources
• Engage highly efficient energy conservation systems
• Design/engage highly efficient engines and power transmissions (eg.16)
• Design for localised energy supply
• Scale down weight of transportable goods
• Design energy recovery systems (eg.17)
• Design energy saving systems

Engage dynamic consumption of energy:
• Engage digital dynamic support systems
• Design dynamic energy consumption systems for differentiated operational stages
• Equip machinery with intelligent power-off utilities
• Program products default state at minimal energy consumption

Minimise energy consumption during product development:
• Engage efficient workplace heating, illumination and ventilation
• Engage digital tools for communicating with remote work sites

Minimising Toxic Emissions:
Select non-toxic and harmless materials:
• Avoid toxic or harmful materials for product component
• Minimise the hazard of toxic and harmful materials
• Avoid materials that emit toxic or harmful substances during preproduction
• Avoid additives that emit toxic or harmful substances
• Avoid technologies that process toxic and harmful materials
• Avoid materials that emit toxic or harmful substances during usage and disposal

Select non-toxic and harmless energy sources:
• Select energy resources that reduce dangerous emissions during preproduction, production, distribution and usage.
• Select energy resources that reduce dangerous residues and toxic and harmful wastes.

Select renewable and bio-compactable materials:
• Use renewable materials (eg.18)
• Avoid exhaustive materials
• Use residual materials from production processes (eg.19)
• Use retrieved components from disposed of products
• Use recycled materials, alone or combined with primary materials
• Use biodegradable materials (eg.20a, 20b)

Select renewable and bio-compactable energy sources:
• Use renewable energy resources
• Engage a cascade approach
• Select energy resources with high second order efficiency

Product lifetime optimisation:
Design for appropriate lifespan:
• Design components with a coextensive lifespan (eg. 21).
• Design the lifespan of replaceable components according to scheduled durability.
• Enable and facilitate the separation of components that have different lifespans (eg. 22).
• Select durable materials according to the product's performance and lifespan.
• Avoid using durable materials for temporary products or components.

Design for reliability:
• Reduce overall number of components.
• Simplify products.
• Eliminate weak links.

Facilitate upgrading and adaptability:
• Enable and facilitate software upgrading.
• Enable and facilitate hardware upgrading.
• Design modular and dynamically configured products to facilitate their adaptability for changing environments.
• Design multifunctional and dynamically configured products to facilitate their
adaptability for changing cultural and physical individual backgrounds.
• Design onsite upgradable and adaptable products.
• Design complementary tools and documentation for product upgrading and adaptation.

Facilitate maintenance (eg. 23, 24):
• Simplify access and disassembly to components to be maintained.
• Avoid narrow slits and holes to facilitate access for cleaning.
• Prearrange and facilitate the substitution of short-lived components.
• Equip the product with easily usable tools for maintenance.
• Equip products with diagnostic and/or auto-diagnostic systems for maintainable components.
• Design products for easy on-site maintenance.
• Design complementary maintenance tools and documentation.
• Design products that need less maintenance.

Facilitate repairs:
• Arrange and facilitate disassembly and re-attachment of easily damageable components.
• Design components according to standards to facilitate substitution of damaged parts.
• Equip products with automatic damage diagnostics system.
• Design products for facilitated onsite repair.
• Design complementary repair tools, materials and documentation.

Facilitate re-use:
• Increase the resistance of easily damaged and expendable components
• Arrange and facilitate access and removal of retrievable components.
• Design modular and replaceable components
• Design components according to standards to facilitate replacement.
• Design re-usable auxiliary parts.
• Design the re-filling and re-usable packaging.
• Design products for secondary use.

Facilitate re-manufacture:
• Design and facilitate removal and substitution of easily expendable components.
• Design structural parts that can be easily separated from external/visible ones.
• Provide easier access to components to be re-manufactured.
• Calculate accurate tolerance parameters for easily expendable connections.
• Design for excessive use of materials in places more subject to deterioration.
• Design for excessive use of material for easily deteriorating surfaces.

Intensify use:
• Design products and services for shared use.
• Design multifunctional products equipped with replaceable common components.
• Design products with integrated functions.
• Design products or components on demand.
• Design products or components on availability.

Improving lifespan of materials:
Adopt the cascade approach:
• Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower mechanical requirements.
• Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower aesthetical requirements.
• Arrange and facilitate energy recovery from materials throughout combustion.

Select materials with most recycling technologies:
• Select materials that easily recover after recycling the original performance characteristics.
• Avoid composite materials or when necessary, choose easily recyclable ones.
• Engage geometric solutions like ribbing to increase polymer stiffness instead of reinforcing fibres.
• Prefer thermoplastic polymers to thermosetting.
• Prefer heat-proof thermoplastic polymers to fireproof additives
• Design considering the secondary use of materials once recycled.

Facilitate end-of-life collection and transportation:
• Design in compliance with product retrieval system.
• Minimise overall weight.
• Minimising cluttering and improving stackability and compressibility of discarded products.
• Provide the user with information about the disposing modalities of the product or its parts.

Material identification:
• Codify different materials to facilitate their identification
• Provide additional information about the material’s age, number of times recycled in past and additive used.
• Indicate the existence of toxic or harmful materials.
• Use standardised materials identification systems.
• Arrange codification in easily visible places.
• Avoid codifying after component production stages.

Minimise the number of different incompatible materials:
• Integrate functions to reduce the overall number of materials and components.
• Mono material strategy- only one material per product or per sub-assembly.
• Use only one material, but processed in sandwich structures
• Use compatible materials that can be recycled together within the product or sub-assembly.
• For joining use the same or compatible materials as in components to be joined.

Facilitate cleaning:
• Avoid unnecessary coating procedures.
• Avoid irremovable coating materials.
• Facilitate removal of coating materials.
• Use coating procedures that comply with coated materials.
• Avoid adhesives or choose ones that comply with materials to be recycled.
• Prefer the dyeing of internal polymers, rather than surface painting.
• Avoid using additional materials for marking or codification.
• Mark or codify materials during moulding.
• Codify polymers using lasers.

Facilitate composting:
• Select materials that degrade in the expected end-of-life environment.
• Avoid combining non-degradable materials with products that are going to be composted.
• Facilitate the separation of non-degradable materials.

Facilitate composting:
• Select materials that degrade in the expected end-of-life environment.
• Avoid combining non-degradable materials with products that are going to be composted.
• Facilitate the separation of non-degradable materials.

Facilitate combustion:
• Select high energy materials for products that are going to be incinerated.
• Avoid materials and additives that emit dangerous substances during incineration.
• Facilitate the separation of materials that would compromise the efficiency of combustion with low energy value.

Design for Disassembly:
Reduce and facilitate operations of disassembly and separation:

Overall architecture:
• Prioritise the disassembly of toxic and dangerous components or materials.
• Prioritise the disassembly of components or materials with higher economic value.
• Prioritise the disassembly of more easily damageable components.
• Engage in modular structures.
• Divide the product into easily separable and manipulatable sub-assemblies.
• Minimise overall dimensions of the product.
• Minimise hierarchically dependent connections between components.
• Minimise different directions in the disassembly route of components and materials.
• Increase the linearity of the disassembly route.
• Engage a sandwich system of disassembly with central joining elements.

Shape of components and parts:
• Avoid difficult-to-handle components.
• Avoid asymmetrical components, unless required.
• Design leaning surfaces and grabbing features in compliance with standards.
• Avoid leaning surfaces around the product’s centre of gravity.
• Design for easy centring on the component base.

Shape and accessibility of joints:
• Avoid joining systems that require simultaneous interventions for opening.
• Minimise the overall number of fasteners and fastener types.
• Avoid difficult-to-handle fasteners.
• Design accessible and recognisable entrances for dismantling.
• Design accessible and controllable dismantling points.

Engage reversible joining systems:
• Employ two-way snap-fit.
• Employ joints that are opened with common tool. Use special tools when opening could be dangerous.
• Design joints are made of materials that become reversible only in determined conditions.
• Use screws with hexagonal heads.
• Prefer removable nuts and clips to self-tapping screws.
• Use screws made of materials compatible with joint components, to avoid their separation before recycling.
• Use self-tapping screws for polymers to avoid using metallic inserts.

Engage easily collapsible permanent joining systems:
• Avoid rivets on incompatible materials.
• Avoid staples on incompatible materials.
• Avoid additional materials while welding.
• Weld with compatible materials.
• Prefer ultrasonic and vibration welding with polymers.
• Avoid gluing with adhesives.
• Employ easily removable adhesives.

Co-design special technologies and features for crushing separation:
• Design thin areas to enable the taking off of incompatible inserts, by pressurised demolition.
• Co-design cutting or breaking paths with appropriate separation technologies for incompatible materials separation.
• Equip the product with a device to separate incompatible materials.
• Employ joining elements that allow their chemical or physical destruction.
• Make the breaking points easily accessible and recognisable.
• Provide the products with information for the user about the characteristics of crushing separation.

Use materials that are easily separable after being crushed.
Use additional parts that are easily separable after crushing of materials.