Product Developers Work with Eco-Design in Swedish Small and Medium-Sized Companies

Despite the many existing Eco-design methods and tools, their use is still limited. When they are used, these methods and tools are often not integrated in the product development process. The purpose of this research is, given a special focus on Eco-design methods and tools, to increase the knowledge concerning engineering designers’ use of methods and tools. Even though more and more approaches focus on how to perform Eco-design, as well as on what is required for its successful integration, there seems to be a gap between the developers and the presumptive users, e.g. designers. In the study, 12 CEOs, 5 marketing mangers and 12 design managers were questioned.