It is good practice for any design activity or material or process development to include consideration of the environmental impact in manufacture, in use and at end of life. There are several resources available to help consider these impacts.
- The Sustainability of Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites – A Good Practice Guide
- EuCIA Eco Impact Calculator
Simplified LCA tool for calculating the environmental impact of composite products from cradle-to-gate: from the raw materials up to the point-of-sale. Users can calculate, save and export the environmental impacts of composite products and components.
- EcoCalculator for Beginners
An analysis of the environmental impact of composites must cover the entire process flow, ranging from the synthesis of raw materials (resins and fibres), to the production of components, then moving on to their use until final disposal.
- Circular Design Toolkit, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
A selection of curated resources including links to online learning courses, conversations with experts, workshops and methods, as well as online spaces where you can connect with other circular designers. - Circular Composites: A Design Guide for Products Containing Composite Materials in a Circular Economy
This guide focuses on developing new product concepts for a circular economy, exploring the product value chain, with a circular product design framework which can be used to detail circular strategies and identify relevant design aspects. Developed in Horizon 2020 project, Ecobulk.
- 12 Principles of Green Chemistry
Developed by Paul Anastas and John Warner in 1998, the principles outline an early conception of what would make a greener chemical, process, or product. A good checklist if you are developing bio-based materials chemistry.
- Towards Design-for-Recyclability and Sustainable Manufacturing
MSC Software/Hexagon Document looking at saving the planet with design & engineering simulation
- GRANTA Selector includes:
- Eco Audit Tool: To identify the major contributions to environmental impact
- Materials Selection Tools: To find materials that minimize eco impact while meeting cost and performance objectives
- Eco property data for 1000s of materials
- Restricted Substance (REACH, Sin List) and RoHS indicators
- Five Steps to Eco Design: Improving the Environmental Performance of Products through Design, Granta Material Intelligence
A short booklet providing advice on how you can tackle environmental issues within product design in an integrated and cost-effective manner.
- Renuables downloads. Short introductions to LCA, Carbon footprints, EPDs, Cascading, Industrial Ecology.
- The Great Recovery Project, was a project by the RSA working with Innovate UK which ran between 2012 and 2016. It looked at the challenges of waste and the opportunities of a circular economy through the lens of design.
If you have other resources to add to this page, please contact us. Composites UK cannot validate and is not responsible for the content of resources produced by others.