The greenhouse potential of a sample office chair

Environmental profile: Product life cycle of the office chair

In a lifecycle analysis of a product all materials and environmental effects are taking into account. The result depends on the form of analysis used for example for the determination of the CO₂ potential. These environmental effects in the different lifecyle phases of the product can be divded into: raw material, manufacturing, distribution, product use and end of life. In our example of the office chair we can see that the highest environmental impact occurs in the phase of the raw material production.

The reason for the high CO₂ potential in this phase is based on the material intensive mecanism for adjusting the chair, the massive design of the bogie made out of aluminum and the plastic parts.

How can the results of the environmental profile can be used for in product improvement?

You can find improvement measures by searching for improvement strategies with the ECODESIGN PILOT for the basic product type e.g. raw material intensive or manufacturing intensive. Different measures are allocated for each of these strategies for furhter implementation.