Engineering designers' experience of design for environment methods and tools - Requirement definitions from an interview study

Despite an increasing number of Design for Environment (DfE) methods and tools, industrial utilization is still limited. Identifying Engineering Designers' requirements is a useful way to increase the utilization of DfE methods and tools. This paper is based on existing literature and a semi-structured interview study at an industrial equipment company. Different reasons why engineering designers utilize methods and tools are presented, as well what makes a method or tool actively utilized. Several engineering designer requirements for methods and tools are identified and described. Several identified requirements that a DfE method ought to fulfill are listed and described. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.