*2.3. Eco-E*ffi*cient Value Creation*

In search of sustainable business models, product innovation must fulfil the double objective of eco-efficiency [39–41]. To achieve this objective, it is an imperative that the value, the total costs of ownership, and the eco-burden of a product are analysed at the beginning of the design process (idea generation and concept development).

The successful design options for Eco-efficient Value Creation are:


End-of-life solutions are important as well. Landfill reduces the value of the total system, and leads to higher eco-costs. Recycling (as well as re-use and remanufacturing) results in an added value combined with lower eco-costs ('end-of-life credits' in LCA).

A comprehensive checklist on the reduction of eco-costs is provided by the LiDS Wheel of Eco-Design [12], but the real issue of eco-efficient value creation is how to enhance the Customer Perceived Value of a green product at the same time. Mestre [13] studied the eco-efficient value creation with cork as bio-based material, and described the basic principles for the fuzzy front end of the design, see Figure 7, where, according to Mestre, "it is the talent of the designer that creates the value of the product" (page 13). In fact, sometimes a bit more eco-costs must be allowed to enhance the value considerably, leading to a better EVR score of the design.

**Figure 7.** The basics of eco-efficient value creation in the fuzzy front end of the design [13].

Figure 7 clearly shows that the transformation towards a circular economy fulfils the double obligation of eco-efficient value creation. However, it also shows that designing a sustainable circular system needs to address more than circularity only: other aspects such as clean production, minimum transport and optimal marketing play an important role as well. To assess the environmental aspects (eco-costs), LCA is an indispensable tool throughout all stages of product development, see Figure 8. However, the classical LCA approach is only doable at the final detailed design stage, because it is too laborious [42]. To enable LCA-based materials selection in the fuzzy front end of idea generation, excel look-up tables [31] and an app for IOS and Android have been developed [43]. A special version of this app can make Fast Track LCAs, to optimize the design in the concept development phase (e.g., to analyse the trade-off of choices on materials, transport distances, and required energies).

**Figure 8.** The use of LCA during all product development stages [44].

The approach of eco-efficient value creation can be characterised by 6 sequential steps:

