Eco-design approach for innovating building products

The Advisory Committee on Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy (2008), defined innovation as “the design, invention, development, and/or implementation of new or altered products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business models for the purpose of creating new value for customers and financial returns for the firm” (Santolaria et al., 2011). In that way, eco-design considering the life cycle of products, processes or services, plays a fundamental role in innovation driven companies, adding a sustainable value to the strategy of the firm. In this paper the results of a research concerning eco-design strategies are presented. The Italian medium size company in partnership with the Architecture and Design Department of Politecnico di Torino undertook the research which the aim is the environmental improvement of building materials and products. Therefore, the LCA method is been applied as a tool for integrating environmental criteria into the strategic plans in order to: - evaluate environmental impacts; - improve brand value on the market; - fulfill client demand; - make products more fashionable; - integrate eco-design into energy efficiency construction sector. A case study proposed in this paper shows a LCA-based analysis applied to a thermal plaster from different perspective of whole life cycle stages, including: row materials suppliers, manufacturing companies, building designers, installation company, end-user and end-of-life business. The main goal, from all the project partners points of view, is the development of an innovating product characterized by the combination of: low environmental impacts of production, high market competitiveness (in price, energy efficiency, installation features, etc.) and long expected service life. In particular, two different analysis are carried out to promote both the environmental benefits and the industrial feasibility. LCA methodology is applied to develop and improve a range of experimental prototypes of thermal plaster using natural material as a primary source including minerals and plants, often derived from agriculture by-products or scraps. This first step can be helpful for the industrial partner to evaluate environmental impacts of each plaster blend as well as assessing and optimizing every manufacturing process to formulate a final product that follows appropriate eco-design criteria in terms of energy and environmental impact and cost. A second step of the study concerns the comparison between existing thermal plasters with the eco-innovating product coming from the former analysis. In this context, the Life Cycle Assessment methodology can be applied to eco-design to promote circular economy and influencing decision makers towards sustainable choices. As a result, interlinked local companies can share by-products and process scraps to reduce environmental impact and support eco-innovation.