| The concept of ecoefficiency, expressed as such, does not appear until 1990. Nevertheless, it can be considered as an evolution of the "pollution prevention" concept, arisen in 1975. They both represent the need of a competitive strategy, both at an environmental and an economic or financial level. Ecoefficiency refers to the generation of goods and services with the smallest environmental impact possible.;The term [ecoefficiency] was popularized by World Business Council on Sustainable Development, mainly as a conclusion of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. Since then, many institutes and research groups have worked on this area, developing different models for introducing ecoefficiency in companys.;Different models proposed up to the moment are very useful when measuring ecoefficiency at a global level (of the society as a whole), or even Abstract at the level of industrial plants, for measuring ecoefficiency of productive processes. However, they are hardly applicable at product level, since it is a complicated task to assign an environmental impact quota that is assignable to a particular product, out of the total impact of the company. In addition, these models do not consider differences regarding specifications or functionality when comparing the ecoefficiency of two alternative products, nor the different value that they have for the consumer. That is why this research has been focused on developing a methodologic proposal that integrates economical, environmental and functional aspects in the determination of ecoefficiency. The result is a formula that obtains the most complete measurement of the concept.;Compared with other proposals, the main contribution of this methodology resides in its product-oriented approach, thus becoming a tool to aid the designer in the development of new products. Moreover, it takes into consideration the value of use in the ecoefficiency equation, in addition to those aspects related to cost and the environmental impact.;The proposed methodology has been validated applying it to two practical cases. Two products were chosen, pertaining to the two different product typologies that have represented the greatest environmental problem during the past few years: packing (and packaging products), and electrical and electronic products. In both cases, impact is due to high consumption and the problems that these products generate in their disposal stage. In the first case, two products have been compared, both of equivalent functionality and value, implying the numerator hardly being affected. In the second case, products with different value and utility have been compared, analyzing whether functional integration (one of the most promising strategies in ecodesign) improves ecoefficiency of these products. |
