Driving Design Towards a Sustainable Aviation Industry Product Using Environmental Impact Evaluation

The goals of sustainable manufacturing, as articulated by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are to reduce the intensity of material use, energy consumption, emissions and unwanted by-products - while maintaining or improving the value of products to society and to organizations. Benefits that can be achieved through this practice include improved working conditions, public image, staff morale, customer loyalty, brand value, profits, sales turnover, product performance, reduction in waste generation and staying ahead of regulatory concerns. Achieving such goals begins early in the product design phase with consideration toward materials used and processes invoked in manufacturing. Ultimately, a full sustainability assessment must include the product's End-of-life (EOL) impact, factoring environmental impacts of landfill and recycling emissions. This paper focuses on using an End-Of-Life impact assessment for a set of materials and processes commonly used in the aerospace industry. Available data and best practices are used to forecast the final EOL impact of an aerospace product for a given set of materials and processes. The approach is able to quantify costs incurred to advance manufacturing processes and can be used to inform top management on sustainability decisions. The approach could be extended to assess the complete aircraft, including its Beginning of Life.