Objective. To perform strategic R&D, the role of technological roadmap is very important. Road-mapping is not a “research” nor “development” itself. But, it is an indispensable effort in determining research target, proposing new research project, or funding research project. Especially, “global warming” is an urgent issue in recent world. And to announce a countermeasure for the issue, predicting future technological progress which can contribute to implement sustainable society and societal conditions, is really necessary. For this purpose, NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) was consigned an investigation “Technological Road-mapping of Sustainable Manufacturing Technology” from METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). In the article, the author tries to introduce the effort of the road-mapping, and to relate sustainable manufacturing technologies mentioned in the roadmap to eco-design technologies.

Role of eco-design. Eco-design is considered as a same term as environmentally conscious design. It is true, but there are many design targets such as society, manufacturing systems, manufacturing processes and products. Eco-design technologies can focus on particular design target, but the effect of eco-design should be positive for wide area of our society. Eco-design should be an integrated technology which focuses on global effect of design, in the aspect of space and time. We also need to be aware of the limit and necessary condition of eco-design. Eco-design should be a technology which can contribute, not only reducing environmental impact of human activities, but also enhancing Quality-Of-Life and industrial competitiveness.

Sustainable manufacturing and eco-design. In the effort of road-mapping, the committee set 4 major area of sustainable manufacturing. Which are “Green Biotechnologies”, “Green Sustainable Chemistry”, “3R technologies” and “Design, Manufacturing and Fabrication technologies.” The author belonged to the working group which discussed the last area. As the result of the investigation, we subdivided the area to 4 major technological approaches that are “life-cycle thinking”, “minimizing”, “value enhancement” and “technology transfer.” We found that many of the eco-design related technologies are categorized to the technological approach which is called “life-cycle thinking.” As the result of the effort to relate eco-design technologies with sustainable manufacturing roadmap, it was clarified how eco-design technologies are located in the Japanese R&D strategy and how eco-design technologies should be progressed.

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This paper describes an overview of recent developments and practices on Eco-design of electric appliances. It consists of four major parts such as circumstances surrounding Eco-design, practices of Eco-design in Japanese electric appliances industry, indicators for evaluation, and international standardization. The first part shows an overall picture of the movements and trends in the world on Eco-design, and its fundamental way for improving the environmental performance of products under these circumstances is presented. The second part is describing the typical practices as examples of Eco-design activities in the industry. Many kinds of conditions are reflected as follows; to reduce, reuse and recycle materials and electric appliances are dominant factors in wastes and resources problems, energy efficiency is a globally emerging issue, and treatment of chemical substances must be severely controlled. The third part explains practical researches and developments on environmental performance indicators for manufacturers to communicate with consumers. Eco-Efficiency can be defined with two significant aspects a product: functional performance and environmental impact. Factor-X is a specialized indicator expressing the improvement of each product's value or benefit and environmental friendliness at the same time. An evaluating methodology associated with four electric appliances including air-conditioners, refrigerators, lamps, and lighting apparatus are also presented. The last part introduces a new movement for the international standardization of Eco-design and Japan's contributions to its technological considerations. Through these perspectives, the author emphasizes the significance of Eco-design to compete in the present and future markets of electric appliances and to transform the consumers' lifestyles as a key driver toward sustainable development.

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This article summarizes historical evolution of the idea of eco-design in building related industry. The idea has generated from the idea of environmental symbiosis as an alternative concept of modern buildings where the built environment is artificially and proactively controlled. Then, influenced by Bruntland report, the idea of sustainable building has been developed. Some understands the word of sustainable literally and strictly and tries to disseminate the examples of autonomous buildings. Contrarily, majority understands sustainable building is less-unsustainable buildings. Radical and incremental innovation are being progressed in the process of diffusion of sustainable building. Building professions tend to apply holistic approaches rather than insisting on application of specific technology. Diffusion of sustainable buildings requires preparation of common yardsticks of environmental performance of building. Since early 1990s, BREEAM, LEED and CASBEE has been developed and disseminated as environmental performance assessment method of building. Those are market based assessment methods by which many stakeholders can communicate about better buildings from the aspect of environmental performance. Though the methods is too much outlined from the aspect of rigor theory of lCA, the method are well used in market place. Finally, the article introduces international standardization of environmental performance assessment method of building.

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The concept of Eco-Design is applicable not only to the products and buildings, but also to the urban and regional systems. In this paper, we overviewed the research approaches and sustainability indicators to plan or evaluate the low carbon, natural symbiosis and resource recycle-oriented society at the regional level, especially focusing on the material and energy flows. In addition, we showed that the carbon management in the product chain was becoming important when planning the practical actions for a low carbon society in Japan.

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The framework directive for ecodesign of energy using products (EuP) has been in force in Europe since 2005 already, but only now the process for setting eco-requirements for specific products is becoming clear. The paper explains the results of the so-called preparatory studies, which prepare the definition of eco-requirements, and the current state of the policy process.

The paper gives a short introduction to the EuP directive itself, explains the procedure leading up to implementing measures in more detail and shows the respective time lines. Then the paper exemplifies results of selected preparatory studies with respect to eco-design recommendations. Finally the focus is set on specific aspects related to application of life cycle assessment principles in conjunction with environmental policy making.

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The sixth environment action plan was adopted in Europe in 2002, and the prioritized areas of the environmental policy were indicated. IPP (Integrated Products Policy), which was base on it, was announced. This policy aims at reducing environmental impact through the life cycle of the product by the extension of the product life, energy saving in use, reuse and recycle parts of the product. To achieve this, environmental labels, green procurement, eco-design and national subsidy are used as the policy tools. And it will push forward environmental improvement and performance improvement of the product by their synergy effect. In such situation, “Framework Directive for setting eco-design requirements for Energy-using Products” was suggested as the directive about the environmental consideration for design of the energy consumer products such as electric / electronics equipment and heater. It was adopted in July, 2005 by European Commission (2005/32/EC). This directive in general terms is called “EuP directive.” In this paper, the summary of the EuP directive, Japanese companies' responses to this EuP and the recent trends of EUP directive are presented. Furthermore, mainly in the domain of personal computers, the latest trend about international energy star and the environment evaluation labeling of product, which seems to affect in the future EuP directive largely, are explained.

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Objective. Eco-Design tools, which are widely utilized by major manufactures, have not been spread over Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). SME does not have an incentive to implement Eco-design tools because of the following reasons: (i) Many SMEs are standing at the middle position of the products supply chains. Therefore, they receive the specifications of their products from their customers and they have small flexibility of design and production procedures. (ii) Shortage of information on the upper and the lower stages of the products supply chains make implementing Eco-design tools difficult. (iii) SMEs do not have enough capacity to install new tools due to lack of staff and budget for research and development. To overcome these obstacles, we have implemented the Eco-Design Promotion Project for SME, to diffuse Eco-Design tools, i.e, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Quality Function Deployment for Environment (QFDE). This paper introduces the results of the project, and proposes a model of design process.
Results and Discussion. The number of companies participated in the project was 14 in 2006FY and 63 in 2007FY. As examples, two cases practiced in 2006FY are shown in this paper. In case of the ventilation system, the company implemented QFDE and LCA for the fan, and clarified that CO₂ emission through the product life cycle is dominated by the usage stage and the designers found that redesign of the shape of blade to reduce the power consumption in the usage stage is effective to improve the environmental performance. In case of the casting products, the company applied LCA to improve its production line because the detailed product design is strictly specified by its customer. The LCA quantified that the dominant factor was the energy consumption in cupola furnace and the pig iron production. The company found that the improvement of process yield and reducing the feed amount of pig iron are effective. To implement LCA and QFDE for SME effectively, we have to consider not only the product characteristics, but also every aspect where the SME can contribute for the product, since most SMEs are standing at the middle position of the products supply chains. Furthermore, we have to take into account the variations of the status and condition of environmental data management depending on the SME. Therefore, we propose a business model for SME to implement Eco-Design.
Conclusions. The paper shows that the Eco-design tools can be useful for SME to reduce environmental impact by implementing the right tools in right timing by describing practical case studies. Business process models developed by using IDEF0 function modeling method show when LCA is used and what are needed for implementation of LCA. Two business process models are proposed to implement LCA on product design process and on production line design process.

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Objective. Slime failure and outbreak of Legionella in air-conditioning circulation cooling water system are generally treated by chemicals. Authors developed clarification system for circulation cooling water - by electrolyzed effective water (electrolyzed effective water treatment) which has equal or better clarification effects than chemical treatment. In this study, we took life cycle inventory analysis (LCIA) with building chemical treatment and electrolyzed effective water treatment process flow. In chemical treatment process, chamicals is produted Kantou area, transports to Nagasaki, and applied in there Nagasaki. And also authors carried out environmental impact assessment (EIA) using LCIA.And the volume of CO₂ emission was calculated between chemical treatment that the chemicals are producted in each area, treansported to Nagasaki and utilized in there, and electrolyzed effective water treatment in Nagasaki. In addition, the volume of CO₂ emission was calculated between chemical treatment that the chemicals are producted in each area and utilized in there, and electrolyzed effective water treatment in each area, respectively.
Results and discussion. From the result of LCIA of chemical treatment and electrolyzed effective water treatment in Nagasaki, global warm index of electrolyzed water treatment and chemical treatment indicated 3187kg-CO₂ and 4210kg-CO₂, respectively, so that the influence to global warming in case of clarification by electrolyzed water was smaller than chemical treatment. The result of single index, the influence of chemical treatment was larger than electrolyzed effective water treatment. Especially, the influence of urban area air pollution was remarkably larger because of discharge of NOx, PM10 and hydrocarbons in transportation of chemicals. In case of chemical treatment in Nagasaki, it was cleared that the area which is producted chemicals has more influence than chemicals transportation distance with CO₂ emission in all process flow. In case of electrolyzed effective water treatment in each area in Japan, CO₂ emission is lower than chemical treatment which is incase of its chemicals products in each area.
Conclusions. In this study, life cycle impact assessment of electrolyzed effective water treatment and chemical treatment in Nagasaki. According to the result of single index, electrolyzed effective water treatment showed lower than chemical treatment. And it was cleared that the volume of CO₂ emission of electrolyzed effective water treatment in each area was smaller than chamical treatment of chemical treatment that the chemicals are producted in each area and utilized in there.

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Objective. In this paper, we focused on Bio-DME (Biomass Di-methyl Ether) in BTL (Biomass-to-Liquid) fuel liquefaction system through a gasification process. Based on the bottom-up methodology, the inventories of CO₂ emissions and energy intensities were estimated. In the system boundary, the sub-systems of the pre-processing, the energy conversion, and the fuel transportation were included. Considering the scale and the operational conditions (an inner pressure and a reaction temperature) of BTL plant, the inventories were estimated. Also, the uncertainties in the pre-processing, that is, the moisture content of biomass materials and the transportation distance to the plant were simulated by the Monte Carlo simulation. In the pre-processing, there were three processes of chipping, transportation and dryer. In the energy conversion, we executed the process design on the following two types; the medium scale of BTL plant through pressurized fluidized bed gasification and the small one through BLUE Tower (BT) process were assumed. Both plants have a liquefaction process. Also, due to the process design, the auxiliary power of each plant was considered. In addition, the liquefied fuel (Bio-DME) was assumed to be delivered using a 10 kL tank lorry.
Results and Discussion. As the results, in the small scale plat (BT process), CO₂ emissions of 45.8-60.5 g-CO₂ /MJ and energy intensities of 1.44-1.63 MJ/MJ were obtained. Conversely, In the medium one, CO₂ emissions of 22.5-51.6 g-CO₂/MJ and energy intensities of 0.29-0.66 MJ/MJ were obtained.
Conclusions. From the viewpoint of the environmental statement, Bio-DME was likely to be superior to DME of natural gas origin.

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Objective. Generally, the environmental impacts of products are assessed based on the deterministic data (ex. mean value) for inventory analysis and impact assessment in life cycle assessment. However, both inventory data and impact factors have some uncertainties. In this research, a case study for passenger car was conducted for clearly showing the importance of uncertainty analysis in LCA.
Results and Discussion. Inventory data containing statistical data were referred to Ecoinvent (LCI database in Switzerland) and some part of the data were revised to reflect Japanese conditions based on the LCI data provided by Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI). “Life cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling (LIME)” was applied as an impact assessment method, and uncertainty data of impact factors were obtained based on Monte-Carlo simulation by using results of the investigation for statistical information of each parameter. In the comparison of gasoline-powered vehicle (GV, 2000 regulation) and diesel-powered vehicle (DV, 2002 regulation), the environmental impact of DV was higher in the assessment based on deterministic data. However, the results of uncertainty analysis quantitatively showed that the conclusion obtained from the deterministic analysis was not always supported, indicating that there are still 34% possibility for suggesting the opposite conclusion. Factors with high sensitivity on the uncertainty of impact assessment results have been clarified, and the revision of the factors (damage factors for urban air pollution) for reflecting more realistic conditions could have provided more reasonable results.
Conclusions. The uncertainty analysis in LCA will be helpful for assessing and improving the reliability of the results and support the decision making in product selection and policy planning with more confidential and high responsible information.

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Objective. Environmental impact of waste processing of Kariya and Chiryu cities Aichi-prefecture was quantitative analyzed by LCA procedure to propose the future waste processing. In this study, the system boundary was covered from the generation of municipal solid waste to landfill. We employed three scenarios for future system to evaluate amount of CO₂ emission and incinerated ash. Scenario1, 2, and 3 introduced waste power generation, waste by processing direct melting furnaces and ash melting furnaces, respectively.
Results and Discussion. Brief outline of each scenario is as follows; 1) the amount of CO₂ emission is not largely decreased by the introduction of waste power generation, 2) the amount of CO₂ emission increases in the case of scenario2 because the consumed fuel is large, but the amount of incinerated ash is drastically decreased, and 3) the amount of CO₂ emission somewhat increases in the case of scenario3 because fuel consumption for ash melting is relatively large, but the amount of incinerated ash is drastically decreased.
Conclusions. It is thought that the stringency of the final disposal site, which is the problem of both cities, may be solved by setting up the ash melting furnace in the stoker furnace.

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Background and Goal. Creating a sustainable society requires changes in people’s consciousness and lifestyles in addition to the development of technologies and use of economic incentives. Environmental education has an important role to play in promoting people’s environmental awareness and responsible actions. The goal of this study is to develop teaching material that demonstrates the importance of the life cycle thinking as an important component of effective environmental education.
Methods. Focusing on the current situation where daily consumption activities are not linked, in a cognitive sense, to production activities and the natural environment, this study proposes a hypothesis that to recover the “missing links” based on life cycle thinking will contribute to an increase in pro-environmental behavior of consumers. Based on this hypothesis, environmental education material was developed that aims to make people realize the “link” between daily life and global warming through the life cycle of consumer products (e.g. mobile phones, notebooks, pens). In order to visualize and effectively recover the“ missing link”, LCA software“ Global warming even in your bag?!” that runs on a personal computer and is easy to handle was newly created as the core of the material.
Results and Discussion. The material developed was applied to an education program for university students, and a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the effect. Analyses of the survey data indicated that the material is effective in making the students realize the“ link” between their daily consumption activities and global warming as well as encouraging behavioral intention towards pro-environmental behavior. In addition, the analyses found that the possibility that the realization of the “link” helps boost their sense of responsibility and improves behavioral intentions toward the carbon dioxide reduction.
Conclusions and Perspectives. The use of life cycle thinking in environmental education is considered effective in encouraging people to engage in more pro-environmental behavior. In the future, first, the authors will more appropriately measure the effects of the material developed and elucidate the mechanism of behavioral changes of students. Second, we plan to improve the material from a practical perspective, and provide a material package available for school education.

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