The G.EN.ESI project aims to develop a methodology and related software engineering platform that supports the eco-design of electro-mechanical products. This 36 month project is currently underway and will run until January 2015.

Why is the G.EN.ESI project necessary?

Environmental Imperative

Household energy consumption makes up about 20% of the global figure and greenhouse gas emissions from this sector exceed 35% of the global figure. It is known that household appliances contribute significantly to this household figure and it is estimated that 80% of the environmental impacts of a household appliance are determined during the design phase.

Business Drivers and Legislation

Eco-design can help a business improve efficiency, brand identity and customer relations. In addition to this the EU now have a series of legislative measures that govern the environmental performance of energy using and energy related products (including most electro-mechanical appliances). Incorporating eco-design within a product’s design and development is one of the most robust ways of ensuring current and future legislative requirements are met.

Current Solutions that Fail to Meet Requirements

In order to be efficient and effective environmental information and practices must be fully integrated with existing design and development processes. There is currently no methodological process for this and many existing software tools are either too qualitative or too data heavy to be successfully integrated into the design process workflow.

What are the main objectives of the G.EN.ESI Project?

In order to address the issues detailed above the G.EN.ESI project will develop:

• a comprehensive design and management methodology for the inclusion of environmental criteria within the design and development of electro-mechanical products.
• a software platform that supports more effective and efficient environmental design decision making by integrating streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (sLCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) capabilities with existing CAD and PLM systems.

For more information about any of the above outcomes please visit the Project Solutions page here