An Industrial Application of a TRIZ Based Eco-Design Approach

ITree, a step by step procedure for supporting eco-assessment and eco-design is presented. The assessment phase is carried out combining life cycle assessment, for calculating the environmental impacts, with an innovative technique, called “IFR index”, for selecting the main LCA criticalities. IFR index is inspired by Ideal Final Result tool from TRIZ, the Theory of inventive problem solving. Also part of the design phase is based on the use of TRIZ: a set of Eco-guidelines, have been conceived introducing TRIZ fundamentals onto green design. An industrial case study dealing with the production of a chemical product for the agricultural market illustrates how the method has been applied.