Eco-design can be defined as the “integration of environmental aspects into product design and development, with the aim of reducing adverse environmental impacts throughout a product’s life cycle” and should be applied at an early stage in the product development phase leading to improved design specifications. The aim is to develop new sustainable products, minimizing the environmental impact throughout the product’s life cycle, without compromise performance, functionality, quality, safety, ergonomics and cost. It is necessary to find the right balance to develop footwear products that fulfil the environmental requirements, the company business and consumer expectations. Currently, there are available several methods and tools to support the implementation of eco-design, less or more complex in its implementation. The most suitable tool should be selected according to the type of product, stage of the product development process, objectives of company and development team and resources allocated.

The Eco-design Guide for the Footwear Industry developed under the Life GreenShoes4All project intends to be a short guide to support companies that want to incorporate the eco-design in the development of lower environmental impact footwear In this guide are presented strategies to assist footwear companies in the integration of eco-design in the development of footwear products with lower environmental footprint.

The Guide focus on: Potential benefits of eco-design; Eco-design process; and the Eco-design strategies.

The Eco-design Guide for Footwear industry can be accessible HERE: greenshoes4all

About the project

Life GreenShoes4All intends to achieve a Single Market for Green Products by promoting the great added value of the innovative PEF Category Rules (PEFCRs) methodology. The project aims to implement, demonstrate and disseminate a Footwear Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology and to develop efficient eco-design, recycling and manufacturing solutions, in order to obtain performing shoes with a lower PEF. The project is also intended to test and demonstrate new recycling routes in the EU footwear value chain and to establish and compare, through demonstrative experimentations, innovative eco-design concepts and eco processes for shoes manufacturing.