Dealing with environmental issues should no longer be considered simply
as a cost of doing business. Effective environmental improvements to a
company's products and services can be turned into business
opportunities. This book was written with the express purpose of helping
managers of companies, in particular of Small to Medium sized
Enterprises (SMEs), to better deal with environmental challenges and
address customer requirements, all in order to turn their environmental
inve- ments into competitive market advantages. Several examples are
provided throughout the book, but also warning signs (Alert Boxes).
These "Alerts" are posted to help managers avoid typical traps when
working with environmental considerations in business processes. The
authors have many years of experience in the various aspects of impleme-
ing Ecodesign. This experience includes working in industry for many
years; le- ing the environmental departments in a multinational company;
managing research projects in eco-product development; Life Cycle
Assessment; and national and international environmental communication
and marketing. This book is the latest in a series. The 2002 "Ecodesign
Pilot" introduced a tool and software to help design more
environmentally compatible products. It was directed specifically at
designers. The 2004 book, "Ecodesign Implementation", was written to
help project managers optimize product development processes from an
environmental perspective.
