ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the key players in and drivers of, design for environment and offers some snapshot definitions, directions and explanations. The essential objective of the demonstration programmes is to assist individual companies with the know-how required to design greener products with reduced life-cycle environmental impacts. Ensuring that the products move beyond slick renderings and glossy models is paramount, as is the need to blend a stronger design and environmental philosophy into company culture, especially that of senior management. Extended producer responsibility is a logical extension of the 'polluter-pays' principle. It rests on an argument that the environmental impacts of resource depletion, waste and pollution are a function of the system of production and consumption of goods and services. Cleaner production begins to link innovation, research and development and economics to the issue and value of improving environmental quality. Cleaner production needs to take into account other components of the system, beyond the factory.
