ABSTRACT
NedCar is a relatively small Dutch passenger car manufacturer. The firm’s ‘success story’ concerns the achievements of NedCar’s engineering and design department in environmentally-conscious designing. The case focuses in particular on specific aspects of the engineering and design process: the choice of materials plus the facilitation of future disassembly and recycling of the materials used. NedCar is not an absolute front-runner in this field; this is impossible for such a small car manufacturer with limited means. The essence of the success story lies in the fact that-thanks to the substantial internalization of environmental consciousness within the engineering and design department, and the experience and skills acquired through the years-NedCar has been able to keep up generally with the front-runners within the European automotive industry, and even to be in the forefront in some respects.1
