ABSTRACT
This chapter of the book will present an overview of past as well as current environmental legislations from around the world. It will also include statistics on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fragile state of the ecosystem from the point of view of extracting virgin natural resources, nature of the linear mass production system and its role in creating waste and detrimental impact of untreated waste on the environment. This will help make the case for sustainable product design. Specific pieces of legislation from several US states as well as countries from across the world are presented in detail. Initiatives undertaken by key manufacturers such as Dell, Daimler, Caterpillar and so on are described. Key takeaways from environmental legislations are discussed at the end of the chapter.
