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Since the first edition of this book was published in 1996, the world has experienced dramatic political and economic changes, but the book's basic premise has stayed constant: environmental sustainability is compatible with economic growth. However, to achieve global sustainability, we need to radically redesign our industrial systems to create more value with fewer resources. Today, Design for Environment (DFE) is essential to the revitalization and continuity of our global economy.

Design for Environment, Second Edition: A Guide to Sustainable Product Development (McGraw-Hill; August 2009; Hardcover: $125) by Joseph Fiksel offers a business rationale for developing sustainable products and processes, as well as a comprehensive toolkit for corporations to practice DFE in the context of product life-cycle management. Dr. Fiksel illustrates the concept of "eco-efficiency," a measurable characteristic of products and processes that quantifies how companies generate more value with less adverse environmental impact.

In addition to describing leading-edge "green" products and technologies, Dr. Fiksel shows how some companies incorporate "green" design principles into the eco-innovation process itself. This helps industry leaders to achieve repeated success in the marketplace, and helps them to recover from the downturn by adapting to the new realities of a resource-constrained and climate-conscious world.

Equally useful to managers, product developers, environmental specialists, government officials, and academics, the book provides a sweeping overview of the cultural, political, and economic changes that are transforming the role of environmental management in the business world. It also includes examples of leading companies that have put DFE into practice across a range of industries, including electronics, automotive, consumer, and chemical.

"The book offers important industry perspectives on how companies develop and design innovative solutions to complex environmental and societal challenges. It goes well beyond theory, offering case studies with quantifiable results that illustrate how companies can save money while improving the environment and helping local communities. It shows how companies of all types are using resources more efficiently, sometimes by teaming up with other industries, to achieve results that balance the triple bottom line of people, planet, and prosperity. This richly-detailed study should be of great interest to industry leaders, policymakers, scholars, and students alike. We are all fortunate to have Joseph Fiksel working on sustainable development." Andy Mangan, Executive Director, U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development

"Design for Environment shows clearly that aligning green design with innovation not only is possible, but is essential to remaining competitive in our brave new economy. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the how to design for today's consumer - and tomorrow's." Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com, Author, "Strategies for the Green Economy"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Joseph Fiksel is executive director of the Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University, which develops decision support tools for improving enterprise resilience and sustainability. He is also principal and co-founder of Eco-Nomics LLC, and an internationally recognized authority on sustainable business practices with more than 25 years of management consulting experience for multi-national companies, government agencies, and consortia such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Design for Environment, Second Edition: A Guide to Sustainable Product Development by Joseph Fiksel
McGraw-Hill; August 2009; Hardcover: $125; 432 pages; ISBN-10: 0-07-1605568; ISBN-13: 978-0-07-1605564

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