Integration of Sustainability in New Product Development Process: Italian Experiences

Decisions that are made during NPD process lock-in around 80-90% of a product‟s life cycle sustainability performances. Therefore, investigating how companies are integrating sustainability in their NPD process is the main target of this paper. From literature, a three pillar framework (Strategy-Tool-Process) has been developed that outlines “a must to have” elements to successfully integrate sustainability and life cycle thinking in NPD process. Based on the framework a questionnaire has been developed to assess manufacturing companies operating in Italy in Electrical, Mechanical, and Automotive sectors. The empirical study was conducted on 10 companies which have high innovation cycles and are the target of many product based EU legislations (e.g. WEEE, ELV, EuP, REACH, RoHS, and others). The results show that companies still consider sustainability as a constraint rather than opportunity for eco-innovation. Moreover, companies are trying to meet the minimum requirements asked by legislations, despite the efforts made by academia to drive strategic push, effective tools, and suitable NPD process paradigms to foster sustainable product innovations. Keywords: Sustainability, Lifecycle Thinking, NPD (New Product Development), Eco-design