Introduction and adaptation of methods for sustainable product development in small and middle-Sized enterprises - Results and experiences

In the last years a new environment strategy was developed by the European commission, which is called "Integrated Product Policy" or IPP. Within this political process the Bavarian State Ministry for State Development and Environment started to support IPP pilot projects in order to facilitate and speed up the conversion of the theoretical IPP concept into practical applications. One of the special focuses was on small and middle-size enterprises. SME have a limited availability of personnel and financial resources for environmental issues as well as a lack of know-how compared to larger enterprises. They need a more pragmatic methodology to utilize their potentials for sustainable products. This research project entitled therefore has been formulated to investigate applicable methodologies to support the sustainable development for small and middle-sized enterprises. We identify and focus on the main criteria of the respective company and product by checking about all possibilities of IPP activity. Subsequently effective methods are used to utilize the potentials. It is a practical approach for implementation of sustainable development in all phases of the lifecycle. Finally some of the achieved results of the application within the development projects of the industrial partners are shown.