Economic and ENvironmental Impact Assessment for Sustainability (EENIAS): An innovative method to support design for remanufacturing and remanufacturability evaluation

Abstract

Significant effort has recently been directed towards promoting remanufacturing as a circular and sustainable approach to production. However, current methods for supporting design for remanufacturing and remanufacturability evaluation often lack integration and practical applicability, failing to address the complex trade-offs and interdependencies inherent in remanufacturing processes. To this purpose, this study addresses the need for methods to evaluate the feasibility of product remanufacturing through proposing a novel integrated method named Economic and ENvironmental Impact Assessment for Sustainability (EENIAS), enabling the assessment of remanufacturability for existing products or those in the detail design stage, by analysing diverse remanufacturing scenarios to quantify their economic and environmental impact. The method is demonstrated and validated through two case studies from different industries: an electrical lighting product and an accumulator used in the oil and gas sector, highlighting its applicability. The results quantify how key remanufacturing scenarios are performing economically and environmentally, offering insights into the products' remanufacturability and the design strengths for applying a Circular Business Model (CBM) based on remanufacturing. The luminaire demonstrated strong potential for remanufacturing, with 23 out of 31 remanufacturing scenarios showing significant financial and/or environmental benefits. In the accumulator case, the analysis revealed the dominance of the accumulator's shell as a significant environmental impact driver, though its financial impact was not equally significant. Consequently, the application of EENIAS provided the critical insight that substantial environmental gains could be achieved if the company designs the product in such a way that the shell does not require replacement after the usage stage. The EENIAS approach supports decisions for remanufacturing and sustainable product design practices, such as Design for Remanufacturing, by providing a detailed assessment of the products' remanufacturability and its potential for CBM application.