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01.10
Joseph
Fiksel's Design for Environment: A Guide to
Sustainable Product Development – Second Edition
Reviewed By
Terrance Malkinson
 New
York, McGraw Hill - 2009
ISBN 978-0-07-160556-4
Author Joseph Fiksel believes
that environmental sustainability is compatible
with economic growth and is essential to the
revitalization and continuity of our global
economy. This 390-page book provides a guide to
the design and development of environmentally
responsible products and processes. Offered are
both a business rationale for developing
sustainable products and processes, and a
comprehensive toolkit for implementing design
for the environment into product life-cycle
management. Information provided is useful to
managers, product developers, environmental
specialists, government, and academics.
Part 1 describes the emergence
of corporate environmental responsibility
focusing on the external forces and business
drivers that motivate adoption of sustainability
practices. Part 2 explains how design for
environment fits within the paradigm of
concurrent engineering for integrated product
development and life-cycle management. Also
described are the principles and methodology
used for implementation of design for
environment practices. Part 3 describes design
for environment practices in a variety of
industries. Numerous in-depth case studies of
leading companies who have embraced
sustainability are provided. Part 4 examines
the global challenges involved and how we can
meet the challenges. The final chapter provides
a concise summary of the book.
Growth in the view of the author
is a “natural” process countering stagnation and
the decline of human civilization. He is
optimistic that we are ingenious and resilient
enough to overcome challenges. This will allow
us to redesigning our industrial systems to
create more value with fewer resources,
designing products and services that are
environmentally responsible.
Joseph Fiksel is the Executive
Director of the Center for Resilience at The
Ohio State University. He has over 25 years of
research and consulting experience for
multi-national companies, government agencies,
and consortia.
Terrance Malkinson is a
communications specialist, business analyst and
futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA
Communications Committee, an international
correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer
, editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's
Engineer Digest, associate editor for
IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the
editorial advisory board of IEEE The
Institute. He was an elected Senator of the
University of Calgary and an elected Governor of
the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well
as an elected Administrative Committee member of
the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He
has been the editor of several IEEE conference
proceedings, and past editor of IEEE
Engineering Management. He is the author of
more than 385 publications, and is an
accomplished triathlete. His career path
includes being an accomplished technical
supervisor and medical researcher at the
University of Calgary a business proposal
manager for the General Electric Company, an
associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research
administrator with the School of Health and
Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation
Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.
The author is grateful to the
professional support of the Haskayne School of
Business Library at the University of Calgary.
He can be reached at
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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