- The product, which is in the field / at the customer shall be maintained, serviced and kept up-to-date, so that it does not become obsolete or uncontrolled disposed prior to its end of product life.
- The last product life cycle phase is the recycling phase. We want to make sure, that the usable materials left in the product will be cycled back into the economy.
- It is the manufactures responsibility to support, inform and direct the user/owner of the product to correctly recycle the product. A clear recycling concept ensures, that materials of the product are recovered, and all sustainability goals of the product life cycle are met.
- Customer feedback, field data, recycling data – all these information is necessary input for the next product innovation phase.
- Manufactures producing products and goods with the lowest overall carbon footprint, will eventually lead the market: To make this metric work all impact factors on CO2 – including transport, energy, recycling, long term technological consequences and cost for the society – need to be commercially considered (CO2 tax, tax credits, recycling fees and quotas, energy labels…) and minimized.
