The system is analyzed according to its life cycle (from the raw material extraction until the final disposal) and to the various environmental compartment (water, air, waste, noises, energy, raw materials,..). The usefulness of such an approach is to avoid transfer pollution from a life cycle stage to another one, and from an environmental compartment to another one.

In order to illustrate this concept we speak of

- "cradle to grave" approach for the life cycle aspect

- "muIticriteria" approach for the global environmental compartment concept

First of all it is a quantitative method. It is also the most exhaustive in the data collection (energy consumption, air emission, waste, water pollution,...). The major difficulty lies in getting all the data and to ensure that they are good (updated,).

Bringing LCA into play of turns out to be quite long and expensive, and consequently unaffordable for SME.

It is also a quantitative method, but with a reduced scope of data collection. Indeed the scope is limited to the most relevant phases of the life cycle. The use of Databases enables ecodesigner to mitigate the reduced scope a little. This methodology is faster and less expensive than the LCA.

Of course it is first of all a qualitative assessment. We do not assess all the life cycle but only parts of it (from the manufacture till the final disposal). It includes several methodologies (matrix, guidelines..).

The company generally answers a questionnaire. Each question refers to a criterion (usefulness, well design, energy saver, modular product, nuisances occurred during the manufacture phase, the use or the end of life step, etc.). So for every question the team defines the product as "good" , "medium", "bad" according to the criterion.

These methodologies are easily implemented in SME. Besides, duration and cost of implementation are very low.

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