Development of a strategy tool for environmental compliance management

Abstract

The EU environmental legislation restricts the use of certain substances in products and, in addition, sets targets for recovery of products reaching end-of-life(EOL). Little support is provided to producers on how to obtain the best design alternative for their products (meaning the best compro-mise between cost and environmental compliance). The authors propose a strategy tool based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a solution to this problem. It will generate information needed to make the decision, will present it in a structured way and will permit the direct involvement of the users.