Life Cycle Engineering and Design for Environment of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Mercedes-Benz at DaimlerChrysler has been developing and applying Life-Cycle-Engineering (LCE) and Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) since almost 10 years. Extensive experience and know-how has been gained by several complete car LCAs and more than 100 LCAs for parts. According to our experience LCA/LCE is most effectively and efficiently used to support the development of new products, i.e. as a tool for Design for the Environment.

The concept and implementation of Design for Environment (DfE) at Mercedes-Benz will be introduced. Both, concept and implementation are the result of several years of development. Nowadays, DfE is established as common practice and fully integrated in the Mercedes-Benz Development Process.

This approach is illustrated by the exemplary case study of the recent C-Class model. The parameters assessed during the development process include hazardous materials, use of recycled materials, use of renewable materials and others. One main aspect of the DfE process was a LCA study on the complete vehicle level and several LCAs for parts.