Tools for sustainable product development

38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design

Do you want to make your products more sustainable but are unsure where to start?
Milani’s 38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design are a practical ecodesign framework that helps companies integrate environmental, social, and circular economy considerations into product development.

Based on Milani’s extensive experience in ecodesign and circular economy projects, the framework translates complex sustainability requirements into clear design perspectives that support better product decisions.

Download the poster with all principles

Use it as a practical reference for your product development teams.

Download the 38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design

38 principles sustainable products milani design consulting nadine wolf nando schmidlin

What are sustainable product design principles?

Sustainable product design principles help development teams design more sustainable products and identify relevant areas for action at an early stage. They translate environmental, circular and social requirements into concrete perspectives for design and product decisions.

The appropriate measures depend on the product, how it is used and the respective business model. Milani’s 38 Principles help teams systematically identify relevant sustainability aspects across the entire product lifecycle and prioritise them for their specific product.

Milani’s 38 Principles are structured across four levels:

Material level: efficiency, recycled materials, recyclability
Product level: modularity, repairability, intuitive use, longevity
Product-service level: multipurpose use, sharing models, take-back systems
Social-systemic level: questioning the design premise, responsible partnerships

A practical framework for sustainable product development

Product development is changing rapidly as sustainability requirements become more concrete. Regulations such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) introduce binding requirements for repairability, reusability, recyclability, resource efficiency, and digital product information. These aspects must increasingly be considered early in product architecture and specification and apply to most products placed on the European market.

At the same time, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) sets new requirements for packaging concepts, including recyclability, recycled content, material reduction, and labeling.

For many organizations, the challenge is not recognizing the importance of sustainability, but translating regulatory and strategic requirements into practical development decisions.

This is where the 38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design come in. They are based on insights from research and practice, as well as our many years of experience in ecodesign and circular economy projects. As a compact framework for orientation, they help development teams integrate sustainability into product decisions at an early stage and in a structured way.

Whether companies are redesigning existing products, developing a new product generation, or exploring circular service models, the principles help teams identify relevant opportunities and structure discussions around sustainable product innovation.

Shared foundations for sustainable product decisions

Milani’s 38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design provide a common starting point for teams involved in product development. They highlight opportunities for sustainable innovation, from material selection and repairability to circular strategies and end-of-life scenarios.

Rather than functioning as a rigid methodology, the principles serve as a practical orientation framework.In this way, they create a common language between product management, R&D, engineering, procurement and marketing, and facilitate structured discussions about product sustainability, an important foundation for establishing a clear direction for more sustainable products.

In practice, Milani uses the principles in co-creation sessions and consulting projects to identify innovation opportunities, structure strategic discussions and develop long-term sustainable product strategies.

With our long-standing expertise in ecodesign and the circular economy, we help companies implement product sustainability in a pragmatic, technically feasible, and economically viable way.

Get the full framework as a free poster

A visual framework to help product teams integrate sustainability into product development.

Download poster – free of charge

Examples from the 38 Sustainable Product Design Principles

The 38 principles address different aspects of sustainable product development, from repairability and modular product architecture to material selection and material efficiency. The following articles explore selected principles in more detail and show how companies apply them in practice.

38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design Explained: Reusable and Recycled Materials

By using reusable and recycled materials, companies can recover valuable materials.

38 Principles for Sustainable Product Design Explained: Design for Easy Repair and Maintenance

Design for easy repair and maintenance will soon become the legal standard for all products. Learn how to implement this principle.

Milani Design Consulting Agentur fuer Ecodesign Kreislaufwirtschaft nachhaltiges Produktdesign

From theory to practice

Co-Creation workshops that bring clarity

We help product teams translate sustainability ambitions into clear product strategies and development decisions.

Contact us to explore how we can support your path toward sustainable product innovation.

Start designing for circularity.

Get in touch!

Nando Schmidlin
Circular Design Strategist
welcome@milani.ch
+41 44 914 74 74