Sustainability {#13} concerns the End-of-Life disposition of a product; it influences

• Design for recycle, reuse, upgrade vs. obsolete and throw-away
• Design for minimal energy and fuel use and generation of harmful effluent
• Consumables management
• Product testing, validation and technology selection
• Production processes, tests, tools and equipment
• Environmental and regulatory standards compliance
• User documentation and action
• Supplier and manufacturer selection/management
• Third party recycling, cleanup negotiations and liability issues
• Corporate waste levels
• Spare parts and maintenance
• Consumer environmental and legal issues

For example, products that use minimal energy to operate, do not give off environmentally damaging effluent and have a large percentage of reusable and recyclable components, are becoming more popular in most industrialized countries.