Life-cycle stages  

This website describes a five stage life-cycle model. The boundaries between the different stages are clearly defined as the "gate of the last factory", "consumer front door" and "end of current life". The model presented here is for retail of consumer goods. Reducing life-cycle impacts may require complete transformation to existing perceptions of consumer ownership, and further alternative models will be added to this toolkit in due course.

Classifying the product "end of life" in this manner allows for a clear distinction between impacts that are allocated to the current life of the product, compared the impacts that will be allocated to a next life.

Although design decisions are typically associated most with making the product, decisions made during concept design affect the entire life cycle.

The types of activities associated with the life cycle stages are described in detail.

Specific activities that occur within the different life cycle stages are elaborated in detail.