Two significant trends are shaping the environmental agenda: Green procurement - more and more businesses, governments and even consumers are seeking ecoproducts; and, new product related guidelines, directives and regulations have already been developed. How should business respond? There are tools and approaches available. This book, "ECODESIGN - the competitive advantage", was written specifically to provide guidance and will help managers of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as others interested in the management of business, in a range of ways, including: how to best deal with the European Union's new Ecodesign directives; how to understand the concepts behind (and the process of calculating) the carbon footprint of products; how to prepare for future challenges related to, for example, climate change, resource depletion and shortages, increasing restrictions on the use of toxic substances, and energy management; and how to best position products which have been environmentally improved in a competitive marketplace. In order to deal with the myriad of challenges, the authors have included simple, but detailed checklists that can be used to evaluate a company's operations and serve as a guide to finding solutions. These have been structured around the corporate, management, product and production levels typically found in any enterprise. Environmental expenditures should not be viewed as costs, but rather investments - with the expectation that prudent investment will yield competitive advantage.