Bridging LCA and design: an LLM-driven pipeline for generating sustainable design alternatives from LCA hotspot analysis

ABSTRACT:

Life cycle assessments identify environmental hotspots, yet translating these insights into design actions remains slow and expert-dependent. Existing AI tools lack a dynamic link to current research. Here, we present an LLM-driven pipeline that interprets LCA hotspots, mines recent literature, and extracts feasible, research-backed design alternatives. In a case study on a headlamp control unit, the method produced relevant and applicable improvements, indicating its value for accelerating sustainable product design.