In the second issue, we present six papers that reflect a diverse range of topics by authors from several countries. In the first paper, Palousis et al. use sustainability risk to assess the factors that influence the cost of sustainable products vs. their unsustainable counterparts, and conclude that sustainable products may prove less costly. Doi et al. describe their approach to the integration of life-cycle design within optimal design methods that support quantitative decision-making. They consider two types of optimisation approaches: first, to consider the reduction of energy and material resources in production and, second, to facilitate the reuse of components or products at the end of their working life. Vinodh and Rathod present a case study in which quality function deployment for the environment was used to enhance the environmental performance through design modification for a rotary switch product. The cost of product recovery is addressed by Parlikad and McFarlane. Their paper presents a probabilistic approach to model product recovery decisions and extends the concept of Bayes' factor for quantifying the impact of product information on the effectiveness of such decisions. They seek to demonstrate the conditions necessary for achieving a positive value of information.
The factors associated with hybrid wind and diesel co-generation of electricity are evaluated by Shaahid with respect to needs within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He used the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's HOMER software to perform a techno-economic analysis of alternative scenarios. The use of a renewable energy resource also features in the paper by Hadj Taieb et al. Their paper describes the design of an ecological relaxing textile using photovoltaic cells and they provide an analysis of their proposed design from an environmental perspective.
In line with our policy to publicise books of interest to those engaged in sustainable engineering activities, we have included three book reviews in this issue. Two of the books are concerned with the ‘greening’ of industry, one in general terms, whereas the second considers the car industry. The final book review covers waste in the food industry.
Finally, we wish to draw your attention to the call for papers for a Special Issue on ‘Biopolymers and Sustainable Engineering’. We hope that you will circulate this call to anyone you know that might wish to contribute a paper.