Abstract: Cost and environmental impact are the two primary objectives for the material selection problem in green design. The quantitative analysis method is presented for the problem with the life cycle concept. The objectives and constraint conditions of the material selection problem are analyzed in green design, and the multi-objective decision-making model is established, which takes material lifecycle cost and lifecycle environmental impact (EI) as the two objective variables, and mechanical and physical properties, recyclability and other qualitative proper-ties as the constraints. The material lifecycle cost is aggregated by the production cost, manufacturing cost and recycling cost. Eco-Indicator’99 is adopted to analyze the holistic lifecycle environmental impact of materials and processes, in order to quantify the decision objective EI. The possible solutions search algorithm (PSSA) is used to pre-select the materials to obtain the feasible solutions, and TOPSIS method is used to acquire the optimal solution. As shown in the reading lamp design case study presented for the materials selection of the reading lamp, the results of the multi-objective decision-making analysis can provide useful design guidelines.

Key words: Eco-Indicator, Multi-objective decision-making, Green design, Material selection