Environmental and Bio-Inspired Re-Design of Sebach's Topsan Notouch 2.0 Portable Toilet: Quantitative Assessment of the Environmental Benefits Obtained from the Biomimetic Approach to Product Design

The article presents and discusses the conclusive and unpublished results of the doctoral research 'Biomimetic re-design of sustainable products. Increasing the environmental sustainability of products through biomimetic criteria' (Balsamo, PhD Thesis, 2023) aimed at analysing and quantifying the contribution of the bio-inspired approach in the design of sustainable industrial products. Bio-inspiration, recognised by many experts as an important innovation factor, aims to improve the environmental sustainability of products. In order to quantitatively assess the real benefits of this approach, a bio-inspired re-design of the TopSan NoTouch 2.0 portable toilet from Sebach S.p.A., a product certified with an Enviromental Product Declaration, was carried out. Initially, a product analysis was conducted to define the environmental improvement goals to be achieved through bio-inspired design criteria. Bioinspired re-design involved the implementation of diverse methodological approaches and operational tools, involving experts from other disciplines, such as biology and engineering, in order to acquire complementary technical-scientific knowledge. Through the use of the standardised Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology, it was possible to quantitatively assess the environmental impacts of both the original product and its re-designed version according to bio-inspired principles. The comparison between the two products showed positive results that validate the effectiveness of the bio-inspired approach in the design of industrial products in terms of increasing environmental sustainability.