To implement the State Council General Office's "Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Development of Manufacturing (2025–2027)" and accelerate green design of industrial products while jointly promoting carbon reduction, pollution control, and green growth, five ministries and commissions—the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the State Administration for Market Regulation—jointly issued the "Guidelines for Green Design of Industrial Products (2026 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines").
The Guidelines state that green design, also known as ecological design, is a design philosophy and methodology oriented toward sustainable development, aimed at reducing or controlling resource consumption and environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle starting from the initial design phase. To this end, the Guidelines identify 11 key areas:
- long-life design
- harmless design
- lightweight design
- energy-efficient design
- water-saving design
- material-saving design
- noise-reduction design
- space-efficient design
- easy-recycling design
- reusable design
- zero-carbon design
These key areas are closely integrated with practical industry applications, with 15 key industries—including construction machinery—as typical examples, yielding 126 detailed solutions to guide product developers in implementing green design principles and methods.
For the construction machinery industry, the Guidelines present 14 typical solution examples focusing on key areas such as long-life design, lightweight design, energy-saving design, noise reduction design, and easy recycling and regeneration design. Specifically, long-life design involves the selection of durable materials and optimization of manufacturing processes; lightweight design encompasses the use of lighter materials, structural optimization of products, and advanced manufacturing techniques; energy-saving design includes the substitution of lighter materials, structural optimization, and innovations in forming processes; noise reduction design involves source control, obstruction of sound transmission paths, and end-of-pipe protection; and easy recycling and regeneration design covers the use of lighter materials, structural optimization, and innovations in forming processes.
