[en] Product-oriented environmental policy has in recent years been widely discussed and the Commission of the European Communities has issued a Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy (IPP). At the same time, companies have envisaged changes in regulatory requirements and adopted various voluntary environmental initiatives in order to achieve competitive advantage. The main principle of integrated product policy is that products and their environmental effects are viewed from a life cycle perspective. The aim of this study was to evaluate how companies incorporate environmental aspects into their product development and how the product policy exercised by government influences to this process. Data were collected at five Finnish companies (KONE, elevators; Nokia, mobile phones; Stora Enso, packaging boards; Virke, textiles; YIT-Yhtymae, building construction) using a case study strategy. The importance of waste and environmental issues in the product development of the case companies appears to have grown in recent years. Environmental concerns have been integrated - in one way or another - into product development processes. However, the results of this integration are not yet fully visible. The principal pressures to incorporate environmental issues into product development have come from customers or through the anticipation or implementation of extended producer responsibility systems. Recognition of the environmental advantages of their own products, and the use of this in marketing has been an important starting-point for environmental initiatives at least at KONE and Virke. (orig.)