Product development tends to strive towards radical innovations of products to gain an advantage in a competitive market. Which tool should be used to evaluate environmental performance in order to reach the market faster with radically improved products? This paper discusses radical and incremental innovation and combines them with tools for evaluating environmental performance of products. The environmental tools examined or used in this paper are design handbook, life cycle assessment (LCA), and environmental effect analysis (EEA). This paper is based on a literature review in the field of innovation and environmental research. Primarily journal articles and conference papers have been used but also books and dissertations. The result of the discussion is that a radical innovation should use EEA as a supporting tool, and incremental innovation should use LCA. This is based on known facts about EEA and LCA. A design handbook can easily be used as a support for both types of innovation.