Sustainability criteria used for decision support in the product innovation process and aligned throughout the design process is one key element to efficiently introduce a sustainability perspective early in product development. The aim of this paper is to present an approach for identifying such sustainability criteria and to suggest a process for how these can be developed in any manufacturing company. The sustainability criteria are presented in a set of matrices, separating the criteria into product life-cycle phases and socio-ecological sustainability principles. In addition the paper presents a qualitative measurement scale for the criteria, called a sustainability compliance index that indicates to what degree a product or process concept performs in relation to a sustainable solution. The sustainability criteria were tested in different settings at a case company within the aerospace industry to give a first indication and evaluation of the ability to give guidance and support in bringing in a sustainability perspective when developing, evaluating and selecting different concepts in the early phases of product development.