Abstract
The intensification of industrial activity within an unsustainable development paradigm caused an alarming environmental crisis intertwined with societal problems on a global scale. Sustainable design theory contains an extensive body of knowledge on how these environmental and societal issues can be addressed by rethinking industrial products, processes and, more broadly, how organizations operate in the context of a more sustainable socio-economic system. Nevertheless, evidence shows that implementing these ideas is a problematic yet under addressed aspect, resulting in a gap between abstract speculations and concrete action. In this study, we focus on this critical gap by looking at how existing theory of sustainable design is implemented in business practice. To this end, we conduct a literature review followed by interviews with twenty international experts, to uncover their knowledge related to relevant project experiences. The outcome is a framework that integrates existing sustainable design theory with important business concepts, clustering it into four literature streams:ecodesign, product service system design, sustainable business model design and collaborative ecosystem design. These streams correspond to four levels of design for sustainable innovation. The framework also encompasses a set of themes related to the implementation of sustainable design theory in business practice across the aforementioned four levels. Based on this, we outline our contributions to theory and practice, and pinpoint recommendations for academic researchers, industrial designers and business managers who want to leverage their professional position to play an active role in the transition toward sustainable development.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 123113 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
Volume | 273 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Nov 2020 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge financial support through the ZERO BRINE project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730390 . The authors would also like to thank the research assistant Celia de Vries for her valuable support in conducting and transcribing the expert interviews.
Keywords
- Circular economy
- Ecodesign
- Implementation
- Product service system
- Sustainable business model
- Sustainable innovation