Exploring the design and perceived benefit of sustainable solutions: a review

The demand for more innovative solutions to meet progressively complex consumer requirements is increasingly at the forefront of design practice and research. Coinciding with this is the stipulation for more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable services. Although many approaches towards the design of more systemic and sustainable solutions exist, the terminology to describe them is manifold. Subsequently, confusion surrounding the cross-disciplinary process that stakeholders are required to follow is increasingly apparent. This paper presents a critical review of multiple-design approaches from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and identifies a set of attributes that are common to them. It is concluded that stakeholders could substantially benefit from a supportive framework of common characteristics to enable the integrative design of more systemic and sustainable solutions.

[1]  Mark Hadfield,et al.  A sustainable product design model , 2006 .

[2]  Lia Krucken,et al.  Building stakeholder networks to develop and deliver product-service-systems: practical experiences on elaborating pro-active materials for communication ☆ , 2006 .

[3]  Judith Hills,et al.  The semantic turn: A new foundation for design , 2008 .

[4]  Michael Kinsley,et al.  Whole-Systems Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production , 2003 .

[5]  P. Senge.  THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE , 1997 .

[6]  K. Krippendorff.  The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation For Design , 2005 .

[7]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  A strategic design approach to develop sustainable product service systems: examples taken from the ‘environmentally friendly innovation’ Italian prize , 2003 .

[8]  T S Baines,et al.  State-of-the-art in product-service systems , 2007 .

[9]  Amory B. Lovins,et al.  Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution , 1999 .

[10]  Paul Nieuwenhuis,et al.  17 – Micro factory retailing , 2003 .

[11]  Peter P. Groenewegen,et al.  Eco-efficient producer services—what are they, how do they benefit customers and the environment and how likely are they to develop and be extensively utilised? , 2003 .

[12]  Joshua Ruder,et al.  Experiment on a system-level design tool , 2007 .

[13]  M. Price.  Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems , 2003 .

[14]  P. Gummett.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology , 1988 .

[15]  Andy Williams,et al.  Product-service systems in the automotive industry: the case of micro-factory retailing , 2006 .

[16]  R. Meijkamp.  Changing consumer behaviour through eco‐efficient services: an empirical study of car sharing in the Netherlands , 1998 .

[17]  Misha Hebel.  Light bulbs and change: systems thinking and organisational learning for new ventures , 2007 .

[18]  Bill Lennertz,et al.  The charrette handbook : the essential guide for accelerated, collaborative community planning , 2006 .

[19]  Tracy Bhamra,et al.  The transfer and application of Product Service Systems: from academia to UK manufacturing firms , 2006 .

[20]  Carleton B. Christensen.  What Is so Sustainable about Services , 2008 .

[21]  Nicola Morelli,et al.  Product-service systems, a perspective shift for designers: A case study: the design of a telecentre , 2003 .

[22]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  Product-service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions , 2002 .

[23]  R. Wise,et al.  Go Downstream: The New Profit Imperative in Manufacturing , 1999 .

[24]  Douglas A. Johnson,et al.  Complex collaboration : building the capabilities for working across boundaries , 2004 .

[25]  Nicola Morelli,et al.  Developing new product service systems (PSS): methodologies and operational tools , 2006 .

[26]  E. Heiskanen,et al.  Can Services Lead to Radical Eco-Efficiency Improvements? -A Review of the Debate and Evidence , 2003 .

[27]  Don Mankin,et al.  DEVELOPING COMPLEX COLLABORATIONS: BASIC PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION , 2004 .

[28]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  Solution oriented partnership. How to design industrialised sustainable solutions , 2004 .

[29]  Lesley J. Stone,et al.  Limitations of cleaner production programmes as organisational change agents I. Achieving commitment and on-going improvement , 2006 .

[30]  Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek,et al.  Wieviel Umwelt braucht der Mensch? : MIPS-das Maß für ökologisches Wirtschaften , 1994 .

[31]  S. E. Little,et al.  Incremental and systemic innovation strategies: reflections of technical choice , 1987 .

[32]  Fredrik Hacklin,et al.  Design, product development, innovation: all the same in the end? A short discussion on terminology , 2005 .

[33]  A. Tukker,et al.  Product-services as a research field: past, present and future. Reflections from a decade of research , 2006 .