5d Design for sustainability (Eco-Design, C2C, product service systems)

Track Chairs:

Francesco Pomponi. Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge, UK. fp327@cam.ac.uk

Freddy Zapata. Design Department, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. fzapata@uniandes.edu.co

Paulo Ferrão. Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. ferrao@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Goals and objectives of the track

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) acknowledges Design for Sustainability (D4S) as a globally recognised method which allows companies to improve profit margins, product quality, market opportunities, environmental performance, and social benefits. This is generally achieved by improving efficiencies in the products and services that companies design, produce and deliver. To do so, techniques include increasing energy efficiency, switching to cleaner production technologies, designing for recyclability, and using recycled materials and reducing toxic ones. To measure the impacts of such initiatives, methods such as life cycle analysis (LCA), supply chain management (SCM), and material flow analysis (MFA) are widely used.

However, there is a growing tendency to evaluate effectiveness of design as well as its efficiency. This was pioneered by William McDonough and Michael Braungart with the concept of cradle to cradle (C2C) where resources ideally never turn into waste but are kept in the loop for as long as possible with minimal loss of quality. This concept has also often been coupled with the idea of ‘learning from Nature' through schools of thought such as that of biomimicry. Whilst these approaches have been successful in some virtuous examples at a case study level their wide applicability is yet to be univocally demonstrated. Additionally, in some cases, they have been criticised as too narrow-focused - looking primarily at environmental issues without granting equal attention to the social and economic dimensions of sustainability.

Therefore, the main aim of this track is to gather new concepts, methods, approaches, frameworks, and practical solutions that embed the different dimensions of sustainability into design.

Contributions of both theoretical and empirical nature from the following areas are sought after:

Eco-design of products and services
Cradle to cradle approaches
Resource efficient and effective solutions
The role of circular economy and circular supply chains in D4S
Design for deconstruction and disassembly
Designing with waste
Bio inspired design
Whole life analysis of products and services
Product design aimed at the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle)
Solutions for product upcycling
The role of policies to achieve sustainable design
Business models for sustainable design in practice
Challenges and peculiarities in developing economies
Design for sustainability education

You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2017.exordo.com

Francesco Pomponi is an academic and engineer with over 10 year' experience working with buildings. He is a researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge. His interdisciplinary research focuses on sustainable design and embodied carbon in buildings, and the measurement, management and mitigation of the impact of the built environment on the natural environment. Interests include life cycle thinking, global goals for sustainable development, and the integration of physical, social, and management sciences.

&nbps;