Closing the loop of products and materials in Product Service Systems (PSS) can be approached by designers in several ways. One promising strategy is to invoke a greater sense of ownership of the products and materials that are used within a PSS. To develop and evaluate a design tool in the context of PSS, our case study focused on a bicycle sharing service. The central question was whether and how designers can be supported with a design tool, based on psychological ownership, to involve users in closing the loop activities. We developed a PSS design tool based on psychological ownership literature and implemented it in a range of design iterations. This resulted in ten design proposals and two implemented design interventions. To evaluate the design tool, 42 project members were interviewed about their design process. The design interventions were evaluated through site visits, an interview with the bicycle repairer responsible, and nine users of the bicycle service. We conclude that a psychological ownership-based design tool shows potential to contribute to closing the resource loop by allowing end users and service provider of PSS to collaborate on repair and maintenance activities. Our evaluation resulted in suggestions for revising the psychological ownership design tool, including adding ‘Giving Feedback’ to the list of affordances, prioritizing ‘Enabling’ and ‘Simplification’ over others and recognize a reciprocal relationship between service provider and service user when closing the loop activities.
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This whitepaper explores what the impact is of the operating system (OS) of a smartphone on its lifespan, costs and environmental impact.
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In a rapidly evolving world, the need for innovative approaches to societal challenges is more critical than ever. As partners of the Network Applied Design Research (NADR), we believe that applied design research can be a promising approach for addressing complex issues in many domains, such as health-care, digital media, and urban sustainability. But what makes applied design research such a power-ful force for societal change? And how can designers move beyond mere problem-solving to create lasting impact? To discuss this, NADR applies an annual knowledge cycle where researchers submit contributions that are mutually reflected upon. The contributions you can read in these preceedings are the result of such a knowledge-sharing process. The twenty-one contributions are divided into four themes, each addressing a different dimension of the issue at hand. Contributions in part 1 – Connecting System Levels - emphasise the relationship between small-scale interventions and large-scale change. Contributions in part 2 - Theory of Change - examine how change processes actually take place. Contributions in part 3 - Balancing Different Worldviews - address the unique perspective that each stakeholder involved contributes. And contributions in part 4 - Beyond Solutionism - discuss whether it is at all possible to develop ready-made ‘solutions’ to the complex challenges we are facing.
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Our current smart society, where problems and frictions are smoothed out with smart, often invisible technology like AI and smart sensors, calls for designers who unravel and open the smart fabric. Societies are not malleable, and moreover, a smooth society without rough edges is neither desirable nor livable. In this paper we argue for designing friction to enhance a more nuanced debate of smart cities in which conflicting values are better expressed. Based on our experiences with the Moral Design Game, an adversarial design activity, we came to understand the value of creating tangible vessels to highlight conflict and dipartite feelings surrounding smart cities.
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A rise in global population and welfare is depleting the earth’s resources and challenging the current predominantly linear economy, following a take-make-waste pattern, calling upon a shift towards a more circular economy (Bastein and Willems, 2019; Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013; Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). The Dutch government and the European Union have set the goal/ambition to become fully circular by 2050 thus striving towards a cleaner economy and reducing the dependency on scarce resources (European Commission, 2020; Government of Netherlands, 2016).
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Closed loop or ‘circular’ production systems known as Circular Economy and Cradle to Cradle represent a unique opportunity to radically revise the currently wasteful system of production. One of the challenges of such systems is that circular products need to be both produced locally with minimum environmental footprint and simultaneously satisfy demand of global consumers. This article presents a literature review that describes the application of circular methodologies to education for sustainability, which has been slow to adopt circular systems to the curriculum. This article discusses how Bachelor and Master-level students apply their understanding of these frameworks to corporate case studies. Two assignment-related case studies are summarized, both of which analyze products that claim to be 'circular'. The students' research shows that the first case, which describes the impact of a hybrid material soda bottle, does not meet circularity criteria. The second case study, which describes products and applications of a mushroom-based material, is more sustainable. However, the students' research shows that the manufacturers have omitted transport from the environmental impact assessment and therefore the mushroom materials may not be as sustainable as the manufacturers claim. As these particular examples showed students how green advertising can be misleading, applying “ideal” circularity principles as part of experiential learning could strengthen the curriculum. Additionally, this article recommends that sustainable business curriculum should also focus on de-growth and steady-state economy, with these radical alternatives to production becoming a central focus of education of responsible citizens. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.005 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This article will discuss philosophical debates on economic growth and environmental sustainability, the role of management responsibility, and the risk of subversion to business as usual. This discussion will be framed using the concepts of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) and Circular Economy about sustainable production. The case study illustrating the danger of subversion of these progressive models discussed here is based on the assignments submitted by Masters students as part of a course related to sustainable production and consumption at Leiden University. The evaluation of the supposedly best practice cases placed on the website of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation or those awarded Cradle to Cradle certificate has led some students to conclude that these cases illustrated green-washing. Larger implications of identified cases of green-washing for the field of sustainable business and ecological management are discussed. “This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in 'Philosophy of Management'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-019-00108-x LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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DyStar is a multinational organization and world leader of dyestuffs and chemical manufacturing. As the world’s largest supplier of textile dyes, it offers a broad range of products and has increasingly positioned the company and its products as sustainable solutions. In 2017, DyStar launched the Cadira® Denim, an indigo dye that uses a closed-loop technology and reduces environmental and social impact substantially. Adoption of the technology in China has been slow in comparison to other geographic markets such as Turkey. The case highlights the challenges of sustainable technology adoption from supplier perspective in a highly fragmented and complex supply chain context. It provides material for class discussion and learning from different theoretical perspectives, including economic, strategic and organizational perspectives, as well considering the Chinese cultural and institutional environment.
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Network Applied Design Research (NADR) made an inventory of the current state of Circular Design Research in the Netherlands. In this publication, readers will find a summary of six promising ‘gateways to circularity’ that may serve as entry points for future research initiatives. These six gateways are: Looped Systems; Extension of Useful Lifetime; Servitisation; New Materials and Production Techniques; Information Technology and Digitization; and Creating Public and Industry Awareness. The final chapter offers an outlook into topics that require more profound examination. The NADR hopes that this publication will serve as a starting point for discussions among designers, entrepreneurs, and researchers, with the goal of initiating future collaborative projects. It is the NADR's belief that only through intensive international cooperation, we can contribute to the realization of a sustainable, circular, and habitable world.
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Regional sustainability networks in the Netherlands are rooted in regionalculture and have an emphasis on social learning and effective collaboration between multiple actors. The national ‘Duurzaam Door’ (Moving Forward Sustainably) Policy Programme regards these networks as generative governance arrangements where new knowledge, actions and relations can co-evolve together with new insights in governance and learning within sustainability transitions. In order to understand the dynamics of the learning in these networks we have monitored emergent properties of social learning between 2014 and 2016. Our focus is particularly on the interrelated role of trust, commitment, reframing and reflexivity. Our aim is to better understand the role and the dynamics of these emergent properties and to see which actors and roles can foster the effectiveness of social learning in regional transitions towards more sustainable ways of living. We used a retrospective analysis with Reflexive Monitoring in Action (RMA), which we combined with the Most Significant Change approach. We found that reflexivity in particularis a critical property at moments that can make or break the process.
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