COMPLEX NETWORKS AND COMPLEX SYSTEMS FOR SUSTAINABILITY - A Nature-based Framework for Sustainable Product Design and Development

This study examines sustainable tourism products in tourism destinations. Based on concepts of sustainable product design, our study proposes a framework for sustainable tourism products by adapting an existing Design for Sustainability Framework to consider and analyze the characteristics and themes of sustainable (tourism) products as well as their impact and scope. Using a pragmatic qualitative approach, 15 semi-structured interviews with destination managers from the German-speaking Alpine region formed the empirical basis of the study. The results emphasize key themes and multiple characteristics associated with sustainable tourism products in tourist destinations, addressing all sustainability components and design innovation levels. This study is the first to apply existing sustainable product design concepts to destination contexts and discuss their applicability for sustainable tourism products. For practitioners, this study provides support for the development of sustainable tourism products and contributes to a better understanding of the effects and levels of these products as well as sustainability marketing.

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Metrics for Measuring Sustainable Product Design Concepts

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123469 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3469

Author(s):

Ji Han ◽

Pingfei Jiang ◽

Peter R. N. Childs

Keyword(s):

Product Design ◽

End Of Life ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Conceptual Design ◽

Design Stage ◽

Sustainable Product Design ◽

Early Design ◽

Design Concepts ◽

Concept Evaluation ◽

Sustainable Product

Although products can contribute to ecosystems positively, they can cause negative environmental impacts throughout their life cycles, from obtaining raw material, production, and use, to end of life. It is reported that most negative environmental impacts are decided at early design phases, which suggests that the determination of product sustainability should be considered as early as possible, such as during the conceptual design stage, when it is still possible to modify the design concept. However, most of the existing concept evaluation methods or tools are focused on assessing the feasibility or creativity of the concepts generated, lacking the measurements of sustainability of concepts. The paper explores key factors related to sustainable design with regard to environmental impacts, and describes a set of objective measures of sustainable product design concept evaluation, namely, material, production, use, and end of life. The rationales of the four metrics are discussed, with corresponding measurements. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the metrics for evaluating product design concepts. The paper is the first study to explore the measurement of product design sustainability focusing on the conceptual design stage. It can be used as a guideline to measure the level of sustainability of product design concepts to support designers in developing sustainable products. Most significantly, it urges the considerations of sustainability design aspects at early design phases, and also provides a new research direction in concept evaluation regarding sustainability.

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Understanding consumers’ behaviour for reducing environmental and social impact through sustainable product design – A Study case of vehicles usage in Indonesia

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/739/1/012052 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 739 (1) ◽

pp. 012052

Author(s):

A Hamni ◽

A Y T Panuju ◽

D A S Ambarwati

Keyword(s):

Product Design ◽

Social Impact ◽

Sustainable Product Design ◽

Sustainable Product ◽

Study Case

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