Products Design and Digitalization for Sustainable Innovation
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Products and Services".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 September 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable product design; design innovation; LLMs in design; product design knowledge modelling
Interests: design sustainability; design creativity; AI for design; data-driven design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global environmental challenges have elevated sustainable innovation as a critical area in contemporary research and industrial practice. Early-stage product design plays a pivotal role in determining sustainability outcomes. Research indicates that decisions made during conceptualization and development phases can influence up to 80% of a product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle. The integration of digital technologies in design processes offers significant opportunities to enhance sustainability performance through improved analytical capabilities and decision support.
This Special Issue examines how digitalization can advance product design practices toward sustainable innovation. Digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, simulation tools, digital twins, parametric design, and collaborative platforms, enable new approaches to early-stage design. These technologies support rapid iteration, comprehensive lifecycle assessment, and data-driven decision-making. They allow designers to evaluate environmental impacts and optimize resource utilization before physical prototyping. Such capabilities can reduce material waste and improve sustainability outcomes across product lifecycles.
The scope of this Special Issue addresses the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development through digitalization in product design. We seek contributions that investigate the application of digital tools and methods to improve design decisions, enhance product sustainability performance, and support circular economy transitions.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Early-stage product design strategies and methodologies for sustainability;
- Digital design tools and techniques for environmental impact assessment;
- AI and machine learning applications in sustainable product development;
- Digital twins and simulation for lifecycle optimization;
- Parametric and generative design for resource efficiency;
- Collaborative digital platforms for sustainable innovation;
- Design for circularity enabled by digital technologies;
- Data-driven approaches to sustainable design;
- Digital tools for sustainable product service system (PSS) development;
- Digitalization strategies for small and medium enterprises in sustainable design.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Pingfei Jiang
Dr. Ji Han
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- product design
- sustainable innovation
- artificial intelligence in design for sustainable product design
- early-stage design
- design for sustainability
- digital design tools
- circular economy
- lifecycle assessment
- sustainable product development
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