Special Issue "Design to Drive Behavior Change for Sustainability and Circular Economy"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Daniela Cristina Antelmi Pigosso
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Section of Engineering Design and Product Development, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Interests: circular economy business modelling; Product/Service-Systems; sustainable development; sustainable design; sustainability maturity modelling; eco-innovation
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Yuri Borgianni
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen, Italy
Interests: systematic methods for problem-solving; value innovation; ideation within engineering design; creative development of new products; user-product interaction; biometric measures in design; eco-design; design for additive manufacturing
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Jeremy Faludi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Technical University of Delft
Interests: sustainable design methods and tools; sustainable additive manufacturing; inventing materials for green 3D printing; systems thinking methods and tools; biomimicry; life cycle assessment; health hazard measurement; sustainability certification/labeling; circular economy; green invention and entrepreneurship; sustainability in engineering and design education
Dr. Yann Leroy
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CentraleSupélec, University of Paris-Saclay
Interests: life cycle assessment; material flow analysis; environmental assessment; ecodesign; design method for new product and service; innovation engineering; sustainable design; industrial ecology; circular economy
Prof. Dr. Sophie I. Hallstedt
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Strategic Sustainable Development, Faculty of Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Karlskrona, Sweden
Interests: sustainable product development process; decision support in early engineering design; socio-ecological sustainability; sustainability integration and implementation; risk and requirement management; portfolio development; design for social sustainability
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decades, many methods have been developed to enable the development of more sustainable products, services, and solutions from an environmental, social, and economic point of view. More recently, the circular economy has emerged as a concept with the potential to decouple value creation from resource consumption, towards a more sustainable society. However, some major issues must still be taken into account when it comes to sustainable design:

  • In many cases, design changes have resulted in incremental improvements and, as such, are not enough in light of the severity of issues such as climate change, growing population, and energy demand.
  • Solutions that are more sustainable have been developed and marketed, but, often, their limited success has not allowed the replacement of previous less sustainable products in the market.
  • Although people are increasingly more conscious about sustainability, their consumption and purchase choices often do not mirror their preference for more sustainable products, highlighting the attitude–behavior gap.
  • The potential of sustainable products is often jeopardized by people’s actual behavior (especially during the use and disposal phases), causing so-called “rebound effects”.

In light of the above issues, it is expected that the next generation of sustainable design methods will allow the development of products and accompany business models that are able to i) showcase their actual superiority in sustainability terms; ii) encourage people’s sustainable behaviors; iii) improve sustainability performance radically and unarguably. Such outcomes are expected to start a virtuous circle, which will positively affect people’s quality of life and consciousness to contribute to the common goal of safeguarding our planet for the generations to come. To this end, a fundamental role is clearly played by education too.

In this context, the Special Issue welcomes contributions about the main issues summarized in (but not limited to) the following:

  • Sustainable design
  • Design of circular products
  • Eco-social design
  • Educational entertainment and the Fun Theory in sustainable design
  • Design of sustainable user behavior
  • Design for circular solutions
  • Consumer feedback on sustainable products and services
  • Collaborative sustainable design
  • Design for sustainable products and services
  • Technologies for a transition towards sustainability
  • Communication and understanding of sustainable product features
  • Success- and value-oriented design
  • Attractiveness and marketing of sustainable products
  • Closing the attitude–behavior gap
  • Battling greenwashing
  • User experience with sustainable products and prototypes
  • Affordances in sustainable product design
  • Industrial success and failure stories in promoting sustainable products and practices
  • Rebound effects and suboptimization
  • Integration of sustainable design into engineering and business education

Prof. Daniela Cristina Antelmi Pigosso
Dr. Yuri Borgianni
Dr. Jeremy Faludi
Dr. Yann Leroy
Assoc. Prof. Sophie I. Hallstedt
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • Sustainable design
  • Eco-design
  • Eco-social design
  • Design of circular products
  • Sustainable design
  • Sustainable product development
  • Behavior change
  • Fun theory
  • Green products
  • Green marketing
  • Greenwashing
  • Attitude–behavior gap
  • Customer satisfaction
  • User feedback
  • User reviews
  • Purchase decisions
  • Smart products
  • Affordances
  • User experience
  • Quality-of-life
  • Design for social sustainability
  • Industrial design practices
  • Circular economy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
The Use2Use Design Toolkit—Tools for User-Centred Circular Design
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5397; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105397 - 12 May 2021
Viewed by 599
Abstract
Recent research highlights that the important role users play in the transition to a circular economy is often overlooked. While the current narrative emphasises how to design products fit for circular (re-)production flows, or how to design circular business models, it often fails [...] Read more.
Recent research highlights that the important role users play in the transition to a circular economy is often overlooked. While the current narrative emphasises how to design products fit for circular (re-)production flows, or how to design circular business models, it often fails to address how such solutions can be designed to be attractive to people. As long as products and services are designed in a way that makes people prefer linear options over circular ones, the transition will not gain momentum. To further the understanding of how a user perspective can be valuable for circular design, this paper introduces the Use2Use Design Toolkit and presents initial experiences from using its five tools in design work. The tools were developed between 2016 and 2019 and subsequently applied in 30 workshops with professionals and students. Insights from the workshops suggest that the participants generally found the tools fun, instructive and inspirational. The tools enabled them to discuss circular processes from a user’s point of view and to identify challenges and design opportunities. The toolkit was considered especially relevant and meaningful by product and service designers who needed support to explore circular solutions from a user perspective. Full article
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Article
Priming on Sustainable Design Idea Creation and Evaluation
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5227; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095227 - 07 May 2021
Viewed by 366
Abstract
Although three pillars of sustainable design—social desirability, economic competitiveness, and environmental friendliness—are all important, they are not necessarily equally accessible or salient during the design process. This paper applies a collage priming method to activate designers’ mindsets regarding sustainability pillars prior to conceptual [...] Read more.
Although three pillars of sustainable design—social desirability, economic competitiveness, and environmental friendliness—are all important, they are not necessarily equally accessible or salient during the design process. This paper applies a collage priming method to activate designers’ mindsets regarding sustainability pillars prior to conceptual design exercises, and to facilitate early-stage sustainable design. The study tests if collage priming (1) improves ideation outcome in terms of the sustainability pillars, interpreted as user desirability, cost, and environmental impact, and (2) encourages designers to further explore others’ ideas during idea evaluation. For (1), collage priming related to environmental aspect is shown to assist designers with generating more relevant ideas regarding environmental impact and more feasible ideas as compared to the control. The priming is not effective in helping designers generate ideas related to user desirability or cost, potentially because designers lack readily accessible information to be activated by priming. For (2), the collage priming related to user desirability is shown to encourage further exploration when exposed to (simulated) others’ ideas. The study shows the effectiveness of collage priming in improving environmental impact in conceptual design; it also demonstrates the existing challenges of addressing user desirability and cost. Full article
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Article
Exploring the Use of Virtual Reality to Support Environmentally Sustainable Behavior: A Framework to Design Experiences
Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 943; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020943 - 18 Jan 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1337
Abstract
The current and future challenges of sustainable development require a massive transformation of habits and behaviors in the whole society at many levels. This demands a change of perspectives, priorities, and practices that can only result from the development of more aware, informed, [...] Read more.
The current and future challenges of sustainable development require a massive transformation of habits and behaviors in the whole society at many levels. This demands a change of perspectives, priorities, and practices that can only result from the development of more aware, informed, and instructed communities and individuals. The field of design for sustainable behavior is answering this need through the development of products, systems, and services to support the change of people’s habits and decision-making processes. In this regard, Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool: it has already been explored to drive sustainable behavior change in several situations, through a wide range of devices, technologies, and modalities. This variety provides uncountable opportunities to designers, but it comes with a series of ethical, psychological, and technical questions. Hence, VR developers should be able to distinguish and identify possible strategies, delivering suitable solutions for each case study. In this work, we present a framework for the development of VR experiences to support sustainable behavior change, based on a systematic review. We consider the various features to manage and possible alternatives when creating a VR experience, linking them to the behavioral aspects that can be addressed according to the project’s aim. The framework will provide designers with a tool to explore and orient themselves towards possible sets of optimal choices generating tailored solutions. Full article
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