Locally Oriented Sustainable Design Studies

Dear Colleagues,

Today, we recognize that global sustainability is necessary for human beings to survive long-term on the Earth. A sustainable society implies sufficient wellbeing and a lower environmental impact. Although it is to be achieved in all regions or countries appropriately, its implications are different region-by-region, for example, not only in western and northern countries but also eastern and southern countries. Region- or local-specific issues are also regarded as one of the concerns of sustainable consumption and production (SCP).

On the other hand, engineering design of a product plays an important role for this purpose. Although concerns of social and environmental design grew in the 1990s and 2000s, this growth has not been sufficient yet in terms of methodological approach, because the context surrounding an engineering designer becomes more complex depending on regional or local history, culture, custom, institution, social infrastructure, and informal sectors, in contrast to the growing impact of globalization of a business.

In such a context, a sustainable design methodology for establishing a locally-oriented product in a target region or country is required rather than universally-oriented methodology. This Special Issue focuses on methodological approaches and case studies of locally-oriented sustainable design of a product and a product–service system (PSS).

Prof. Hideki Kobayashi
Guest Editor

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