Sustainable Product Design and Development

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the current state-of-the-art and state-of-practice in the field of sustainable product design and development. Research in the field gained momentum in the early 1990s, and several tools/techniques aimed at supporting product design and development teams to consider sustainability issues have been proposed. Issues related to motives and barriers, design and development processes, organizational structures, project management, decision support, etc. have also been addressed. Still, the impact of sustainable product design and development on industrial activities is rather limited. The structure and content of teaching in product design and development may be one contingency factor that influences the adoption of sustainable product design and development in industry, because graduated students and others bring new ideas and knowledge to industry. Other factors which may influence the adoption are trends such as the shift towards a circular economy and increased digitalization and electrification, which create contingencies that companies must consider. Another factor may be related to customers’ awareness and appreciation of the potential value and benefits of sustainable products. Therefore, given the current contingencies, this Special Issue aims at advancing our understanding of how sustainability becomes an intrinsic part of companies’ product design and development activities, on both strategic and operational levels. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: product design and development for circular business models, sustainable product design and development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), integration of sustainability with lean or agile product development, sustainability in early product design and development, industrial experiences from implementing product design and development, impacts of digitalization and electrification on sustainable product design and development, design for sustainable behavior, and teaching in sustainable product design and development.

Articles based on solid theoretical foundations and diverse research methods are welcome, including case studies, surveys, and literature reviews. Articles presenting novel and ground-breaking conceptual ideas on how sustainable product design and development may penetrate industry to a higher degree may also be considered.  

Prof. Dr. Glenn Johansson
Prof. Dr. 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 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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.