MDPI - Publisher of Open Access Journals

20 pages, 4890 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Creativity Diamond—A Framework to Aid Creativity

by Peter Childs, Ji Han, Liuqing Chen, Pingfei Jiang, Pan Wang, Dongmyung Park, Yuan Yin, Elena Dieckmann and Ignacio Vilanova

J. Intell. 2022, 10(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10040073 - 22 Sep 2022

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 23528

Abstract

There are many facets to creativity, and the topic has a profound impact on society. Substantial and sustained study on creativity has been undertaken, and much is now known about the fundamentals and how creativity can be augmented. To draw these elements together, a framework was developed called the creativity diamond, formulated on the basis of reviews of prior work, as well as the consideration of 20 PhD studies on the topics of creativity, design, innovation, and product development. The framework embodies the principles that quantity of ideas breeds quality through selection, and that a range of creativity tools can provoke additional ideas to augment our innate creativity. The creativity diamond proposed is a tool consisting of a divergent phase associated with the development of many distinctive ideas and a convergent phase associated with the refinement of ideas. The creativity diamond framework can be used to prompt and help select which tool or approach to use in a creative environment for innovative tasks. The framework has now been used by many students and professionals in diverse contexts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Creativity, Intelligence, and Collaboration in 21st Century Education: An Interdisciplinary Challenge)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 1007 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sharing the Burdens of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: Incorporating Fairness Perspectives into Policy Optimization Models

by Piotr Żebrowski, Ulf Dieckmann, Åke Brännström, Oskar Franklin and Elena Rovenskaya

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3737; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073737 - 22 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3573

Abstract

Mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change can be addressed only through the collective action of multiple agents. The engagement of involved agents critically depends on their perception that the burdens and benefits of collective action are distributed fairly. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), which inform climate policies, focus on the minimization of costs and the maximization of overall utility, but they rarely pay sufficient attention to how costs and benefits are distributed among agents. Consequently, some agents may perceive the resultant model-based policy recommendations as unfair. In this paper, we propose how to adjust the objectives optimized within IAMs so as to derive policy recommendations that can plausibly be presented to agents as fair. We review approaches to aggregating the utilities of multiple agents into fairness-relevant social rankings of outcomes, analyze features of these rankings, and associate with them collections of properties that a model’s objective function must have to operationalize each of these rankings within the model. Moreover, for each considered ranking, we propose a selection of specific objective functions that can conveniently be used for generating this ranking in a model. Maximizing these objective functions within existing IAMs allows exploring and identifying climate polices to which multiple agents may be willing to commit. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics of Climate Adaptation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2732 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bibliometric Review of Sustainable Product Design

by Pingfei Jiang, Elena Dieckmann, Ji Han and Peter R. N. Childs

Energies 2021, 14(21), 6867; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14216867 - 20 Oct 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4491

Abstract

Consideration of sustainability in product development is becoming increasingly important and encompasses many aspects of product design. In this study, a bibliometric review of recent sustainable product design publications using Web of Science and VOSViewer is carried out. The review indicates that the majority of publications concerning sustainable product design is oriented towards environmental science-led subject areas and production-led journals. Analysis of author keyword co-occurrences reveals that circular economy, life cycle assessment, sustainable management, and optimization are the most popular topics in sustainable product design research. The analysis also reveals that the researchers fail to link sustainability research to activities in product design, which leads to the lack of access to relevant research that can make products more sustainable. Building on the findings, the authors propose four future research directions that aim to guide researchers to better correlate sustainability with product design, namely: sustainability interpretation, integration, assessment and validation, and improvement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovation in Sustainable Energy Component, Concept and System Design)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

23 pages, 10050 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Barriers to Transitioning from a Linear to a Circular Economy for End of Life Materials: A Case Study for Waste Feathers

by Elena Dieckmann, Leila Sheldrick, Mike Tennant, Rupert Myers and Christopher Cheeseman

Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1725; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051725 - 25 Feb 2020

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 7344

Abstract

This research aimed to develop a simple but robust method to identify the key barriers to the transition from a linear to a circular economy (CE) for end of life products or material. Nine top-tier barrier categories have been identified that influence this transition. These relate to the basic material properties and product characteristics, the availability of suitable processing technology, the environmental impacts associated with current linear management, the organizational context, industry and supply chain issues, external drivers, public perception, the regulatory framework and the overall economic viability of the transition. The method provides a novel and rapid way to identify and quantitatively assess the barriers to the development of CE products. This allows mitigation steps to be developed in parallel with new product design. The method has been used to assess the potential barriers to developing a circular economy for waste feathers generated by the UK poultry industry. This showed that transitioning UK waste feathers to circularity faces significant barriers across numerous categories and is not currently economically viable. The assessment method developed provides a novel approach to identifying barriers to circularity and has potential to be applied to a wide range of end of life materials and products. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Search Results (4)

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI

Saved Queries

Search Filter Reset All

Years

Feature Papers

Subjects

Journals

Article Types

Countries / Regions

Search Results (4)

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI