China has become one of the world’s economic engines. One major driving force is the rapid urbanization. Such fast development results in resource and energy depletion, pollution and environmental deterioration. The government has recently endorsed green buildings and urged ministries to work out a national action plan. It is predicted that green building will be the next big thing in China. But before importing any foreign green technology and green designs, is there something to be learned from the Chinese ancestors? In the long history of China, the Chinese have always employed a system of construction with the influences of geography, climate, culture, philosophy, economy and politics deeply rooted in China, making the Chinese traditional architecture distinct. Embedded in the formation of the city, siheyuan 四合院, the courtyard house in Beijing was one exceptional dwelling example that inherited the quintessence of the thousand years of building experiences and knowledge of the ancestors. This traditional urban type not only celebrated the rich and unique cultural heritage of China, it also played an important role in maximizing the natural forces to create a pleasant and comfortable environment for living. Population growth, political and economic reforms over time however have drastically changed the fate of this historical heritage. Especially under the pressure of the fast development and economic boom after the introduction of the Open Door Policy in 1978, the traditional courtyards were the first to be demolished due to the lack of modern facilities and the inability to accommodate the growing population. They were often replaced by apartment blocks and high-rise towers – imported types based on planning regulations developed in the West, outside the cultural and environmental milieu of Beijing. As a result, the city is now filled with many energy intensive buildings that eat away both the “city’s essence” and the valuable natural resources. With the current policy and ambition of China, the teardown courtyard sites within the old city wall that are still waiting for development offer the potential to address the remediation and reinterpretation of the traditional typology in a contemporary city. The thesis investigates the essences of the traditional courtyard house and explores the way to apply such qualities to the design of a new courtyard typology in contemporary Beijing. The proposal anticipates a holistic approach on both environmental, social, cultural and economic level, so as to carry out preservation that manifests in experience rather than physical restoration, and to create a project that is truly sustainable.

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One of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas in Sweden is the industry sector, and in order to reach the national and global environmental goals, a change is needed. To become an environmentally sustainable producer, the whole life cycle must be taken into consideration, from choice of resources, to production, to use, and End-of-Life treatment. This thesis covers production, more particularly production equipment and the sustainability aspect circularity. Two research questions are answered; what is a circular production investment, and how can a production investment be designed to reach a higher level of circular maturity? Circularity, or circular economy, aims to close the loop of resources, and this thesis covers various aspects of how production equipment, and investments of production equipment can be designed to achieve that. The frame of reference presents models and tools for circularity, as, for instance, life cycle assessment, life cycle cost, life cycle extension strategies, eco-design, and servitization. This research was done through a literature review, a survey, in-depth-interviews, and a final validation workshop. It has been found that there are many aspects to consider when investing in production equipment, but also that there is a knowledge gap in industry of what circularity is and how to prioritize circularity in the requirements from customer to supplier. This thesis was written as a part of a collaborative research project between academy, research, and industry. The findings in this thesis were used to develop three guidelines made for practical implementation within industry, they cover considerations before investing in new production equipment, how to design production equipment in the most circular way, and considerations at End-of-Life or End-of-Use for production equipment. In order for a production investment to be circular, it is required that the treatment of equipment at its End-of-Life is planned already in the design phase of the investment, and that an investment is implemented only if there are no other options. / En av de största utsläpparna av växthusgaser i Sverige är industrisektorn, och för att kunna nå både nationella och internationella miljömål måste något förändras. För att kunna bli en miljövänlig producent måste hela livscykeln av ens produkter övervägas, från val av resurser, till produktion, till användning och behandling av uttjänta produkter. Den här uppsatsen täcker produktion, mer precis täcker den produktionsutrustning och hållbarhetsaspekten cirkularitet. Två forskningsfrågor besvaras; vad är en cirkulär produktionsinvestering och hur kan en produktionsinvestering planeras för att nå en högre nivå av cirkulär mognad? Cirkularitet, eller cirkulär ekonomi, är när man försöker stänga ”loopen” (cirkeln/slingan) av resurser. Den här uppsatsen täcker olika aspekter av hur produktionsutrustning och investeringar av produktionsutrustning kan planeras för att nå en sluten loop. I det teoretiska ramverket för uppsatsen finns olika modeller och verktyg för cirkularitet, som exempelvis livscykelanalys, livscykelkostnad, strategier för att förlänga livscykeln, eco-design och servitisering. Den här studien gjordes genom en litteraturstudie, en enkät, intervjuer, och en workshop för validering. Det har framkommit att det finns många aspekter att överväga när man investerar i produktionsutrustning, men också att det finns en kunskapslucka inom industrin gällande vad cirkularitet är och hur man ska prioritera cirkularitet i kravspecifikationer till sina leverantörer. Den här uppsatsen skrevs inom ett forskningsprojekt som är ett samarbete mellan akademi, forskning och industri. Det som har hittats genom den här undersökningen har använts för att utveckla tre riktlinjer som ska kunna användas inom industrin. De täcker avväganden före en investering av produktionsutrustning, hur produktionsutrustning kan designas på det mest cirkulära sättet och avväganden vid behandling av uttjänt produktionsutrustning. För att en produktionsinvestering ska vara cirkulär krävs det att behandling av uttjänt utrusning planeras redan i designstadiet av investeringen, samt att investeringen genomförs endast om det inte finns några andra alternativ.

Our understanding of the effects that human production and consumption has on our planet and its resources has challenged us to think differently when developing new products. In response to these problems, Eco Design has been developed over the last few decades. Eco Design is a process integrated into product and engineering design that aims to lower the environmental impact of products across their life cycle, whilst not hindering design brief criteria such as function, price, performance, and quality. Research in Eco Design has focused mainly on the development of new tools and ways to implement Eco Design in industry. However, there is still little empirical knowledge today regarding the state of Eco Design implementation and practices in industry; in addition to the prerequisite needs and factors to successfully implement Eco Design. The aim of this research has been to review the level and type of Eco Design in the British Product Design industry and to identify recurrent themes helping or hindering implementation. This was achieved through the use of a pilot study followed by a two stage case study design, involving 20 cases and 57 participants across 65 interviews. The investigation and its analysis produced 12 confirmed themes, each generating their own drivers and barriers to Eco Design implementation. This research into Eco Design implementation provides a unique contribution and a timely insight into the Eco Design practices of the British Product Design industry today. The research also provides the novel contribution of identifying the drivers and barriers to implementing and sustaining Eco Design, as well as an understanding of the strengths and shortfalls of the current Eco Design processes and tools. These contributions to knowledge in the field of Eco Design will help future research formulate better solutions to implement Eco Design processes in the Product Design industry.

Industrial design is a profession almost entirely dedicated to the design and development of physical goods and material culture. It is a practice that has thrived since industrialization, when the mass production of goods allowed average people the chance to afford products that improved their life style. Industrialization has chosen the path of least resistance and focused on the sheer volume of growth and high net profits without regard to efficiency or conservation on a macro level; especially in regards to energy use including fossil fuels. Companies are likely to choose to focus efficiencies in production and supply chain management on a micro-level within the company itself in order to help improve their bottom line profits. Nature has mastered the philosophy of doing more with less in order to survive, and soon designers will be encouraged to follow suit. With population increasing, energy prices rising and non-renewable resources being consumed at higher rates designers will have to adapt their industry to fit a more conservative, responsible model. The power of designers is catalytic and the impacts of our decisions multiply exponentially with every manufactured product. Unfortunately the decisions we make are not always focused on the welfare of the environment, in fact they rarely ever are. This research project aimed to determine the effectiveness of design guidelines and a product evaluation tool in helping to facilitate environmental design principles for practicing industrial designers.

As the concept of sustainability and environmentalism is growing due to new customer demand and regulations, production industry is facing extreme challenges in rethinking their processes and implement sustainability measures. Several companies are taking reactive measures where changes are made on the shopfloor in form of altered operations. However, preventive measures are lacking in many cases since green production system design is being overlooked due to neglection of environmental improvements in capital investment projects. The objective of this thesis is to explore the current state of environmental sustainability in a production company on its capital investment project level and see how the sustainability work relates to corporate sustainability strategy. Also, the objective is to acquire an understanding of what approaches could be included in the design phase of a capital investment to make it more environmentally sustainable by design. The purpose is to construct a green design process for designing sustainable capital investments, both practically through an interactive case study, and through a conceptual guideline. An interactive case study has been conducted at AstraZeneca in Södertälje, Sweden, to achieve the objective of this thesis. Three other companies have been included for benchmarking, and thus best practice have been acquired. A structured literature review was also conducted with the purpose of acquiring knowledge on what possible lean and green, and circular approaches are suitable for designing capital investment projects. Sustainability is a well implemented concept on corporate level in those companies studied in this thesis. However, in relation to capital investment projects as part of production system design, the concept of sustainability is somewhat lagging, suggesting that the vision on becoming a green organization is recognized on higher managerial level, but not perceived on project level. This thesis provides the reader with a conceptual guideline which guides practitioners in what possible sustainability tools could be used in different stages of capital investment design to enhance circularity. A green design process for how to improve environmental sustainability in capital investment projects was also developed and tested practically at AstraZeneca, Södertälje. Production companies require an organizational cultural change towards a green mindset that allows them to invest in often expensive and resource demanding activities that follows from implementing green processes. Applying an approach of system thinking in capital investments by including green activities that reaches all organizations within the company (such as purchasing, operations, and maintenance) are advised. Production system design is generally neglected in industry and research which can be explained by the lack of structured development processes connected to capital investments. Neglecting production system design is occurring even though it is important because of the high costs and problems in altering production systems in hindsight. / Hållbarhet och ekologism är växande begrepp som på grund av ny kundefterfrågan och nya regelverk ställer produktionsindustrin inför stora utmaningar i att tänka om processer och implementera hållbara affärsmodeller. Flera företag tar reaktiva åtgärder där förändringar görs på fabriksgolvet genom förändrade processer. Däremot saknas i flera fall förebyggande åtgärder då företag ser förbi hållbar design av produktionssystem genom att ignorera möjligheten till hållbara förbättringar i kapitalinvesteringsprojekt. Målet med denna uppsats är att beskriva nuvarande tillämpning av ekologisk hållbarhet i producerande företag på projektnivå i kapitalinvesteringsprojekt för att se hur hållbarhetsarbetet relaterar till hållbara företagsstrategier. Uppsatsen tillhandahåller även kunskap kring vilka hållbara metoder som kan implementeras i designfasen hos kapitalinvesteringsprojekt för att göra dessa mer hållbara från start. Kunskapen har använts för att konstruera en process för systematiskt hållbarhetsarbete för att designa gröna och hållbara kapitalinvesteringar. Både en praktisk och en konceptuell process har konstruerats. För att uppnå målet med uppsatsen har en interaktiv fältstudie genomförts på AstraZeneca i Södertälje, där tre andra producerande företag har inkluderats för att samla kunskap om hur andra företag arbetar med hållbarhet i kapitalinvesteringsprojekt. En litteraturstudie har också utförts med syfte att inhämta kunskap kring vilka cirkulära och gröna leanverktyg som kan användas vid design av kapitalinvesteringsprojekt. Hållbarhet är väl implementerat på organisatorisk nivå i de företag som studerats i denna studie. Däremot faller hållbarhet efter i kapitalinvesteringsprojekt, och därmed design av produktionssystem, vilket tyder på att det finns en vision om att bli ett grönt företag på organisatorisk nivå men som inte syns på projektnivå. Denna uppsats tillhandahåller läsaren med en konceptuell process vilken guidar användaren i vilka möjliga verktyg som kan användas i de olika stegen vid kapitalinvesteringsprojekt. En praktisk process för hur ekologisk hållbarhet kan förbättras i kapitalinvesteringsprojekt har också konstruerats och testats på AstraZeneca i Södertälje. Producerande företag kräver en organisatorisk grön kulturförändring som tillåter dem att investera i ofta dyra och resurskrävande aktiviteter som grundas i implementering av gröna processer. Mer uppmärksamhet bör riktas mot systemtänk i kapitalinvesteringar genom att inkludera gröna aktiviteter som genomsyrar hela organisationen på produktionsnivå, inköpsnivå och underhållsnivå bland andra. Design av produktionssystem ignoreras generellt i industrin och akademin vilket kan förklaras av avsaknaden av strukturerade utvecklingsprocesser kopplade till kapitalinvesteringar. Detta trots vikten av designarbete av produktionssystem då förändringar i systemet i efterhand ofta är både dyrt och problematiskt.

從設計、材料、製造到管理的品質是追求卓越品質的關鍵成功因素，而卓越的品質產品是能夠留住顧客的重要因素之一。 本研究借由對個案公司的深入訪談與分析，整理近5年來品質績效資料及訪談的結果，依重要性與急迫性四象限分類，確認問題的所在，再作深入的設計、材料、製造及管理品質的要因分析。在面對未來更為競爭及多變的環境下，經由波特的五力分析模式，探討零組件產業的競爭環境，同時運用優勢、劣勢、機會與威脅的相互交叉，分析個案公司所在的產業環境，找出面對的問題與挑戰，以調整品質保證策略的方向。因本研究採個案研究方式，主要結論如下： 一、電子零組件專業製造廠商的品質保證關鍵成功因素為： 穩健性產品設計的品質工程能力、專業的製程工程能力及快速的改善效能、良好的供應商、變異小(5~6 sigma range)的材料、專業的一流管理及工程人才、及健全的品質系統。 二、從個案公司的經營使命「環保、節能、愛地球」，因應國際品質保證標準及環保要求的分析來看，個案公司已經主動提昇系統品質的策略，將品質系統提昇到「對社會負責的企業」，並積極投入「綠色設計」的產品研發。 三、品質保證策略是整體性的，要達到品質產品的目的，個案公司運用同步工程同時從設計、製造、材料及管理去努力。 個案公司的品質保證策略，是以六標準差（6-Sigma）為主要改善工具，精進設計及製程的DFx並相互檢討，並導入在品質系統中，以達到零ppm 的境界。 四、良好的供應商、及品質穩定且變異性在合理的一定範圍裡的原材料，對個案公司的品質及供應商管理的成本有非常密切的影響，選擇具有良好競爭力的供應商、再有完善的供應商管理制度及真正落實執行供應商的獎懲，是確保供應商材料品質及個案公司的品質產品的最佳手法。 五、好的經營使命、好的政策理念、好的策略、及完善的管理制度及流程，一定要有一流的人才及有效能的組織去落實，因此，個案公司必須積極的規劃執行「人才培育」、外聘管理及工程的國際化「專業經理人」，同時對於品管組織應予以獨立，以便能徹底執行品質保證的要求。 卓越的設計、材料、製造及管理品質，可透過平衡計分卡的顧客滿意度來確認，而內部的績效，經由財務面的品質成本，作業流程面的直通率，以及學習面的六標準差及DFx成果來驗證品質保證策略的方向是否正確。 關鍵詞：品質保證、關鍵成功因素、綠色設計、平衡計分卡、六標準差

An estimated 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted every year, adding to the growing problem of CO2 emissions and global warming. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address this issue. However, while a lot of research in Human-Computer-Interaction has been conducted about food waste in private households, there is still a lack of research about people’s food waste at a retail level in restaurants. This paper explores the potential of gamification in the design of apps intended to support more sustainable food consumption behavior. This study is centered on the existing Too Good To Go app and examines current user behavior and perception through quantitative and qualitative methods. Then through employment of design frameworks and iterative prototype cycles the potential to encourage active sustainable food consumption is examined. Findings show that there are many challenges stopping users from actively using the current app more often.  Findings also suggest that gamification has the potential to increase users’ motivation to use the app beyond reasons of only saving food. The implications of this paper could present new opportunities for applying gamification to reduce food waste that could inspire researchers and practitioners to explore the theme further.

Text in English / Supply chains incorporate “green” principles in their processes to promote environmental sustainability. Through an online survey, this study investigated green supply chain management (GSCM) implementation and employee awareness of GSCM initiatives in five starch and glucose processing companies in Gauteng. Eighty employees working in management and supervisory positions participated in the study by completing an online questionnaire. The research findings indicated that employees are aware of environmental goals and targets, environmental policies, legislation and standards, and green designing initiatives implemented. Employees perceive that collaboration with suppliers and contractors on environmental issues is in place, however, government partnerships are perceived as being insufficient. Benefits of green marketing campaigns and GSCM initiatives have not been identified. The study noted resistance to change, lack of adoption of technology advancement, insufficient communication and training, and cost implications as barriers hindering GSCM success. It is, therefore, recommended that appropriate support and communication regarding GSCM initiatives are strengthened. / College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

Terracotta vessels are about understanding how we can store food by using a new product solution and how we could use less energy and waste less food in doing so. This project is an attempt to minimise the energy usage in our homes but also to gain greater understanding about the food we choose to bring into our homes and what we can do to avoid throwing it away.