La phase conceptuelle, basée sur des informations imprécises et incomplètes, est à la base de la satisfaction des clients par le futur système. La programmation architecturale se concentre sur une des premières étapes de cette phase dans le domaine de la construction : la définition des besoins d'un bâtiment. Les pratiques et recherches actuelles en Architecture-Ingénierie-Construction ont tendance à être basées sur l'expérience des programmistes et architectes. Elles sont rapidement orientées vers la production de solutions architecturales et avec une formalisation tardive des besoins métiers en exigences bâtiment. La définition des exigences est bien plus développée dans les autres domaines d'ingénierie (i.e. génie mécanique, industriel et logiciel) au sein de théories, modèles, techniques et outils. Ces travaux de recherche visent à proposer un raisonnement de programmation architecturale basé sur ces connaissances en matière d'ingénierie des exigences dans ces autres domaines. La méthodologie suivie pour développer ce raisonnement s'appuie sur une démarche transdisciplinaire basée sur une combinaison de méthodologies issues des Sciences de la Conception. Outre l'identification de langages de modélisation couvrant différent points de vues associées à la programmation architecturale, un manque est identifié en ce qui concerne les concepts définissant l'objet d'étude : la transition entre les concepts d'activité et d'espace. Le concept de ‘‘méta-espace'' est proposé pour combler ce manque ainsi qu'un langage de modélisation permettant l'exploitation des relations entre ces concept. Une formalisation très en amont de la transition des besoins métiers des clients vers les exigences bâtiment est proposée via une démarche conceptuelle résultant de l'ajout du concept de ‘‘méta-espace''. Cette démarche est présentée étape par étape en s'appuyant sur les divers cas d'études traités au cours de la thèse. / The conceptual phase is based on very fuzzy and incomplete information about clients' needs. It constitutes the core of clients' satisfaction about the future system. Architectural programming, or briefing process, focuses on the early stages of the conceptual phase of construction projects, i.e. the requirements definition. Current practices and research in Architecture-Engineering-Construction tend to be experience-based, solution-oriented, and with a late formalisation of business needs into building requirements. The requirements definition is far more supported by theories, models, tools, and techniques in other engineering disciplines (i.e. Mechanical, Industrial, and Software Engineering). This research aims to propose an architectural programming reasoning based on existing requirements engineering knowledge from these other engineering disciplines. The methodology followed to develop this reasoning is a transdisciplinary approach based on a combination of Design Research Methodology, and Design Science. Besides the identification of modelling languages covering different viewpoints associated with the briefing process, a gap is identified regarding modelling constructs associated with a “meta-space” design artefact. This design artefact and its associated modelling language (i.e. the meta-space diagram) support the formalisation of the transition from activities to space. The resulting conceptual framework proposes a step by step early formalisation of the transition from clients' business needs to building requirements. All along the thesis, different case studies are used to illustrate the proposals.

Recently trade-off among producers, customers and society/ environment is one of the most popular concerns in industry. This issue conducts the decision making by manufacturers on the selection between two alternative techniques, ECM and MM. The purpose of this study was to explore the problem in how to assess the value of a product/ service in the early stages of the design activity. Through the simulation tool of System Dynamics, a model helps to quantify all the values which were involved. The result of this model was that the coming 10 years NPVs of two alternatives were assessed. Contrasting the alternatives on different manufacturing processes and market conditions, the decision makers could find out an appropriate scenario with an appropriate technique. This approach was verified to ensure the accuracy and practicability.

This thesis investigates the potential of User-Centered Design (UCD) and Agile to support Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) practice in product and product-service system (PSS) design. UCD tools and concepts are used to support stakeholder and needs research. Agile provides process support for collaboration and resilience. SSD tools and concepts are used to define and work within the system boundaries for sustainability. All three practices are combined in an innovation approach that supports collaborative and cross-functional design teams as they develop products and PSS. Design teams using this approach will work to satisfy the needs of customers while considering the needs of all non-customer stakeholders and the ecosphere. The full-systems context emphasized in the approach will support innovation and encourage design teams to consider services as complements to, or substitutes for, physical products.

Today’s societal development is not sustainable. The transportation sector has the potential role to be a tremendous lever for sustainability due to its central position in the societal structure as well as for the current unsustainable trends that occur in this system. Recommendations to public transportation providers were made by highlighting the main existing gaps between the current transportation system and an envisioned future transportation system that could exist in a sustainable society. To highlight these gaps, multiple perspectives were considered. These perspectives were enabled by e.g. User Journey Maps at the individual level and a holistic perspective over the broader urban transport system. The premise is that in order to increase use rates of public transportation, there is a need to better assess and address urban travellers' needs when commuting. For providers to have a strategic, stepwise approach and to be able to bring the public transportation system towards sustainability, the authors recommended that public transportation providers prioritize and implement future actions aligned with the three prioritization questions presented at the strategic level of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development and by defining a criterion that would emphasize that the users’ needs of importance highlighted in the study are fulfilled.

This thesis investigates the P2P carsharing user experience. The intention of this investigation is to increase the adoption and uptake of P2P carsharing in existing and future markets because of its benefits to the environment, the local economy and its accruement of social capital. We see P2P carshar- ing as a key means to creating a sustainable urban transportation solution. We started by doing a web review of P2P carsharing followed by a system- atic analysis in which we categorized each platforms’ key attributes. With this information we created two infographics. The first displays existent platforms and their different attributes. The second illustrates the customer journey. We then conducted a survey between April 6 and May 14, 2012, receiving 206 responses from borrowers, owners and people who have not yet used the service. Although the survey was open to anyone, users in the US, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden were targeted. The survey pro- vides demographic information about P2P carsharing users who were found to be young, highly educated, well-off working professionals. Their trans- portation habits and needs, especially as relating to P2P carsharing were also found. After collating this information we partitioned respondents into: Owners, Borrowers, Prospective Owners, Prospective Borrowers, and then orthogonally into US Users and European Users. We then created user pro- files and a mix of short and longer-term multi-stakeholder design chal- lenges for stakeholders; whose work, building off of ours, will we hope, foster innovations that make P2P carsharing a ubiquitous mobility solution.

This thesis project extends current research on how Product-Service/Systems (PSS) increase the competitiveness of what businesses provide to society. In particular, when the significant stakeholders who create value, structured as a network, are also involved in the co-development of the value proposition. Applying the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), this study looks at how the early stages of a strategic planning process for sustainability could improve this co-development of PSS. The field research helped to understand the particularities of co-developing PSS and how the planning process could be adapted using the FSSD. As a result, theoretical dimensions, and general guidelines to put these into practice, are recommended in a model. The theoretical dimensions were field tested and refined. It was discovered that when creating the aspirational goals of the network, including other perspectives, in addition to companies and the customer’s, could expand the perception of value available to be provided. To do so is proposed a systematic understanding of the situation, and its socio-ecological context, where the activities of the value-based network of stakeholders are performed.

Industrialization and globalization of companies has promoted fast, easy and profitable business solutions. A linear business model (LBM) is seen as the most common way to do business. However, recent studies have enlightened how LBMs are detrimental to the health and biological cycles of the earth and its inhabitants. To prevent this, circular business models (CBM) are being introduced as a feasible while still profitable solution. CBMs are defined by Oghaze & Mostaghel, (2018), as the “…rationale of how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value with slowing, closing, or narrowing flows of the resource loops”, as they base their business on products and services designed to close or slowing the resource loops, decreasing the overall need of virgin resources.  However, to make these major changes in the current way of designing products and services has to be made, taking into consideration the change in design objectives from a linear to a circular model. Today, there are many circular design methods (DM) developed by academia to aid designers in designing sustainable products and services, however, the uptake of such DMs in the industry is quite low. Such a low level of uptake is often due to a poor fit between the DM and the context it is adopted in, which does not aid its seamless integration in existing processes.  Therefore, this research aims to identify DM characteristics that will aid industries to be adopted or adapted by companies transitioning towards CBMs. To do so, three research questions were developed: i) What are the most critical internal and external drivers in a company that enable the successful adoption of a circular design method?  ii) What are the contextual barriers that companies encounter when adopting or adapting circular design methods? iii) How can the design method adopted or adapted be evaluated to improve their implementation in a company? To answer these research questions, a survey was initially carried out, and subsequent interviews were conducted amongst participants of five different companies from various sectors and expertise. The survey and interviews were grounded in previous research concerning types of CBM and different types of barriers and drivers influencing the adoption of circular DMs.  The result from the survey indicates that the ability to make trade-offs when confronted with sustainability aspects, management commitment to a CBM, good communication and sharing of environmental knowledge, both through different departments and with external actors like suppliers, as well as allocating resources such as time, personnel, funds, and having clear business incentives are needed to promote the use of circular DMs. From the interviews, it was also found that barriers to the effective use of DMs are lack of environmental knowledge throughout the supply chain and wrong identification of actors in the supply chain as well as limited communication with external actors. Furthermore, the research revealed several characteristics of the DMs such as simplicity, flexibility and informativity need to be adapted to leverage and overcome the identified contextual drivers and barriers respectively, for their successful deployment within the companies.

Background. The amount of waste generated each year is increased, research indicates that 79 % of plastic waste is dumped in landfills, 12% to incinerated and 9% of the plastics are recycled. At the beginning of the year 2020, an increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) was noted as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic that spread around the world. As a foundation to the waste problem in society, VolvoGroup presented its zero mission goals. The zero missions goals were to be captured in a problem space provided by Volvo. A problem space that students at Blekinge Institute of Technology and Stanford University were set out to find a solution to. Objectives. The objectives of this thesis were through the Design Thinking strategy to find solutions that are circular and applied as a PSS. The goal is to apply a circular system of which Volvo Group can apply in their line of work, also to transition this solution into other areas, e.g. healthcare. Methods. For research measures, the Design Research Methodology was used to frame the research and Design Thinking to frame the design process. Results. The result presented is a machine that can provide Volvo Group or healthcare with circular single-use gloves. The circular aspects are enabled by a certain material, allowing the created system to be circular. The system is applied as a product-service system, enhancing the availability of gloves in either healthcare or inside Volvo Group. Conclusions. The circular system applied as a PSS satisfies the goals by Volvo Group by reducing waste generated, increasing availability of protective equipment, thus increasing the safety of users in need of PPE. The created circular system has the potential to be applied in other areas than waste management and healthcare, which can be proved through future research. / Bakgrund. Mängden sopor som slängs ökar för vart år som går. Forskning visar att79% av all plast som slängs går till deponi, 12% går till förbränning och resterandemängd plast (9%) återvinns. Under år 2020 har förbrukningen av skyddsartiklar av engångstyp ökat på grund av den Covid-19-pandemi som bröt ut i början av året. Den ökade förbrukningen har sin tur medfört nedskräpning av skyddsartiklar i naturen i en ökad omfattning. Till följd av detta har Volvo Group utformat ett uppdrag i syfte att få hjälp med att nå sin nollvision. Visionen innebär att utsläpp, olyckor och produktionsstopp ska upphöra helt och hållet. Uppdraget tilldelades en gruppstudenter på Blekinge Tekniska Högskola och Stanford University. Studenterna fick i uppgift att angripa problemet och komma med en lösning som uppfyller företagets nollvision. Syfte. Syftet med denna rapport är att genom design thinking- strategin finna en lösning som kan skapa ett cirkulärt system och appliceras som ett produkt-servicesystem (PSS). Målet är att kunna applicera detta system inom Volvo koncernen, men att även kunna presentera möjligheten att göra systemet tillämpningsbart inom sjukvården. Metod. I rent forskningssyfte användes Design Research Methodology för att rama in forskningen som skedde parallellt med utvecklingsprocessen. Utvecklingsprocessen följde ramarna för Design Thinking som presenterar olika typer av verktyg för design och utveckling av en produkt. Resultat. Det resultat som presenteras i denna rapport är ett cirkulärt system applicerat i en form av en PSS. Det som möjliggör detta system är ett material som tillåter reproduktion av engångshandskar som går att applicera inom sophanteringsindustrin. Detta indikerar även på att ett likande system kan medföra att sjukvården kan bli självständig i sitt användande av skyddsutrustning. Slutsatser. Ett cirkulärt system som uppfyller Volvos nollvision genom att skydda deras arbetare sluter ett kretslopp för en typ av skyddsutrustning. Det leder även tillökad tillgänglighet av utrusning. Detta system har potentialen att appliceras inom sjukvården i form av ett centraliserat system på sjukhus som tillför mindre enheter med tillverkade handskar.

Background: Functional sales has in recent years become increasingly debated among companies, as a result of increased interest in developing more sustainable strategies. Meanwhile, companies lack knowledge of what changes functional sales causes, particularly about what incentives, barriers and financial implications that affect the development and implementation of the business model. Since companies are not fully aware of what aspects to take into consideration before implementing functional sales, many companies hesitate on taking the step towards a more sustainable future. Research aim: The research aim of this study is to investigate underlying incentives and barriers that affect the development and implementation of functional sales within retail industry, but also what financial implications it causes. Moreover, this study aims to investigate how the conditions for an implementation of functional sales can be improved, by managing the incentives and barriers identified. Method: This study has been conducted with pragmatism as a scientific starting point. Moreover, an abductive approach has been used. The research design for this study is qualitative design, where a simple case study was selected through a targeted sampling of ”a typical case”. The respondents were selected through a snowball and a targeted sampling. The method used for conducting the analysis was a thematic analysis. Findings: The incentives identified in this study were environmental sustainability, meeting customer needs, closer connection to the customer and profitability. The barriers identified were increased requirements for product design, increased costs for warehousing, service and transportation, changes in cash flows, existing accounting principles and lack of profitability. In order to strengthen versus bridge these incentives and barriers, companies should take the following aspects into consideration: a well-adapted design, environmentally friendly and efficient transportation, ensure high inventory turnover rate, an adequate pricing, a well- formulated guarantee agreement and ensure financing. / Bakgrund: Funktionsförsäljning har på senare år blivit allt mer omdebatterat bland företag, till följd av att ökat intresse av att utveckla mer hållbara strategier. Samtidigt saknas forskning om vilka processer som förändras vid funktionsförsäljning, samt vilka incitament, hinder och finansiella implikationer som påverkar utveckling och implementeringen av affärsmodellen. I och med att företag inte är fullt medvetna om vilka aspekter de behöver ta i beaktning inför en implementering, tvekar företag att ta steget mot en mer hållbar framtid. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka bakomliggande incitament och hinder som påverkar utvecklingen och implementeringen av en cirkulär affärsmodell baserad på funktionsförsäljning inom detaljhandeln, samt vilka finansiella implikationer de ger upphov till. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka hur förutsättningarna för en implementering av funktionsförsäljning kan förbättras, genom hantering av dessa incitament och hinder. Metod: Studien har genomförts med pragmatism som vetenskaplig utgångspunkt. Vidare har ett abduktivt angreppssätt använts. Studiens forskningsdesign är kvalitativ, där ett fallföretag valts ut genom ett målstyrt urval av ”ett typiskt fall”. Respondenterna valdes ut genom både ett snöbollsurval och ett målstyrt urval. Den analysmetod som studien har använts sig av är en så kallad tematisk analys. Slutsats: De incitament som identifierats i denna studie är miljömässig hållbarhet, möta kundens behov, komma närmare kund samt lönsamhet. De hinder som identifierats är ökade krav på produktdesign, ökade kostnader vid lagerhållning, service och transport, förändrade kassaflöden, befintliga redovisningsprinciper samt utebliven lönsamhet. För att förstärka respektive överbrygga dessa bör företag ta följande aspekter i beaktning: en anpassad design, miljövänliga och effektiva transporter, säkerställa hög lageromsättningshastighet, rätt prissättning, ett välformulerat garantiavtal samt säkerställa finansiering.

The Fashion industry has grown rapidly over the past decade. The industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries and the way we produce and consume clothes has to change, to reach sustainability across the industry. The fashion industry requires a new “textile economy” where business models are developed to keep products in use and continuously circulate. Therefore, developing business model that can keep products in use and make them circulate is one way forward. Product-Service-Systems (PSS) have become a discussion amongst researchers to be a possible way of reaching more sustainable practices across the industry. This study therefore looks at one form of PSS, leasing and rental. The study will investigate, technical garments because from a durability and quality perspective they are ideal to incorporate in this type of model. Therefore, this study aimed at developing an ideal circular leasing and rental model to see what requirements is needed to keep activity-based, technical garments in use. It was also of interest to investigate what challenges and opportunities the Swedish outdoor industry face when implementing a leasing and rental model, and if they can fulfil the requirements of the ideal circular model. A qualitative method was used through semi-structured interviews to collect the empirical data. The results show that the requirements of an ideal circular leasing and rental model includes Sustainability, Investments/Economic profit, Human resources, Logistics, Product design and Upcycling. The empirical results from the Swedish outdoor industry shows that they require the same factors as the model, however two more requirements are highlighted by the industry, Thirdparty-partner and customer demand. The results also shows that today it is too challenging for the Swedish outdoor industry fulfil the requirements of an ideal circular leasing and rental model. Collaborating with a third-party-partner is one aspect the industry see as an opportunity. The products have an opportunity to be kept in use because the brands will care for them. However, the industry face more challenges than opportunities, some of the challenges are investments and economic profit, logistics and upcycling processes of activity-based technical garments.