Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. Rucker. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).

Thesis (M. S.)--Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Joe Ballay; Committee Member: Kevin Shankwiler; Committee Member: Neta Ezer

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009. / Title from title page (Digital Archive@GSU, viewed July 20, 2010) Stan Anderson, committee chair; Constance Thalken, Joseph Peragine, committee members. Includes bibliographical references (p. 55).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-65).

Each year in the UK (United Kingdom) hundreds of millions of consumer products are sold, leading to many millions of tonnes of waste being buried or burned annually. While there are many large businesses that produce consumer products, in the UK small product design consultancies (SDCs) make up approximately half of all employed designers. This thesis outlines an investigation into the absence of an EcoDesign agenda in product design briefs and how this might be changed in the future. In order to best establish the theoretical basis of the research, a comprehensive literature review was conducted into the practice of product designers, their relationship to society and the wider environment. In addition, existing tools and resources purporting to support product designers, with the implementation of EcoDesign projects, were analysed to understand the challenges associated with their design. Following this review, and the development of relevant research questions, a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to understand SDCs better, how these organisations conduct their business, and how familiar they are with EcoDesign. A series of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 participants from 22 different consultancies. As a result of these interviews, a greater understanding of the barriers and drivers SDCs face in the practice of EcoDesign was established. This led to the creation of d.eco a web-based resource, to facilitate the implementation of EcoDesign principles in SDCs. This resource was evaluated in the final stage of the research. The majority of product designers had an awareness of EcoDesign and considered that they would be able to use their skills to find the information necessary to create products with a reduced environmental footprint. A significant barrier was that EcoDesign principles could only be legitimately applied when the design brief required their use. However, briefs are not created solely by clients; they were found to be much more collaborative, thus offering designers an opportunity to influence their own briefs. So, the role of an EcoDesign resource is less about assisting the design process, like most existing tools, and more to do with the providing designers with a wellspring of inspiration. However, the resource stimulates more than just creativity. It also provides peer recommended examples of existing EcoDesign products, materials and processes, facilitating the long-term absorption of relevant information. By presenting relevant material, in an appropriate way, designers can be more confident when including EcoDesign criteria and associated principles within their briefs.

Dry weather dominates several U.S. states, and some of them experience even long-term droughts. Yet, more than 10.6 million swimming pools exist in the U.S., and over 43,000 of them are in greater Los Angeles. Since roughly 100% of their water evaporates on a yearly basis, pool water evaporation accounts for a significant amount of water being wasted every day. Several studies have been conducted to create a proper equation for the evaporation rate on a pool surface, based on the wind speed, water temperature, and relative humidity. This thesis will address a research gap that was found in exploring the way the surroundings of the pool can affect its evaporation rate. In particular, this study examines the relation of the urban design to the evaporation rate of outdoor swimming pools by studying the way the housing type of a neighborhood affects the wind speed over the neighborhood’s pool surfaces.

A sustentabilidade emerge rapidamente como um dos principais tópicos para estratégia de negócios e tem sido explorada em diversas frentes de pesquisa. No entanto, a relação entre as práticas sustentáveis e o desempenho apresenta-sedivergente e há ainda estudosque não conseguem comprovar uma relação direta entre estas variáveis. Sendo assim, a literatura sobre este tema apresenta uma característica inconclusiva, o que oportunizou esta pesquisa,cujo objetivo foiverificar se existe relação entre as práticas de operações sustentáveis e as categorias de desempenho e, ainda, se existem fatores moderadores atuando nestas relações. As práticas de operações sustentáveis consideradas incluem ecodesign, cadeia de suprimentos verdes (GSC), produção mais limpa (P+L) e logística reversa, enquanto o desempenho foi dividido em desempenho ambiental, desempenho econômico, desempenho operacional e desempenho organizacional.Relacionando estas práticas sustentáveis com as categorias de desempenho obteve-se 16 hipóteses.Devido ao caráter desta pesquisa em buscar um consenso teórico que contribua para a evolução do conhecimento sobre um tema específico, a metodologia aplicada foi a de revisão sistemática seguida de metanálise. A revisão sistemática encontrou inicialmente 3.825 estudos, dos quais 37 tinham os parâmetros requeridos para realização da metanálise e foram efetivamente utilizados. Como resultados, a hipóteseda relação entre logística reversa e desempenho organizacional não pôde ser testada por insuficiência de dados e, das demais hipóteses, apenas uma não foi aceita: a relação entre as práticas de cadeia de suprimentos verdes e o desempenho econômico. Os moderadores não atuam em duas relações: ecodesign e desempenho operacional, e P+L e desempenho organizacional, mostrando que nestas relações não há fatores interferindo em seus resultados. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-10-21T17:55:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Marina D'agostini.pdf: 5640801 bytes, checksum: 6c7d4d0a5259f716e933e3d33603100d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-21T17:55:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Marina D'agostini.pdf: 5640801 bytes, checksum: 6c7d4d0a5259f716e933e3d33603100d (MD5) / Sustainability is rapidly emerging as one of the most important topics for business strategy and have been explored in a lot of research lines. However, the relation between sustainable practices and performance shows divergent results and still there are studiesthat can’t prove a direct relation between the variables. Thus, the literature about this issue shows an inconclusive feature, providing opportunity for this search that aimedto determine whether there is a relationship between sustainable operations practices and performance categories and whether there are moderatingacting in this relationship. Sustainable operations practices considered include ecodesign, green supply chain, cleaner production and reverse logistics, while the performance was divided into environmental, economic, operational and organizational.Connect these sustainable operations practices with performance categories there was obtained 16 hypothesis. Due to the goal of this research to seek a theoretical consensus that contributes to the evolution of knowledge about a specific issue, the methodology applied was a systematic review followed by a meta-analysis. The systematic review initially found 3.825 studies of which 37 had the parameters required to perform the meta-analysis and were effectively used.As results, thehypothesis of the relationship between reverse logistics and organizational performance can’t be tested due to insufficient data and, among the others hypotheses, only one was not accepted: the relationship between green supply chain practices and economic performance. About the moderating , they don’t acting in two relationships: ecodesign and operational performance and cleaner production and organizational performance, showing that in these relations there aren’t factors interfering in their results.

A sustentabilidade emerge rapidamente como um dos principais tópicos para estratégia de negócios e tem sido explorada em diversas frentes de pesquisa. No entanto, a relação entre as práticas sustentáveis e o desempenho apresenta-sedivergente e há ainda estudosque não conseguem comprovar uma relação direta entre estas variáveis. Sendo assim, a literatura sobre este tema apresenta uma característica inconclusiva, o que oportunizou esta pesquisa,cujo objetivo foiverificar se existe relação entre as práticas de operações sustentáveis e as categorias de desempenho e, ainda, se existem fatores moderadores atuando nestas relações. As práticas de operações sustentáveis consideradas incluem ecodesign, cadeia de suprimentos verdes (GSC), produção mais limpa (P+L) e logística reversa, enquanto o desempenho foi dividido em desempenho ambiental, desempenho econômico, desempenho operacional e desempenho organizacional.Relacionando estas práticas sustentáveis com as categorias de desempenho obteve-se 16 hipóteses.Devido ao caráter desta pesquisa em buscar um consenso teórico que contribua para a evolução do conhecimento sobre um tema específico, a metodologia aplicada foi a de revisão sistemática seguida de metanálise. A revisão sistemática encontrou inicialmente 3.825 estudos, dos quais 37 tinham os parâmetros requeridos para realização da metanálise e foram efetivamente utilizados. Como resultados, a hipóteseda relação entre logística reversa e desempenho organizacional não pôde ser testada por insuficiência de dados e, das demais hipóteses, apenas uma não foi aceita: a relação entre as práticas de cadeia de suprimentos verdes e o desempenho econômico. Os moderadores não atuam em duas relações: ecodesign e desempenho operacional, e P+L e desempenho organizacional, mostrando que nestas relações não há fatores interferindo em seus resultados. / Sustainability is rapidly emerging as one of the most important topics for business strategy and have been explored in a lot of research lines. However, the relation between sustainable practices and performance shows divergent results and still there are studiesthat can’t prove a direct relation between the variables. Thus, the literature about this issue shows an inconclusive feature, providing opportunity for this search that aimedto determine whether there is a relationship between sustainable operations practices and performance categories and whether there are moderatingacting in this relationship. Sustainable operations practices considered include ecodesign, green supply chain, cleaner production and reverse logistics, while the performance was divided into environmental, economic, operational and organizational.Connect these sustainable operations practices with performance categories there was obtained 16 hypothesis. Due to the goal of this research to seek a theoretical consensus that contributes to the evolution of knowledge about a specific issue, the methodology applied was a systematic review followed by a meta-analysis. The systematic review initially found 3.825 studies of which 37 had the parameters required to perform the meta-analysis and were effectively used.As results, thehypothesis of the relationship between reverse logistics and organizational performance can’t be tested due to insufficient data and, among the others hypotheses, only one was not accepted: the relationship between green supply chain practices and economic performance. About the moderating , they don’t acting in two relationships: ecodesign and operational performance and cleaner production and organizational performance, showing that in these relations there aren’t factors interfering in their results.

M.Tech. (Industrial Design) / One of the greatest social problems we face as society as a whole and South Africa in particular, is food insecurity. Food insecurity manifests itself in many forms and has a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of people. People need food to survive, but often the food systems they rely on are vulnerable to price shocks and changes, which in turn diminishes their resilience. Local food systems are crucial in reducing vulnerability and improving food security. But often the tools used are not appropriate, especially for household farming. In this study design is used to bring about considered change in the area of household food security, by addressing the tools used for household farming. Household farming is not a typical focus for designers, but well-designed tools could have a dramatic influence on the ability of a household to have a more productive food garden therefore well designed tools is a valuable place for design to be applied. The design intervention of a Household Farming Kit (HFK) and its development is explored. The methods used for the design and development are human-centric in nature, but also acknowledge the opportunity for the designer to have a meaningful influence on the final outcome. The influence could be toward more environmentally sound farming practices. The process adopted used the development of a series of prototype iterations which were evaluated by participants to recommend the alteration or changing of the prototypes. Three phases of prototypes were developed and evaluated, with each building on the knowledge gained from the previous. These were tested predominantly in two locations: Noordgesig outside Johannesburg and Kanana in the North West province in South Africa. The evaluations by the farmers who participated in this study were essential in the development process, in order for the designs to be appropriate to their needs. This study had a very practical focus, with the development of the Household Farming Kit, but it also had a strong methodological focus, experimenting with methods used to design products in a developmental context. The successes and failures of the study are documented in order to contribute to the field of Industrial Design, specifically design research in the area of Design for Development.

Sustainability requires a new pathway and our industry must evolve to be a contributor to finding the right answer, rather than delivering the trusted solutions that have served us well in an industry of unconstrained resources. Aspiration of initiating a dialogue about our professional responsibility: the dialogue must engage with matters beyond engineering and find relevance in the disparate academic research, to drive the pragmatic decision making required by industry. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted