Companies that strive for implementing a more holistic sustainability perspective, i.e. a socio-ecological sustainability perspective with a system view, need to recognize the integration ofsustainability methods into the product innovation process as a project in itself. To achieve thisan efficient method must be available to guide companies towards sustainable productdevelopment i.e. implementation of a strategic sustainability perspective in the early phases ofthe product innovation process, including a lifecycle thinking. To meet this challenge this thesisseeks to answer how a sustainability perspective can be integrated into product development to;facilliate a design team to identify critical areas in a products life cycle during the productinnovation process and with the help of sustainability methods guide the companies to a moresustainable future.The results is based on a literature study, interview- and workshops all conducted at a case-company were several barriers on why sustainability methods havn’t successfully been appliedwithin the companies were identified. The thesis identified the importance of having a morestructured and strategic product innovation process to enable a more holistic sustainabilitymindset within the company. The work contributed to a new product innovation process at thecase-company that allowed adapted sustainability methods to conveniently be integrated intothe working process. The process identified a handful of suitable sustainability methods thatfocus on the three sustainability dimensions (social, economic, ecological) to broaden thecompany’s understanding of sustainability. Selected methods were adapted, applied andvalidated at the case-company to ensure that they fulfilled their intended goals and can used toprovide a more holistic mindset and to identify hotspots in the product innovation process. / Företag som strävar efter att implementera ett bredare hållbarhetstänk, dvs ett socio-ekologiskthållbarhetsperspektiv med systemsyn, inom hela sin organisation behöver se integrationen avhållbarhetsmetoder och arbetsprocesser som ett projekt i sig. För att möjliggöra detta måste etteffektivt ramverk finnas för att hjälpa företagen i arbetet mot en hållbar produktutveckling. Föratt möta den här utmaningen söker den här uppsatsen svaret hur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv kanintegreras i produktutvecklingen inom industrin för att; underlätta för ett design team attidentifiera kritiska punkter på en produkts livcykel under produktinnovationsprocessen samthur hållbarhetsmetoder kan implementeras i processen för att navigera mot en mer hållbarindustri.Resultatet är baserat en litteraturstudie, intervjuer samt workshops på ett samarbetsföretag därett flertal barriärer vilket hindrar företag att mer effektivt navigera mot ett hållbar industriidentifierades. Studien identifierade vikten av att en strukturerad och strategiskproduktinnovationsprocess finns tillgänglig på företaget för att lättare välja och applicera ettstörre hållbarhetstänk inom företaget. Arbetet hjälpte samarbetsföretaget att ta fram en nyproduktinnovationsprocess för att på sådant sätt möjliggöra att hållbarhetsmetoder enklarekunde integreras på företaget. Processen identifierade ett flertal potentiella hållbarhetsmetodervilket fokuserade på att få med de tre olika hållbarhetsdimensionerna (social, ekonomisk,ekologisk) för att bredda samarbetsföretagets förståelse kring hållbarhet, hållbarproduktutveckling och hållbar utveckling. Intressanta hållbarhetsmetoder valdes ut för attanpassas och verifieras på företaget för att säkerställa att syftet av dem säkerställdes.

This study explores how retention options to achieve a circular economy applied in entrance door products together with CSR strategies from a supplier can create customer-perceived value in a B2B market setting. It focuses on the relationship between buyers and suppliers in the construction and building industry in the Swedish and Dutch market. To explore this phenomenon, a qualitative multiple case study was employed using semi-structured interviews as method for main data collection. Facility management, real estate and construction companies from the respective markets were subjects to this study to gather valuable insights. The data was analyzed and presented according to four main value dimensions perceived by customers. Sustainable products can mainly create indirect economic value for customers by enabling higher revenue or reducing tax load. In terms of functional value, customers ask for products with low carbon footprint that supports them to reach their sustainability goals for the supply chain or to reach building certifications. In the transition phase towards a circular economy customers value a closer and mutual beneficial relationship to their supplier. This entails a holistic aftersales support and caretaking of products after the use phase to bring products and resources back into the circle. A supplying company can create symbolic customer-perceived value by engaging in comprehensive and credible CSR activities, since several business customers want to show that they are working with sustainable companies. This study also reveals that most customers do not yet have any measures in place to assess the sustainability of a product or the quality of a suppliers CSR activities, however, it is a future requirement. Practical, the findings of this study undermine the importance for supplying companies to begin developing sustainable offerings and to engage in relationships with their business customers to create profitable business cases from sustainable offerings. Academically, the study highlights the need for further research in circularity and perceived customer value. Thus, the study explored circular product aspects customers can perceive valuable, and how the relationship acts as a foundation for specifying the requirements of bringing circular aspects to different customers and markets.

Författarna har haft ett samarbete med Panduro Hobby i samband med deras årliga miljökampanj. Syftet med examensarbetet har varit att med hjälp av befintliga produktutvecklingsprocesser och livscykelanalyser (LCA) ta fram en hållbar textil produkt med växtfärgning. Tanken var att konsumenter sedan själva skall kunna ta fram och växtfärga denna hållbara textilprodukt. Miljömedvetenhet och hållbarhet inom textilindustrin är ett aktuellt ämne. Trots det saknar dagens konsumenter förståelse för textilindustrins påverkan på miljön och har bristande kunskap om textila material för att kunna göra miljövänliga val ute i handeln. Både konsumenter och företag uttrycker att de gärna vill bidra till en mer miljövänlig textilindustri men att de saknar kännedom, resurser och verktyg för att göra det. Därför valde författarna av examensarbetet att undersöka hur en hållbar textil produkt kan tas fram med hjälp av livscykelanalyser, produktutvecklingsmetoden Product Ideas Tree (PIT) samt växtfärgning. Alla steg under produktutvecklingsprocessen valdes ur miljöhänsyn och efter de förutsättningar som krävs för att göra en så miljövänlig textil produkt som möjligt. Resultatet av undersökningen blev en växtfärgad tygkasse i 100 % lin. Efter framtagningen av produkten gjordes en livscykelanalys benämnd MET-matris för att analysera produktens miljöpåfrestning. Matrisen konstaterade att produkten inte har avsevärda miljöbrister. Med examensarbetet och den framtagna produkten vill författarna uppmuntra konsumenter och företag till att fortsätta visa engagemang och intresse för förändringar som gynnar miljön med förhoppningen om att få fler att agera mer hållbart. / The authors have had a collaboration with Panduro Hobby in addition to their annual environmental sustainability campaign. The aim of the thesis has been to develop a sustainable textile product with natural dye using existing product development processes and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The idea was that consumers later on would be able to produce this sustainable textile product and dye it themselves. Environmental awareness and sustainability in the textile industry is a topical subject. Nevertheless many consumers lack sufficient knowledge of textile materials to make environmentally friendly choices in the commerce. Both consumers and businesses express that they would like to contribute to a more environmentally friendly textile industry, but that they lack the knowledge, resources and tools to do it. Therefore, the authors of the thesis chose to explore how a sustainable textile product may be produced with the help of Life Cycle Assessment and the product development method Product Ideas Tree (PIT). All steps in the product development process were carefully chosen with consideration to the environment and the circumstances required to make the textile product as sustainable as possible. The study resulted in the development of a canvas bag made out of 100% linen dyed it with natural dye. After the product development a Life Cycle Analysis, referred to as MET Matrix, was done to analyse the product's environmental strain. The matrix noted that the product does not have significant environmental burdens. With the thesis and the produced product the authors would like to encourage consumers and businesses to continue to show commitment and interest in changes that benefit the environment, with the hope of getting more people to act more sustainably.

Introduction: Sustainability is humanity’s collective ability to sustain development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. Preceding closely to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) Report of 1987, the General Assembly has adopted the UN Declaration, in 1986 [GA RES. 41/128] and has re-emphasized its importance in the UN Millennium Declaration, 2000. Given this anthropocentric rights basis of sustainability it becomes necessary to understand what this ability and development are with respect to the individual human. Problems of relevance, whose resolution benefits more people in general, are often intractable to the methods of rigorous problem-solving (1). Systemic problems of development score high on relevance, low on being amenable to rigor (1) and are considered wicked in nature (2). Consequently, the concern for sustaining human development is wicked and hence calls for taking a design approach as design is considered good at resolving wicked problems(3). This suggests that the collective ability for sustainability with respect to the individual is design ability i.e. to specify solutions that satisfy requirements arising from having to meet self-determined individual (human) developmental needs. However, literature connecting design, sustainability and human development systemically is found lacking and calls for conducting integrative trans-disciplinary research. Prevention and remedial of consequences of technology to the habitability of earth requires the identification, understanding and control of interactions between humans and between humans and the earth systems. These interactions need to be identified generally and understood systemically in the context of being able to sustain human development. However, despite this need for research in interactions and an integrative framework for informing interventions (4) to prevent or remedy unsustainable situations literature that addresses this need is found inadequate. Research Objective: To develop a descriptive model of interaction to be able to identify and describe interactions and understand interactions at human-scale. To develop a prescriptive framework within which to situate the prevention and remedial of problems related to un sustainability by design and prescribe conditions that ensure coherence of design interventions to principles. Research Method: As is the nature of problems of relevance, the proposed research by nature spans multiple disciplines. Descriptive inquiry into widespread literature spanning conservation, development, systems theory and design is conducted before synthesizing a descriptive model of interaction that situates design cycle as a natural cycle based on interpretation of entropy and Gestalt theory of human perception. A manual discourse analysis of a section of the WCED report is undertaken to inquire into the conceptual system (worldview) behind sustainable development to understand human interactions based on worldview. Addressing the need for choosing alternative goals of development for sustainability, Sen’s capability approach to human development is adopted after critically reviewing literature in this area and synthesizing an appropriate integration of design ability, tools, (cognitive) extension and design capability for human development. Models based on theories spanning design expertise, psychology and systems thinking are reviewed and synthesized into a prescriptive framework and two intervention scenarios based on it. The framework, intervention scenarios and the model are illustrated with evidence from qualitative bibliographic analysis of several cases related to sustaining human development in principle. Results: Sustainability is proposed as a human ability; this human ability is proposed to be design ability to sustain human development. A descriptive model of interaction that situates anthropogenic action as a design cycle is proposed. Based on this model, identifying entities and interactions is demonstrated with examples. It is proposed that humans interact, designing, due to and based on their worldview. Expansion of capabilities as stated in capability approach to lead to human development is ‘extension’ of design ability to design capability mediated by tools. Personal and interpersonal interactions at human scale are described through tool-use categories. A prescriptive framework for sustainability by design that holds human needs as central to interventions for sustainability is proposed. Based on this framework, pro-active and reactive scenarios of design intervention for prevention and remedial of un sustainability are constructed and demonstrated using several cases. Summary: Problems of relevance like sustaining human development are wicked in nature and require knowledge and action mutually informing each other. Addressing the inter-disciplinary nature of the problem requires a design approach as design is known to integrate knowledge from several disciplines to resolve wicked problems. The imperative to be able to sustain human development provides the widest profile of requirements to be met and design is shown to be central to meeting these requirements at the various scales that they surface. Sustainability is defined as humanity’s collective ability to develop meeting needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations for meeting their own needs. This collective ability translates to the individual’s design ability to specify solutions that satisfy requirements arising out of having to meet self-determined developmental needs. The process of ‘expansion’ -- of capabilities that free people choose and value – that realizes human development is the process of tools affording the extension of design ability to design capability necessary for progressively satisfying requirements arising out of self-determined needs of increasing complexity. It is proposed that humans interact, designing based on and due to their worldview. Personal and interpersonal interactions at human scale are described through tool-use categories. A prescriptive framework for sustainability by design is developed stating conditions to guide systemic design interventions for preventing and remedying unsustainability within pro-active and reactive scenarios respectively. A descriptive model of interaction is developed to situate and enable understanding of interactions. The framework, scenarios and the model are illustrated using several cases related to sustaining human development.