This research is investigating ways of promoting social change towards more sustainable practices around the consumption of decorative home textiles. Knowledge is built and a prototype developed by using transdisciplinary design theory and participatory design methods.  Motivators for this work are the sustainability goals defined by the United Nations, specifically reducing waste through prevention and building awareness for sustainable lifestyles (UN Sustainability Initiative, 2020); and a combined interest of becoming more accessible to more people and interacting with them there where they are from the point of view of product or service design, as well as working towards sustainability goals of IKEA (Ingka Group, 2020).  The context of home textiles has been chosen because textile waste is a growing problem and with the main emphasis being on issues relating to clothing items and fast fashion, problems with home textiles can be easily overlooked. However, with giant fast fashion companies like H&M and Zara entering the home decor market, there is a reason to focus on preventing the same kind of issues rising with home fashion textiles as have with fast fashion clothes.  The aim is to understand the behaviours and meanings surrounding home fashion textiles and to reduce the amount of textile waste going to landfills through prevention and mindful consumption. The purpose is to develop a vehicle of interaction between IKEA and consumers that emphasizes inclusion and the merits of co-creating to solve a problem in a sustainable way and benefits IKEA in their pursuits of cultivating a stronger relationship with the consumers while working towards their circularity goals.  The prototype proposed as a result is an evidence-based tool for communication which enables IKEA to access more people while offering both parties a chance to learn from each other while developing sustainable initiatives and mindsets.

Background. Within the South African context there is a large body of research regarding the associations between maternal gestational drinking and diagnosable child FASDs. However, there remains a paucity of local research regarding the impacts of other kinds of maternal drinking behaviours (e.g. past and present maternal drinking) and related socio-demographic factors on developmentally sensitive areas of child neurocognitive functioning, such as executive functioning (EF). Methods. This study was cross-sectional in design, utilising a gender balanced sample of N=464 children between the ages of 9.00 and 15.12 (year.months) in three rural areas within the Western Cape. Information regarding maternal drinking behaviours (before, during and after pregnancy) and related socio-demographic factors was collected via structured interviews with mothers or proxy respondents. Six subtests from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Battery (CANTAB), were used to assess three aspects of child EF namely: (1) processing speed, assessed by the MOT and RTI subtests, (2) attention, assessed by the MTT and RVP subtests and (3) memory, assessed by the SWM and PAL subtests. Findings. For all three maternal alcohol use behaviours examined, there was an apparent non-significant trend whereby children of mothers who reported alcohol use (before, during and after pregnancy) performed worse (on average) than children of mothers reporting non-alcohol use on the EF subtests. Several of the socio-demographic factors were found to act as significant predictors of subtest specific EF performance including child sex (RTI: B=.46, p<. 01; MTT: B=.05, p<.05), child age (RTI: B=.27, p<.05; MTT: B=.11, p<.01), home language (MOT: B=- .13, p<.05), maternal employment (MTT: B=-.04, p<.05) and household size (SWM: B=-1.29, p<.05). Conclusions. These study findings provide initial insights into the impacts of different types of maternal drinking behaviours and related socio-demographic factors on child EF outcomes within the context of an LMIC, South Africa.