<p> What do product design teams value in sustainable design methods? Specifically, what kinds of activities and mindsets comprise different design methods, and which ones do design teams believe drive sustainability, innovation, and other value? How could they be combined to improve sustainable design&rsquo;s value to companies? This study was the first to deconstruct green product design practices into their constituent activities and mindsets to characterize them and hypothesize their potential synergies. It was also the first to empirically test and compare what practitioners value within three of these sustainable design practices&mdash;The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping, and Biomimicry. </p><p> Others have identified mindsets in sustainable design practices, or have identified activities in general engineering design practices, but none have done both for sustainable design practices. Such analysis is important, because most designers do not follow design methods like tunnels of process to pass through completely, but like toolboxes to draw from opportunistically. Here, fourteen design methods, guides, and certifications were deconstructed to categorize their component activities and mindsets, and hypothesize what designers, engineers, and managers would consider useful tools to select for different purposes, or could combine to multiply their value. It also hypothesized some green design methods might be preferred by designers, while others might be preferred by engineers or managers. </p><p> Empirical testing of the activities and mindsets within The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping, and Biomimicry measured their value for general purposes, sustainability, and innovation. It did so by providing 29 workshops on these design methods to 520 participants, with 376 survey respondents: 172 professionals from over 30 different companies and 204 Berkeley students, totaling 1,432 pre- and post-workshop survey responses, due to many people participating in multiple workshops. This testing of multiple design methods was new because most literature on sustainable product design either treats all sustainable design the same, or proposes a specific new design method and studies it. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of survey results validated the earlier deconstruction and found &ldquo;golden tools&rdquo; in each design method: In The Natural Step, Backcasting was most valued, largely for its strategic benefit of focusing thought to accomplish goals, and providing a new lens. In Whole System Mapping, Draw System Map was most valued, largely for broadening scope, visually showing the larger system, and aiding collaboration. In Biomimicry, Nature as Mentor was highly valued as a new lens to approach problems, and for being inspiring; AskNature.org was greatly valued for providing new ideas and for being interesting / engaging. Some of these and other components of the design methods were valued for sustainability, innovation, or both, and some for neither. Results were broken down by demographics (job role, company type, company size, industry sector, and gender) to see if different groups valued different things, as hypothesized above. However, differences were generally too small to be statistically significant at these sample sizes, which implies that sustainable design methods can be taught and used universally between all these groups, even though individuals vary in what they most value and why. </p><p> In addition to these theoretical analyses and empirical tests, 42 professional designers, engineers, and managers were interviewed at the beginning and end of the study to help establish background context for the research, recommend what green design methods to analyze, validate survey responses, and test for longer-term impact of workshops. They valued a wide range of design practices for several different reasons; some design practices were valued for both sustainability and innovation. Differences in responses from sustainable design experts versus traditional design practitioners showed how specialized skills help sustainable design; this implied design teams should not merely use standard design practices while thinking green thoughts. Multiple respondents mentioned the value of combining green design practices with both each other and traditional design practices. The interviews also investigated how design professionals measure innovation, though they were surprisingly resistant to the idea of quantifying it. Interviews also investigated who can best lead sustainability in design teams, why sustainability might provide business value, and how adoption of sustainability might best be driven in design teams. </p><p> This study&rsquo;s results should help designers, engineers, product managers, and others who create our material world to practice sustainable design more effectively. It can help practitioners mindfully choose and combine golden tools from various green design toolboxes to build a better world while building business value.</p><p>

Sustainable approaches have been extensively proposed in product, process and system levels. However, a lack of applicable solutions for these methods is identified in the existing research. This research considers uncertainties affecting sustainable systems and comprehensively discusses the need for the optimal design in product and system levels under uncertainty. Based on the economic, social and environmental requirements of a sustainable product, and uncertainties in engineering systems, two innovative methods are proposed. The methods, including agent-based modeling (ABM) and Big Data, quantify effects of users’ preference changes as a significant uncertainty source in a product design process. The effect of quantified uncertainties on the product sustainability is then evaluated, and solutions to reduce the effects are developed. Through a novel control engineering method, uncertainties are modeled in the design process of a product. Using two mathematical models, the cost and environmental impacts in the design process are minimized under users’ preference changes. The models search for an optimal number of iterations in the design process to achieve a sustainable solution. The methods have been extended to model and optimize the sustainable system design under uncertainties. Design of Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) is a practical and scientific solution to achieve sustainable industries. To improve the feasibility of flow exchanges between industries in an EIP under several uncertainties, this research provides a perspective analysis for establishing flow exchanges between industries. The sources of uncertainties in the EIPs are then comprehensively studied, and research gaps are highlighted. Finally, models to optimize flow exchanges between industries are presented and the validity of models is evaluated using real data. A major is including all sustainability pillars in the proposed approach. The research addresses users’ preferences to highlight the role of individuals in the society. Moreover, the economic and environmental objective functions have been considered for optimal decision making in the design process. This research underlines the role of uncertainty studies in the sustainable system design. Multiple classifications, perspective analysis, and optimization objectives are presented to help decision makers with the optimal design of sustainable systems under uncertainties. / February 2017

Climate change is one of the biggest issues that the world faces today, and one of the biggest contributors to climate change are groceries. This paper aims at using digital artefacts to create a product or design that will encourage the user to shop more environmentally friendly. To achieve this, I have tried to identify the major hindrances today that grocery shoppers are faced with through the user centered method Contextual Inquiry.  I have then presented the results from the inquiry to students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology during workshops. During these workshops, the students have conceptualized ideas and designs for different solutions. Based on their results, I have created a prototype design that I call the SmartCart. This cart consists of a regular shopping cart with a screen similar to an iPad attached to the handlebars. This screen then delivers easily apprehensible information about different grocery products environmental impact in real time. The design has not been tested in a live environment, but initial testing indicates that a live application could give satisfying results in lowering the sales of grocery products with a high environmental impact, while the design also could simultaneously improve the shopping experience for the customers in the grocery store.

Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) is an emerging research area concerned with the application of design strategies to influence consumer behaviour during the use phase of a product towards more sustainable action. Current DfSB research has primarily focussed on strategy definition and selection, with little research into formalising a mature design process through which to design these behaviour changing interventions. Furthermore, understanding the actual sustainability and behavioural impact yielded through such investigations is limited in addition to the suitability and transferability of evaluation methods and results having seldom been discussed. This thesis investigated how DfSB models and strategies can be implemented within a structured design process towards a sustainable change in user behaviour. This was achieved by focussing a case study within the UK social housing sector with the aim of reducing domestic energy consumption through behaviour changing intervention, whilst maintaining occupant defined comfort levels. Following an in depth study of physical and behavioural control mechanisms as well as comfort and energy within the research context, a behaviour changing prototype was developed through an augmented user-centred design process, resulting in a physical manifestation of one specific DfSB strategy feedback; a user agentive performance indicator. In order to evaluate this feedback prototype, an evaluation framework was developed, targeted at the three fundamental questions that arise when faced with the evaluation of a DfSB strategy led intervention: (1) Did the produced design solution function for the specified context? (2) Has the user's behaviour changed as a consequence of the design intervention? (3) Is the change in user s behaviour sustainable? Applying these core questions in practice through focus groups and user trials resulted in an evaluation of unparalleled depth. The findings of this thesis illustrate the success of using this augmented design process and tripartite questioning strategy towards the design and evaluation of a DfSB strategy led intervention, building a vital knowledge platform for the formalisation of transferable DfSB theory, design and evaluation methods.

Die Quasselstrippe ist ein Werkzeug, um Dialoge zu unterstützen. Angelehnt an die Idee des Dosentelefons kann es Wünsche, Fragen und Kommentare digital sammeln und verarbeiten. Das Werkzeug ist ein Open-Source-Tool zum Selberbauen für Initiativen, Bildungsinstitutionen, Museen und alle, die es ausprobieren möchten. Wir verstehen unser Dosentelefon zum Selbermachen als eine Gegenposition zu bestehenden Voice Interfaces und als offenes System für nachhaltige Prozesse. Unser Ziel ist es, Menschen zu befähigen, sich Technologie anzueignen und Selbstwirksamkeit zu erleben.

aus dem Inhalt: „Ursula Tischner studied architecture, art and industrial design and spe-cialized in Eco-, Circular and Sustainable Design of products, services and systems....

from the content: „Marco founded Snowcone & Haystack, a Helsinki based strategic design practice focused on helping governments innovate. He holds degrees from Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University.”

Today smartphones and mobile applications are a part of our everyday life and information has become more accessible then ever before. The notion of sustainability was established in 1987 and is just as relevant now as then. Sustainable Interaction Design is still today a rather unexplored area, nonetheless important to examine. The purpose of this thesis is to study how mobile applications can help and encourage users toa more sustainable lifestyle. Further more we wanted to look into the awareness of people and their willingness to change their everyday life. By choosing two different mobile applications with a focus on environmental questions we have analyzed how users are allowed to be affected. The result is also based on one survey and one focus group. The resultis interpreted based on previous research by Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell, Elina Eriksson and Daniel Pargman, Maria Normark and Jacob Tholander with theories around Critical Design, Vanilla Sustainability and Perfomative Design. Our conclusion is that mobile applications can help users to a more sustainable living. For users to be encouraged and affected we have defined som key factors. Pleasing aesthetics and structure are required, the information published should not be ambiguous, but clear and accurate, and the behaviour that is encouraged should benefit the user. In addition we have discovered a connection between awareness and the willingness to change. / Smarta telefoner och mobilapplikationer är idag en del av vår vardag och information harblivit mer lättillängligt än någonsin. Begreppet hållbarhet definierades år 1987 och är likaaktuellt då som nu. Hållbar interaktionsdesign är idag ett relativt outtforskat område och somär, möjligtvis just därför, viktigt att undersöka.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mobilapplikationer kan hjälpa och uppmuntraanvändare till en mer hållbar livsstil. Samtidigt ville vi undersöka medvetenheten och viljantill förändring hos människor i vardagen när det kommer till hållbara val.Vi har valt ut två applikationer med miljöfokus och med hjälp av dem har vi analyserat huranvändare blir påverkade av miljörelaterade frågor. Resultatet är även baserat på enenkätundersökning och en fokusgruppstudie. Vi har tolkat resultatet utifrån tidigare forskningav Jeffrey Bardzell och Shaowen Bardzell, Elina Eriksson och Daniel Pargman samt MariaNormark och Jacob Tholander med teorier kring kritisk design, vanillasustainability och perfomative design. Vi har kommit fram till att mobilapplikationer kanhjälpa användare till en mer hållbar livsstil. Vi har definierad några viktiga faktorer för attanvändare ska bli påverkade och uppmuntrade. En tilltalande estetik och struktur krävs,informationen som ges ut bör inte vara tvetydig utan klar och korrekt samt att denbeteendeförändring som uppmuntras gärna ska gynna användaren själv. Vi har även funnit enkoppling mellan medvetenhet och förändringsvilja.

Building design can have a major impact on sustainability through material efficiency and construction waste minimisation (CWM). The construction industry consumes over 420 million tonnes of material resources every year and generates 120 million tonnes of waste containing approximately 13 million tonnes of unused materials. The current and on-going field of CWM research is focused on separate project stages with an overwhelming endeavour to manage on-site waste. Although design stages are vital to achieve progress towards CWM, currently, there are insufficient tools for CWM. In recent years, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been adopted to improve sustainable building design, such as energy efficiency and carbon reduction. Very little has been achieved in this field of research to evaluate the use of BIM to aid CWM during design. However, recent literature emphasises a need to carry out further research in this context. This research aims to investigate the use of BIM as a platform to help with CWM during design stages by developing and validating a BIM-aided CWM (BaW) Framework. A mixed research method, known as triangulation, was adopted as the research design method. Research data was collected through a set of data collection methods, i.e. selfadministered postal questionnaire (N=100 distributed, n=50 completed), and semistructured follow-up interviews (n=11) with architects from the top 100 UK architectural companies. Descriptive statistics and constant comparative methods were used for data analysis. The BaW Framework was developed based on the findings of literature review, questionnaire survey and interviews. The BaW Framework validation process included a validation questionnaire (N=6) and validation interviews (N=6) with architects. Key research findings revealed that: BIM has the potential to aid CWM during design; Concept and Design Development stages have major potential in helping waste reduction through BIM; BIM-enhanced practices (i.e. clash detection, detailing, visualisation and simulation, and improved communication and collaboration) have impacts on waste reduction; BIM has the most potential to address waste causes (e.g. ineffective coordination and communication, and design changes); and the BaW Framework has the potential to enable improvements towards waste minimisation throughout all design stages. Participating architects recommended that the adoption of the BaW Framework could enrich both CWM and BIM practices, and most importantly, would enhance waste reduction performance in design. The content should be suitable for project stakeholders, architects in particular, when dealing with construction waste and BIM during design.

Die umfassende ökologische Krise erfordert es, den Lebenszyklus von Artefakten und Prozessen bereits im Entwurf zu integrieren. Design spielt deshalb eine zentrale Rolle in der anstehenden Transformation der Gesellschaft und Produktionssysteme (Irwin, 2015). Design vermag Umweltauswirkungen zu senken und vereinfacht die Umsetzung von Kreislaufstrategien. (Desing et al., 2021) Zirkuläre Designmethoden schließen Aspekte wie Reparierbarkeit, Wiederverwertung sowie alternativ angelegte Nutzungskonzepte mit ein. Sie sind inzwischen in vielen Curricula integriert.