IxDF - Interaction Design Foundation’s Post

Design for change is important, but it’s not the only aspect we must keep our eyes on 🔍 It’s about changing our business models so that they are sustainable, and our products are reusable. We should avoid models based on new product releases every few years, and develop more environmentally friendly avenues that can be used continuously in the future. Tell us below: what products do you think need to be more sustainable?

Designing products with their end-of-life in mind is often overlooked. But it should be our priority. If we want products to last longer and have minimal environmental impact we need to consider the entire product lifecycle. From the initial design phase, to its end-of-life (and beyond). Here are some sustainable design principles to adopt into your product development strategy: ♻️ Design for Modularity & Disassembly: Reduce the number of components in the product; design for them to be easily recycled, repaired or upgraded. Longer use-life → less waste. ⚙️ Manufacturing: Design for minimal material waste, favouring renewable energy sources for fabrication. 🌿 Material Choice: Opt for bio-based, recycled or recyclable materials; even for prototypes. 📦 Optimise Packaging: Minimise packaging materials and volume. This will help reduce your shipping costs and carbon footprint. 🔋 Improve Energy Efficiency: Design products to consume less during their use, and therefore conserve energy resources. These initiatives align with the circular economy principles, which aims to maximise usability and minimise waste; especially of raw materials. Changes like these don’t have to be expensive and can significantly reduce environmental impact. They also tap into a growing consumer preference for sustainable brands. Today, customers are more likely to support businesses that reflect their values → driving both your profit and positive impact on the planet. All the more reason to prioritise sustainability at the core of your innovation strategy. 🌍 Found this useful? 1. Follow me for more. 2. Share to reach more people 🔄

Designing for circularity … it’s easier said than done.   Those at this morning’s Deconstruct & Re-construct session - held at RMIT University and hosted by Sustainability Victoria and Melbourne Design Week – came away with a great picture of just how complex this challenge is.   Gems from panellists John Gertsakis (Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence), Sarah D’Sylva (hyloh.) and Elizabeth Chamberlain (iFixit) included:   • There is a need for intelligent regulation to really drive (and support) business to prioritise design for durability, repairability, and recyclability. • Consumers are not all created equal, and they can’t carry the responsibility for change. They need programs and services offered by business that they can access. • If you’re designing stuff, challenge yourself to play in your own junkyard a little. Think about each component, its necessity, its volume and end-of-life. • Boardrooms can’t avoid these conversations, they’ve a responsibility to consider the impact of their products   And beyond doing the right thing, why should companies – who’s primary objective is profitability for the shareholder - embrace product stewardship and circularity?   • For some there’s money to be made in repair and reuse, a diversification perhaps? • It creates brand loyalty, people love to buy from companies whose products have served them well • And there are savings to be made in viewing your business as an eco-system   It was a great discussion. What do you think? Is it enough?

Addressing the urgent need for sustainability in product design is more crucial than ever. The circular design approach offers practical solutions that can reshape how we create and consume. Start by understanding the importance of resource efficiency — think about how you're using materials and how they can be reused or recycled. Here are some actionable steps to get started: 1. Conduct a life-cycle assessment of your products to understand their environmental impact. 2. Collaborate with suppliers who share a commitment to sustainable practices. 3. Design for longevity — create products that can be repaired and adapted over time. 4. Educate consumers about the value of sustainable products and their benefits. Following these steps not only benefits the planet but also builds a loyal customer base that appreciates your commitment to sustainability. Would love to hear your thoughts! What tips or experiences do you have in adopting circular design principles? Let’s share our insights. https://lnkd.in/grHt7bmU

Turning products into sustainable storytellers that people love to tell about When products are made from meaningful materials, they don’t just serve a function, they carry a message. I believe that transforming waste into something beautiful proves that sustainability and creativity can go hand in hand. Here are 3 key takeaways I’ve learned from crafting our trophies: 1. Transformation adds value: Turning specific waste streams into something new gives products a sense of purpose and impact. It's a reminder that innovation can be found in unexpected places. 2. Transparency matters: With our material passport, we show the full journey of each piece, from discarded material to final product. This transparency builds trust and connects people to the story behind the object. 3. Meaningful design stands out: When products are not only functional but also tell a story, they become memorable. A trophy isn’t just an award, it’s a symbol of sustainability, creativity and creates a strong link to the event. These principles aren’t just ideas, they’re the foundation of everything we do with Upstream Trophies. Through our designs and our material passport, we show that sustainable products are not only possible, but can also be beautiful and powerful. What are some of the most creative and sustainable products you've seen tell a story?

Greetings from “The Scholar Box” Moving ahead in the road to sustainability let us understand how sustainability fuels design innovation through an interview of Steven Eppinger ,an engineer by training, and a professor of management science and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management.  The interview conducted by Michael Hopkins shares insights on product design for environment. The link between sustainability and innovation is commonly mentioned, but not commonly made .So far, the most common way that companies attack sustainability is by making a pure operations play: identifying cost savings in cutting down on waste, improving on energy use. Is that kind of resource-efficiency thinking related to what you call “design for environment”? No, not really. The way to think of environmental sustainability when it comes to design and product innovation is by framing it as a materials problem. It’s about the materials that we use in the products and the materials that are used to run the processes that make the products. The reason that product design has a big impact is that’s where the materials decisions are made. If you want to have a product that uses only materials that can be recycled, you’ve got to rethink the product. You’ve got to change the design, which means new specifications and perhaps some difficult technical trade offs to deal with. If you want to use materials that are recycled in the first place instead of always using virgin materials, you’ve got to design the product differently so that can happen. If you want to reduce the use of packaging materials in operations, you’ve got to design the product differently so that it needs less packaging or no packaging. If you want to sell a product that your consumer can recycle, you’ve got to design the product to be easily disassembled and separated into available recycling streams. The way I see it, sustainability is fundamentally a materials problem, and there’s only so much you can do in operations. It’s a no-brainer for the executive to say, “Go ahead and do this. We’d like you to improve the environmental performance, and reduce cost at the same time.” That’s an easy thing for the executive to do. But those who have to actually implement it — the managers who are now thinking about the whole supply chain and the engineers who are now designing the product with new trade offs — they have to find the right materials. To do this, Steven found that we need better processes, better methods for how to design products and services. That’s the process we call product design for environment. Please find the link of the complete article: https://lnkd.in/dXDGDUej. Keep Updated till we meet next! #sustainability #mitsloanmanagementreview #industryresearch #marketing #academicresearchcentre #thescholarbox MICA | The School of Ideas

𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀… 𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆? I know, I know—many say going green is expensive, right? Wrong! Sustainability is actually a smart way to save money. It forces you to reframe your thinking to come up with other solutions. Sometimes, even innovative ones. When you switch to eco-friendly materials and reduce waste, those costs will decrease. Who would’ve thought being good to the planet could be good for your budget? 𝗧𝗶𝗽 Look for opportunities to replace excess packaging with recyclable alternatives or redesign the packaging to be multifunctional or reduce materials. You'll reduce waste and slash packaging costs. How are you tackling that challenge? Roberto REFRAME Design

"The concept of "eco-sustainability of durable products" is becoming increasingly critical in the context of circular economies. Durable products, those designed for long lifecycles, play a significant role in reducing environmental impact because their prolonged use limits the need for continuous production, which is resource-intensive .... Studies have shown that extending the life of passive products, which do not consume energy or materials during use, can reduce the environmental impact by 45-72%, according to life cycle assessments." The concept of sustainability is driving industries to abandon traditional technologies and embrace new forms of technology defined as "green." We see this with electric cars, water-based paints, bio-materials and so on. The basic idea is to force change, then players will be compelled to find solutions. A sustainable approach should consider not only the product itself but also the impact of the entire supply chain and, most importantly, the impact related to the durability of products. This latter aspect is entirely overlooked in various developments because it poses an anti-economic assumption: a durable product drastically reduces the need for hyper-productivity. For example: are we sure that an eco-friendly piece of furniture sold today by some major player, with an average lifespan of less than five years, has less impact than a traditional piece of furniture designed to last at least 15 years?

Organizations that follow circular business practices often achieve notable success. However, adopting business circularity in an environment characterized by dynamism can be challenging for organizations, as various internal and external factors can impede the implementation of circular initiatives. To embrace business circularity, the author argues that openness to innovation or collaboration with various stakeholders for the purpose of circularity, referred to as “open circular innovation”, could be a viable strategy for the implementation of circular initiatives in business organizations. For example, sharing knowledge, technologies, and other resources with key stakeholders opens new avenues for “reusing”, “remanufacturing”, and “recycling”. Moreover, to adhere to business circularity within the open circular innovation paradigm, this study proposes that an appropriate circular strategy is required, one that is contingent upon circular ambidexterity and circular-based dynamic capabilities. Circular ambidexterity is defined as an organization’s ability to balance circular explorative and circular exploitative activities. This study infers that enabling circular business models necessitates a significant transformation of existing product(s) and that circular incremental or exploitative activities alone may not suffice for this transition. In other words, exploitative circular activities are necessary but not sufficient for circular product development, as such development requires eco-design, sustainable product design, or entirely a new architecture. For this to occur, it is essential for organizations to achieve an efficient equilibrium between circular exploitative and circular explorative activities. In this context, circular ambidexterity serves as a mediating mechanism to explain the relationship between open circular innovation and business circularity. For more details: visit: https://lnkd.in/dWRgapmZ

🌍 Driving #Circularity Across #Sectors: Insights from Recent Research on Circular Economy 🌱 Startups are the main hope especially in developing countries to drive the transformation toward #sustainability and continuous growth in various industrial sectors. Among several publications confirming this prespective, I found the following three studies exceptionally inspirational and that they bring practical insights on circular economy implementation across several sectors: 1️⃣ #Innovation #Ecosystems in #StartUps A study on Dutch food and construction start-ups reveals that sector-specific dynamics heavily influence circular transitions. Food start-ups show promising strategic impacts, but conservative norms and power imbalances in construction often limit progress. For policy & market stakeholders, targeted support are key to accelerating circularity among start-ups. 📄 Bauwens, T., Hartley, K., Hekkert, M. and Kirchherr, J., 2024. Building innovation ecosystems for circularity: start-up business models in the food and construction sectors in the Netherlands. Journal of Cleaner Production, p.143970. 2️⃣ #Ecodesign for #Circularity A framework for ecodesign highlights “Closing” and “Slowing” the Loop as essential strategies, aimed at reducing environmental impacts through design across product lifecycles—from production to recycling. This structured approach empowers product designers to preserve resources at material, component, & product levels, positioning ecodesign as central to circular economy initiatives. 📄 Riesener, M., Kuhn, M., Hellwig, F., Ays, J. and Schuh, G., 2023. Design for circularity–identification of fields of action for ecodesign for the circular economy. Procedia CIRP, 116, pp.137-142. 3️⃣ #Decision #Support for Circular Product Design in Industry this study operationalizes circularity in industrial product design. Through decision matrix analysis and expert evaluations, it provides technical principles and metrics to integrate circularity effectively across the product lifecycle. A systematic approach can guide industries in adopting circularity to extend product life & enhance recyclability. 📄 Pruhs, A., Kusch, A., Woidasky, J. and Viere, T., 2024. Design for circularity in manufacturing industries–operationalisation and decision support. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 202, p.107376. 🔑Key Takeaways: ✅Sector-Specific Needs: Start-ups face unique industry challenges, especially in conservative sectors. ✅Ecodesign as a Foundation: Structured design approaches can systematically address lifecycle impacts. ✅Practical Tools for Industry: Decision support and technical metrics make circularity accessible in industrial applications. These studies collectively show that circularity requires #adaptable #frameworks, #responsive #policies, and #practical #tools for different sectors and operational scales. #CircularEconomy #Sustainability #Innovation #Ecodesign #Startups #Policy #IndustrialDesign #InnovateAcademy