86,744 research outputs found
How to facilitate the implementation and diffusion of sustainable Product-Service Systems? Looking for synergies between strategic design and innovation sciences
No full textCopyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because eco-efficient PSS are intrinsically radical innovations, that challenge existing customers’ habits (cultural barriers), companies’ organizations (corporate barriers) and regulative framework (regulative barriers). Because of these multi-dimensional changes, eco-efficient PSS can be considered complex and highly uncertain innovations, and therefore difficult to be predicted, planned and managed. Therefore the challenge is not only to conceive eco-efficient PSS concepts, but also to understand which are the most effective strategies to introduce and diffuse these concepts in the market. Bringing together insights from innovation sciences (in particular transition management, strategic niche management and radical innovation studies), the paper puts forward an approach through which effectively manage the implementation and diffusion of eco-efficient PSS innovations. Starting from these results the paper outlines the implications on the design level. A new different role for design emerges. A role that may potentially opens new fields of activity alongside the consolidated ones. A role in which design is not only aimed at defining sustainable PSS concept but it is also aimed at promoting, facilitating and setting- up the conditions for implementing and diffusing this kind of innovations
Designing sustainable system innovation transitions for low-industrialised contexts. A transition path towards local-based and long lasting mobility solutions in African contexts
No full textCopyright @ 2008 Flemish Institute for Technological Researc
The role of public policy in stimulating radical environmental impact reduction in the automotive sector: The need to focus on product-service system innovation
No full textThis is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 InderscienceProduct-service system (PSS) innovation is a promising approach to address sustainability challenges in the automotive industry. Starting form this assumption, this paper presents and discusses the potential contribution that policy measures can have in fostering the automotive sector in innovating on a PSS level. A set of policy instruments (general instruments and specific PSS-targeted ones) are presented and classified, underlining the effects they could produce at the company and environmental levels. In order to effectively support sustainable PSS diffusion in the automotive industry, the paper suggests the integration of general policy measures (such as internalisation of external costs, extended producer responsibility programmes and informative policies), with the PSS-targeted ones (such as Green Public Procurement focused on sustainable PSS, support of companies in acquiring information related to PSS, support of demonstrative pilot projects). In addition, the paper suggests the necessity to involve actively universities and research centres
An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?
No full textCopyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction
The learning network on sustainability: An e-mechanism for the development and diffusion of teaching materials and tools on design for sustainability in an open-source and copy left ethos
No full textThis is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 InderscienceThis paper presents the intermediate results of the Learning Network on Sustainability (LeNS) project, Asian-European multi-polar network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability. LeNS is a mechanism to develop and diffuse system design for sustainability in design schools with a transcultural perspective. The main output of the project is the Open Learning E-Package (OLEP), an open web-platform that allows a decentralised and collaborative production and fruition of knowledge. Apart from the contents, the same LeNS web-platform is realised in an open-source and copy left ethos, allowing its download and reconfiguration in relation to specific needs, interests and geographical representation
Improving product repairability indexes by considering real user experience
No full textIn this Policy Brief, Dr Fabrizio Ceschin and Laura Torca-Adell reflect on the findings of their observational study on how end-users perceive and experience the repairability of small electrical devices to recommend:
• Any regulations that seek to improve the sustainability of small electrical devices should include and promote end-user self-repair.
• Product repairability indexes, which are scoring systems designed to inform consumers on how easily a product can be repaired, should distinguish between professional repairs and end-user repairs.
• Product repairability indexes for end-users should consider user-centred factors such as accessibility to internal components and ease of fault identification. They should also be based on testing with end-users.UK households throw away 155,000 tonnes of unwanted electricals each year, nearly half of which could be repaired or reused, with high professional repair cost being one of the key barriers to product repair. However, both regulations and repairability indexes focus on professional repairs rather than user self-repair.
Product repairability regulations should consider and promote end-user self-repair. Product repairability indexes should include user-centred factors and distinguish between professional repairs and end-user repairs. This will incentivise manufacturers to design products that enable end-user repair and encourage end-users to make more sustainable purchasing decisions
A new ethos for a multipolar design learning community: A mechanism for the development and diffusion of teaching materials on design for sustainability in an open-source and copy left ethos
No full textCopyright @ 2010 International Association of Technology, Education and DevelopmentFinally, the time has arrived in which there is a shared opinion that sustainable development requires a system discontinuity, meaning that radical changes in the way we produce, consume and socially interacts are needed. Finally, the time has arrived in which there is an emerging understanding that an important contribution to this change can be directly linked to the role of the design. However we have to admit that the designers are still more part of the problem, than part of the solution, i.e. proactive and diffused actors of the radical change requested by the transition towards a sustainable society. Within the so called learning society, new visions and tools are urgently requested for the design. A new political agenda is needed, looking at all of the of the design’s bodies (the designers, the design educators and the design researchers) as a learning community that urgently needs to accelerate the process of consolidation and diffusion of the new knowledge and know-how, for a new generation of designers. Under this perspective, a key role should be played by the design schools. The paper will explore this issue and in its framework presents the vision, the ambitions and the tools developed within the Learning Network on Sustainability (LeNS) project, an Asian- European multi-polar network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability, financed by the European Commission under the Asia-Links programme
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