Emerging issues in sustainable industrial design practice : implications for designers, manufacturers and educators

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.Industrial designers have been addressing issues of sustainability for many years with varying levels of intensity and mixed results. Since the 1970s, practitioners and educators in the field of product design have demonstrated an appreciation of issues related to the life cycles of products, the conservation of energy and natural resources , and the recycling of materials, and this awareness has been reflected in approaches to professional practice and in the academic curricula for industrial design students. With the advent of the 21st century, a number of emerging sustainability issues, associated largely with the implications of global warming and increasing greenhouse gas emissions , have posed new challenges for governments, manufacturers, and industrial design practitioners and educators. These issues include those identified from the available literature relate to Environmental Management Systems, Increases in Off-shore Manufacturing, Sustainable Procurement, Developments in E-commerce, 'Green' Marketing, Developments in waste management and recycling, Challenges for Environmental Legislators, After-sales Product Support, Developments in Ecodesign Tools, The Opportunities and Challenges of Rapid Prototyping, Emerging Sustainability Issues for Educators. For industrial designers, the challenges arising from the emerging issues relate not only to their desire to be ethical, but also to their need to remain competitive. The focus of this thesis is upon the sustainability issues that have emerged in the early years of the 21st century. It looks first at the foundations of a sustainability consciousness and some traditional attitudes and approaches to sustainability that have been adopted by industrial design stakeholders since the 1970s. It draws upon the work of James (2001) and others to develop a theoretical framework on sustainability issues that are emerging in the early 21st century. This framework is then used to underpin an investigation conducted among industrial designers and manufacturers on sustainability issues that have emerged since approximately 2000, and their implications for the sector. Following identification and analysis of the emerging issues, a number of strategies are proposed for industrial design stakeholders to meet the challenges posed by the emerging sustainability issues. These include strategies for practitioners and manufacturers to promotes sustainability while remaining competitive, desirable changes to the curriculum of industrial design courses, and the revision and updating of out-dated environmental legislation

The Practice of Sustainability Entrepreneurial Approach in Kenya’s Flower Industry

The research was partly financed by the NUFFIC KEN 212 Project of Pwani University Abstract Sustainability entrepreneurship approach (SEA) has been described in different ways by different scholars’ in spite being anchored on the sustainable development tenets that emphasise on need to sustain the planet, profits and people for use by future generations. Still, different SEA studies reveal that the practice of SEA differs from one setting to another although most studies focus on environmental practice of developed countries’ setting. This situation is linked to saturation of studies from developed countries. Therefore, there seem to be no adequate information regarding the practice of SEA from a developing country’s view. Besides, the distinct nature of socio- economic development across continents is likely to dictate the way SEA is practiced in different settings. For that reason, there is need to enhance understanding regarding sustainability practice from a developing countries perspective. Subsequently, this paper explored the practice of SEA in Kenya’s flower industry using qualitative approach. Hence, in- depth interview and observation methods were used to collect data from six heterogeneous cases, while content thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The results showed that although firms in this study were committed towards the development of environment, economy and society, the nature of practice and investment on SEA seem to have differed from firm to firm. The findings further revealed that the practice of SEA in this setting was predominantly characterised by activities that enhanced industrial relations, community support programs, development of social amenities and infrastructure as well as environmental management strategies. The paper concludes that SEA practice is influenced by the social, environmental and economic needs of a specific business setting, hence anchor alongside sustainability tenets. In order to enhance equitable contribution towards SEA, the paper proposes the development of domesticated sustainability policy and measures so as to make the practice of SEA mandatory and meaningful. The paper recommends a comparative study on SEA practice in a multi sectoral setting. Keywords: Sustainability, sustainability entrepreneurship approach, Sustainability practic

Sustainability of food supply chains – mapping food waste and by-product synergies

Purpose: This conceptual paper introduces the theoretical and methodological basis of an analytical framework conceived with the purpose of bringing industrial ecology perspectives into the core of the underlying disciplines supporting studies concerned with environmental sustainability aspects beyond product life cycle boundaries in a supply chain. Research Approach: To develop the framework, we draw from a previous LCA-driven methodological approach applied to investigate industrial activities with the purpose of defining industrial ecology strategies for the development of ‘eco-industrial clusters’. We expand on this approach by combining it with the waste model for the food sector to classify the inventory of food waste and by-products generated in different stages of a food supply chain. Finally, food waste and by-product flows are considered with basis on the European waste hierarchy model and core industrial symbiosis concepts. These flows depict two time-related scenarios: 1. Present scenarios showing the status quo of current waste and by-product flows, and 2. Future scenarios pointing out potential food waste and by-product synergies along the supply chain. Findings and Originality: Different ecosystems scenarios are expected to emerge from the analysis applied in different industrial stages of a food supply chain: Farming, manufacturing, and retailing. The scenarios are the main outcomes of the analysis process and they ultimately describe potential food waste and by-product synergies not only within and between core industrial activities of the supply chain being studied, but also potential industrial linkages with organisations outside the supply chain that are nonetheless located in areas adjacent to the core industries in the supply chain being analyzed. Research Impact: By bringing industrial ecology perspectives into the analytical framework developed, the paper provides a valuable and innovative contribution to the wider debate on how supply chains meet the challenges of sustainability. Given the pressing challenges faced by the food sector, the framework focuses upon waste minimization through industrial linkages in food supply chains. The combination of industrial ecology practice with basic LCA elements, the waste hierarchy model, and the spatial scale of industrial symbiosis allows the standardization of qualitative analyses and associated outcomes. Such standardization enables comparative analysis not only between different stages of a supply chain, but also between different supply chains. Practical Impact: The analytical approach proposed contributes more coherently to the wider circular economy aspiration of optimizing the flow of goods to get the most out of raw materials and cuts wastes to a minimum. The transition to a circular economy based upon circular design and production, new circular business models involving reverse cycles and cascading of products, by-products and waste, as well as cross-cycle and cross-sector collaborations beyond traditional supply chain boundaries, requires a refreshed understanding of more current circular supply chain archetypes

Pre-paradigmatic Status of Industrial Sustainability: A Systematic Review

This paper seeks to progress Operations Management (OM) theory and practice by organising contributions to knowledge production, in Industrial Sustainability, from disparate researcher communities. It addresses the principal question ‘What scholarly dialogues can be explicated in the emerging research field of Industrial Sustainability?’ and sub-questions (i) what are the descriptive characteristics of the evidence base? and (ii) what thematic lines of scientific inquiry underpin the body of knowledge? Using an evidenced based approach, a Systematic Review of 574 articles from 62 peer-reviewed scientific journals associated with Industrial Sustainability is conducted. This paper distinguishes three prevailing dialogues in the field of Industrial Sustainability, and uses Kuhn’s Theory of Paradigms to propose its pre-paradigmatic scientific status. The three dialogues (i) ‘productivity and innovation’, (ii) ‘corporate citizenship’ and (iii) ‘economic resilience’ are conjectured to privilege efficiency strategies as a mode of incremental reductionism. Industrial Sustainability espouses the grand vision of a generative, restorative and net positive economy, and calls for a future research trajectory to address institutional and systemic issues regarding scaling-up and transition, through transformative strategies. The review is limited by the nature of the inquiries addressed in the literatures by specific researcher communities between 1992 and 2014. This study performs the first systematic review in the field of Industrial Sustainability, synthesises prevailing scholarly dialogues and provides an evaluation of the scientific status of the field.This work acknowledges the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre of Excellence for Industrial Sustainability (Grant Reference: EP/I033351/1)

Strategies for Developing Sustainable Design Practice for Students and SME Professionals

Designers and engineers seem finally to be awakening to the challenge that sustainable development has given. Educators and students alike are keenly aware of the need to become more effective in the training and practice of their specific disciplines with respect to sustainability. \noindent In the past four years since this research has developed, there has been a marked change in the mass market appeal for sustainable products and services. Implementation of sustainable design practice from both recent graduates and also innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at a local level is slow. One would assume that the consumer drive would push a change in design practice but perhaps the complexities of sustainable design along with the lack of experience in the field are providing barriers to designers and marketers alike. In addition the SME sector alone makes up the bulk of industry within the European Union (EU) varying in some countries from 80-95% of the total numbers of companies (Tukker et al. 2000). These industries by their nature find it difficult to dedicate expertise solely to sustainable development issues. The strategy outlined in this paper intended to introduce concepts of sustainable design thinking and practice to both SMEs and undergraduate students. \noindent This current and ongoing research qualitatively assesses appropriate models for educating for sustainable design thinking with SME employees and undergraduate design students. The sample groups include Industrial Design and Product Design undergraduate students in Ireland at the Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow), The University of Limerick (UL) and a sample of SMEs in the South East of Ireland, with broad national participation from other students of design and professionals from industry. Current levels of understanding of students and SME professionals of key environmental and social issues are measured

Examining green production and its role within the competitive strategy of manufacturers

Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of the topic of green production. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review to capture, classify and summarize the main body of knowledge on green production and, translate this into a form that is readily accessible to researchers and practitioners in the more mainstream operations management community. Findings: The existing knowledge base is somewhat fragmented. This is a relatively unexplored topic within mainstream operations management research and one which could provide rich opportunities for further exploration. Originality/value: This paper sets out to review current literature, from a more conventional production operations perspective, and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of this topic

Greening the design brief

Front End Innovation is a hot research topic, but there is still little research done on its relationship to design for sustainability. This paper explores the challenges of integrating environmental sustainability in this early stages of an innovation process and the design brief. The study is based on a content analysis of 35 design briefs from Belgian SMEs and multinationals, and a practitioners session with representatives from 14 Belgian companies. This results indicate a limited uptake of sustainability in Belgian design briefs. Furthermore, it argues that the use of certain strategies, such as front-loading, pushing sustainability upstream in the briefing process and sustainability opportunity identification in the front end, could help in greening the design brief

Sustainability as corporate culture of a brand for superior performance

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in the Journal of World Business. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Sustainability research highlights new challenges and opportunities for businesses. This paper reviews the literature to understand the ability of sustainable green initiatives when practiced as a corporate culture to individually create new opportunities for operations, management and marketing. According to current research, business opportunities exclusively available to different functions of a firm can drive its performance. The role of marketing in the achievement of superior performance by virtue of sustainability practices is also explained by the existing literature. Branding literature, however, fails to explain the influence of a brand on sustainability-driven opportunities available to a firm for superior performance. The objective of this study is to explore if a brand can strengthen the ability of sustainability-based green initiatives of managers to drive opportunities available to a firm for superior performance. A conceptual framework grounded in the triple bottom line theory is presented based on the assumption that brand as a stimulating factor can accelerate the conversion of opportunities available to a business into superior performance. Academic and managerial perspectives have been used to draw upon the implications of the model. Both practitioners and academic researchers will benefit from future research on this topic

Is the Industrial Product-Service System Really Sustainable

As the product-service system has shifted from its original concept to the Industrial PSS, its scope has expanded to include industrial products. Furthermore, the overall goal of reducing environmental impacts has been left behind. Despite the PSS's potential as a business model for a more sustainable production and consumption system, the mere addition of services to conventional products does not necessarily lead to a reduction of environmental impacts. This paper aims to discuss the concepts related to PSS, the need for considering environmental impact reduction as a critical issue for sustainability, and the role of ecodesign practices in the development of PSS

The Human Capital Dimensions of Sustainable Investment: What Investment Analysts Need to Know

This paper identifies a number of questions that need to be answered if the growing interest in building investment portfolios of firms that follow socially and environmentally sustainable practices is to be successful in transforming the financial institutions and analysts from a liability to an asset in expanding the number of sustainable firms in the economy. Evidence from three decades of research on "high performance workplace practices" is reviewed that identifies what is required for firms to align human capital and financial strategies. A longer term research and education agenda is presented for answering the remaining open questions