Design for sustainable behaviour: a quick fix for slower consumption?

The continuous replacement of durable consumer goods and disposal of functioning or repairable products into UK landfills or, increasingly, to developing countries, has resulted in global environmental and social consequences. Small appliances, which are easily disposed of in household waste, typically end up in UK landfills, are shipped to developing countries or otherwise ‘lost’. Very few are recycled or repaired, yet many are still functioning when disposed of. Consumers’ willingness, opportunity and ability to carry out repairs have historically been hampered by a range of complex factors. Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) aims to reduce the environmental and social impacts of products by moderating users’ interaction with them. This paper explores how DfSB strategies can be used to encourage a behavioural shift towards repair of small electrical household appliances by overcoming identified barriers. The paper pulls together literature on repair practice, highlighting gaps in current knowledge and outlines the findings of an extensive UK household survey focused on both product breakage rates and consumer mending behaviour. Three mending typologies and associated personas resulting from the analysis are combined with three DfSB strategies to develop conceptual design interventions to encourage repair. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential efficacy of the design outcomes from a consumer perspective and the potential ramifications for design practice, whilst considering the wider influences on repair practices beyond design and how these may be addressed

A triple bottom line examination of product cannibalisation and remanufacturing: A review and research agenda

Increased momentum in support of a Circular Economy (CE) has motivated the exploration of alternative production and value-retention processes that allow for the decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth. Remanufacturing, a key value retention process, can enable significant economic, environmental and social (also known as triple-bottom line) advantages. Given their competitive value proposition, remanufactured products are often blamed by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for cannibalising new product sales revenues. Thus, remanufacturing is often viewed as high-risk, and potentially even a threat to conventional manufacturing activities by many OEMs, often triggering both active and passive countermeasures to protect market share. In many cases, such actions lead to reduced access to cores for remanufactures; they can also work against the uptake of remanufacturing activities that are essential for transitioning to a CE. To achieve a CE, remanufacturing activities must be scaled; however, without a clear understanding of the relationship between remanufacturing and product cannibalisation, OEMs may continue to avoid and/or interfere in remanufacturing systems. Further, in alignment with systems-thinking for CE, we posit that broadly-considered integration of CE dimensions is critical but lacking within the literature. To this end, this systematic review paper aims to clarify and organize the existing scientific literature about product cannibalisation and remanufacturing. We examine these contributions through an expanded Triple Bottom Line lens that aligns with the recognized dimensions of CE: social, environmental, economic, management, policy, and technology. A comprehensive content assessment revealed a predominant economic lens to the research, with statistical analysis, game theory, and numerical experiments as the primary methodologies employed. In addition, opportunities to more comprehensively explore social, policy, management, and technology perspectives as they relate to product cannibalisation and remanufacturing were identified. We develop and apply a new framework for considering product cannibalisation and price competition in the broader context of sustainability and the transition to CE. Finally, in addition to identifying a comprehensive range of stakeholders that need to be engaged, we recommend a future research agenda that explores the specific challenges, interactions, and relationships between product cannibalisation, remanufacturing, and the six dimensions of CE