Prometheus Missing: Critical Materials and Product Design

Critical Materials are strategically important to societies, businesses and economies. They are essential to maintain and improve our quality of life. The world however faces problems of critical material supply, but these concerns are not translated into product design activity, even though current policy and history suggests that product design can play a role in fi nding solutions to the critical materials problems. This thesis reviews literature from the past and draws observations from historical cases, which show product design changes can help address scarcity. A 21st century critical materials literature review leads to a new defi nition of critical materials for product designers. In-depth interviews, conducted in 29 companies, show that most do not see links with product design and critical materials. This thesis concludes by producing a framework to help develop education on product design and critical materials. This framework also highlights policy actions within a circular economy transition.Design Engineerin

Products and circular economy, Policy recommendations derived from Research & Innovation projects

This report presents the findings from a review of more than one hundred Research & Innovation (R&I) projects under EU Framework programmes FP6 and FP7, dealing with a range of circularity considerations related to product design, manufacturing, use and after-use. Nine independent experts analysed these projects, brought in their own expertise, and identified key messages and lessons for policy makers with regard to possible future research and policy action. These findings may prove useful in the implementation of the brand-new second Circular Economy Action Plan, which develops a vision for an innovative circular material policy embedded in the broader context of the ambitious objectives for climate change mitigation that the new Commission expressed in its European Green DealClimate Design and Sustainabilit

A Historical Perspective of Critical Materials: 1939 to 2006

The tensions around limits to growth versus tech will fix it are, today, as prominent as ever in the debates around critical materials. Changes in the demand and supply of materials has regularly led to periods of material supply problems. This chapter provides an overview of the development of critical materials from the mid-20th into the early 21st century. The overview begins with, in the U.S., the development of critical materials policy in World War II and the Cold War years, the oil crisis of the 1970s and the subsequent evolution into the early years of the 21st century. Critical materials thinking has been defined through war, the cold war and then concerns over energy availability and environmental impacts. This chapter shows how the historical military-energy framework for assessing critical materials has evolved into critical materials approaches to help address the challenges of energy, materials and the environment in the 21st century.Climate Design and Sustainabilit

The Eco-Costs of Material Scarcity, a Resource Indicator for LCA, Derived from a Statistical Analysis on Excessive Price Peaks

The availability of resources is crucial for the socio-economic stability of our society. For more than two decades, there was a debate on how to structure this issue within the context of life-Cycle assessment (LCA). The classical approach with LCA is to describe "scarcity" for future generations (100-1000 years) in terms of absolute depletion. The problem, however, is that the long-term availability is simply not known (within a factor of 100-1000). Outside the LCA community, the short-term supply risks (10-30 years) were predicted, resulting in the list of critical raw materials (CRM) of the European Union (EU), and the British risk list. The methodology used, however, cannot easily be transposed and applied into LCA calculations. This paper presents a new approach to the issue of short-term material supply shortages, based on subsequent sudden price jumps, which can lead to socio-economic instability. The basic approach is that each resource is characterized by its own specific supply chain with its specific price volatility. The eco-costs of material scarcity are derived from the so-called value at risk (VAR), a well-known statistical risk indicator in the financial world. This paper provides a list of indicators for 42 metals. An advantage of the system is that it is directly related to business risks, and is relatively easy to understand. A disadvantage is that "statistics of the past" might not be replicated in the future (e.g., when changing from structural oversupply to overdemand, or vice versa, which appeared an issue for two companion metals over the last 30 years). Further research is recommended to improve the statistics.Marketing and Consumer ResearchClimate Design and SustainabilityApplied Probabilit

Understanding the societal, entrepreneurship and economic aspects of developing a Circular Economy in cities: a case study of Coventry in the UK

One of the points of agreement emerging from international environmental policy debates is that people’s choices, behaviors and lifestyles will play a vital role in achieving sustainable development (Biwei, 2012; Fleischmann, 2016). There is strong evidence of the importance of a working Circular Economy (CE) to address sustainability challenges but there are different accounts and narratives in the CE literature which can cause confusion when trying to define and understand the concept. Urbanisation coupled with the fact that cities are resource inefficient (Agudela-Vera 2012) has given rise to the emergence of Circular Cities such as, Amsterdam but research to date has had a strong emphasis on the “supply side” (business, policy, science) with little attention being paid to the people or “demand side” (social, consumer). It would therefore be helpful to develop a better understanding of the role that citizens and not just City governments can play in a Circular City. To address this the paper uses an illustrative example of Coventry in the UK to examine the strategies and policy actions that drive CE relevant grass roots citizen driven practices and innovations. Through the lens of this example the paper provides insights into the role that citizens could play in developing Circular Cities through citizen driven innovation mechanisms such as social enterprise. The paper concludes that we are lacking sufficient socio-economic evidence of impact on the “demand side” and provides recommendations for further research into the social and citizen driven innovation aspects of CE relevant activities in cities.Climate Design and Sustainabilit

Conceptualising a Circular Economy—an Enquiry into Circular Economy Conceptual Metaphors

Numerous academic scholars argue for a radical transformation of the economy towards a circular model, in response to pressures from planetary and social issues such as energy, climate change, inequality, and resource depletion. This study examines how the academic community perceives the concept of a circular economy in comparison to traditional economic discourse, through the lens of conceptual metaphors. Conceptual metaphors are systematic properties that reflect one’s understanding of abstract phenomena like a circular economy. Through a structured review of the literature, seven dominant conceptual metaphors were identified that shape the understanding of traditional economics. The study also conducted a textual analysis of the ten most frequently cited academic papers on the circular economy. The analysis revealed that certain dominant metaphors from traditional economics have been influential in shaping discourse on the circular economy. The most common metaphors were the machine metaphor, competitive metaphors, the journey metaphor, and ecological metaphors. Each conceptual metaphor has its own strengths and weaknesses, which may include poorly explained areas or missing dimensions. These two aspects are referred to as misconceptions and blind spots, respectively, and the paper reflects on the implications of these for the current academic discourse on the circular economy.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Design for SustainabilityCircular Product DesignEnvironmental & Climate Desig

Combined analyses of costs, market value and eco-costs in circular business models: eco-efficient value creation in remanufacturing

Eco-efficient Value Creation is a method to analyse innovative product and service design together with circular business strategies. The method is based on combined analyses of the costs, market value (perceived customer value) and eco-costs. This provides a prevention-based single indicator for ‘external environmental costs’ in LCA. The remanufacturing of products is an environmental and sustainable approach, in the circular economy, and can deliver lower eco-costs of materials depletion and pollution. From a business point of view, however, remanufacturing seems to be viable in B2B niche markets only. In consumer markets, remanufacturing is less common. The question is how can remanufacturing become a viable business solution for mainstream consumer markets. Traditional ‘green’ marketing approaches are not enough: green has a positive, but also negative connotations, so marketing approaches are complex. By using the Eco-efficient Value Creation method, marketing strategies for the roll-out of remanufacturing in mainstream consumer markets, can be revealed. This approach has led to the development of five aspects, which are key to innovative circular business models, for remanufacturing: (1) buyers differ from the buyers of the ‘new product’ (2) quality must be emphasised in all communications (3) risk must be taken away from the buyer (4) top level service is required to convince the buyer (5) a ‘green’ brand may support the remanufactured product image.Publisher Correction: Jnl Remanufactur (2017) 7(1):1–17 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13243-017-0031-9 Due to technical error, the original HTML version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The copyright information should be “© The Author(s) 2017”, not “© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017”. The original article has been corrected.Marketing and Consumer ResearchCircular Product DesignClimate Design and Sustainabilit

Safety and Health Concerns for the Users of a Playground, Built with Reused Rotor Blades from a Dismantled Wind Turbine

This paper analyses the user safety of a playground built out of reused blades from a dismantled wind turbine. Located in Rotterdam and designed by the Netherlands architecture firm Superuse Studios, the playground, called “Wikado”, represents an example of the circular economy applied to the built environment. With reused materials, Wikado represents a saving in resources and energy, when compared to a standard playground built with primary materials. Furthermore, the playground creates a unique design experience for its users, who can still recognise the original rotor blades following their transformation into slides, platforms, and tunnels. However, the safety of the playground could be questioned. This paper will analyse the materials and products used in the playground and their condition some years after opening. The analysis focuses on the risks of human health during the use of the playground. It considers the shape and the sharpness of the rotor blades, its components such as glass fibres and epoxy resin. As a result of the analysis, two risk analysis conceptual models help to assess the health concerns regarding the contact with the materials, and some yellow drops leaching from the rotor blades. This analysis informs the contemporary debate concerning the reuse of materials, and more generically, the circular economy applied to the built environment: whether it is recommended and safe to reuse materials for a different function from that which they were originally designed. This paper will explain that in the analysed case study, it can be safe to reuse materials for a different function, but only with the appropriate precautions.Theory & TerritoriesClimate Design and Sustainabilit

Product policy and material scarcity challenges: The essential role of government in the past and lessons for today

Materials are important in economies, business, innovation activity and products, and they have quickly become essential to maintain and improve our quality of life. The world faces problems concerning material supply, but these concerns are not translated into product design activity, even though history shows that product design policy can play an important role in finding solutions to materials problems. This paper has a focus on the role of governmental policy in ensuring material availability to the state.The case of British WWII Utility Furniture scheme is one where consumer products were designed and developed as a response to severe material shortages. This action is set in the context of wartime conditions where the products were designed, manufactured, used and often reused over a long lifetime, under very stringent governmental control.The control came from the government ministries but was designed and manufactured by the private sector. The furniture scheme was brought in to allow workers to have a furnished home to live in, eat and rest to allow them to work to help win the war.Drawing on policy lessons from the wartime cases this paper makes a comparison of the WWII British approach with a European 21st century action plan for the circular economy, which raises important questions for policy development.Climate Design and SustainabilityBeheer Grootschalige (EU) ProjectenCircular Product DesignDesign for Sustainabilit

The Role of Urban Manufacturing for a Circular Economy in Cities

In recent years, implementing a circular economy in cities (or “circular cities”) has been proposed by policy makers as a potential solution for achieving sustainability. One strategy for circular cities is to reintroduce manufacturing into urban areas (or “urban manufacturing”), allowing resource flows to be localized at the city scale. However, the extent to which urban manufacturing contributes to circular cities is unclear in existing literature. The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold: to understand whether urban manufacturing could contribute to the circular economy, and to understand the drivers and barriers to circular urban manufacturing. By reviewing existing literature and interviewing experts, we identified the caveats for the contribution of urban manufacturing to circular cities, as well as the spatial, social, and material-related drivers and barriers for circular urban manufacturing.Climate Design and SustainabilityEnvironmental Technology and Desig