Design for sustainable behaviour: a case study of using human-power as an everyday energy source

There is an increased focus on research identifying design strategies to influence user behaviour towards more sustainable action, known as Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB). Recent literature in this field has introduced a number of design processes, and developed a model that emerged through consensus. However, not enough case studies are accompanied by those proposed strategies; therefore it is difficult to evaluate their effectiveness. This paper presents findings from a case study of inducing a sustainable behaviour – using human-power to drive an everyday Energy using Products (EuP). It presents the result of applying the strategy to an artefact and evaluation was carried through conducting a product-in-use study. The analysis provide an explanation of how each of the participants cope with the use of new artefact and account for different types of motivations that have affected on their behaviour determinants

A new way of understanding the customer, for fibre manufacturers

This paper describes a collaborative research project run as part of the UK based Textile & Clothing Industry Forum, that aimed to investigate new ways of understanding the end customer. In deciding to ‘speak’ to the end customer, the fibre manufacturer Tencel Limited made a radical move to break away from the traditional structure of the apparel supply chain. This paper describes how a combination of a Kano questionnaire and empathic design techniques developed for the automotive industry were effectively used to gather new insights into how customers really perceived Tencel’s fibre, and enable the product development team to ‘walk in the shoes’ of the people they design for. The paper concludes that applying these techniques to the textiles industry is a very effective way of obtaining rich and genuine opinions from the end customer and saw that the ‘raw’ video data generated proved to be a very successful way of communicating with senior management

Using a product's sustainability space as a design exploration tool

Sustainable design is often practiced and assessed through the consideration of three essential areas: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. For even the simplest of products, the complexities of these three areas and their tradeoffs cause decision-making transparency to be lost in most practical situations. The existing field of multiobjective optimization offers a natural framework to define and explore a given design space. In this paper, a method for defining a product’s sustainability space (defined by economic, environmental, and social sustainability objectives) is outlined and used to explore the tradeoffs within the space, thus offering both the design team and the decision makers a means of better understanding the sustainability tradeoffs. This paper concludes that sustainable product development can indeed benefit from tradeoff characterization using multiobjective optimization techniques – even when using only basic models of sustainability. Interestingly, the unique characteristics of the three essential sustainable development areas lead to an alternative view of some traditional multiobjective optimization concepts, such as weak-Pareto optimality. The sustainable redesign of a machine to drill boreholes for water wells is presented as a practical example for method demonstration and discussion

Design Interventions for Sustainable Behaviour

This chapter brings together research from Loughborough University (UK) design scholars to present a unified framework for designing interventions for sustainable behaviour. This includes: research and design approaches towards formulating an understanding of the user’s actions in context; selecting a behavioural target (where to intervene); selecting (or applying) a behavioural intervention strategy; and evaluating the behavioural interventions are presented. Relevant case study examples, drawn from two UK-research council projects, are provided to elucidate theoretical propositions. The chapter concludes by reflecting on what we have learned and where we see further developments in the field emerging

Investigating knitwear product development in small and medium enterprises: A report of practices related to environmental sustainability

There is rising interest into the inner workings of the fashion supply chain due to increasing concern surrounding environmental impact, social responsibility, and economic growth. Studies designed to understand the fashion industry often presume the knitwear sector to follow the linear product development process of the woven garment sector. However, knitwear practitioners are profoundly aware of many complex distinctions, one example being the ability to seamlessly create three dimensional garments with minimal finishing. In spite of these differences, there is little known research which specifically identifies the current knitwear design and manufacture system, or how often such seamless production methods are utilised. To bridge the gap in knowledge, a quantitative questionnaire was designed for a holistic overview of the key product development processes within knitwear small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The questionnaire had three focuses, design, manufacture, and retail, reflecting the sectors dynamism. 31 companies of varying sizes completed the survey, of these, 26 designed knitwear, 25 manufactured it, and 21 companies retailed directly to consumers. Results showed that the sampled SMEs have a keen interest in developing sustainable products, albeit at surface level, with most choosing to reduce impact through their material and fibre choices, with less importance placed on manufacturing processes. Other revelations included the low uptake of 3D garment simulation software, designed to reduce the need for multiple prototypes and the reliance on cut and sew processes. This study revealed several areas where environmental impact can be reduced and aims to inform future studies within the knitwear industry focused on material use, product life-cycle analysis, waste reduction and digital technology adoption

Product Design Education for Circular Economy

Design has continually developed new approaches to find the most appropriate solutions to the growing environmental and social problems. At the same time higher education courses have tried to adapt their curricula accordingly. The most recently proposed model is circular economy. It reinforces the idea of a paradigm shift to a system of closed loops where there is no waste. This article develops a state of the art on the integration of sustainability in product design in higher education and its evolution to embrace circular economy. This analysis includes identifying past experiences, which contents are addressed, what methodologies are used, what type of approach (focused or dispersed) and what are the needs for teaching staff. This paper tries to identify gaps in order to purpose better solution for circular economy integration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lyra's Cosmology of Massive String in Anisotropic Bianchi-II Space-time

The paper deals with a spatially homogeneous and totally anisotropic Bianchi II cosmological models representing massive strings in normal gauge for Lyra's manifold. The modified Einstein's field equations have been solved by applying variation law for Hubble's parameter. This law generates two type of solutions for average scale factor, one is of power law type and other is of exponential law type. The power law describes the dynamics of Universe from big bang to present epoch while exponential law seems reasonable to project dynamics of future Universe. It has been found that the displacement actor $(\beta)$ is a decreasing function of time and it approaches to small positive value at late time, which is collaborated with Halford (1970) as well as recent observations of SN Ia. The study reveals that massive strings dominate in early Universe and eventually disappear from Universe for sufficiently large time, which is in agreement with the current astronomical observations.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure