Embedding sustainability in design education: the case of design project on systemic changes for sustainable businesses based on upcycling

Sustainable design education has become a prevalent practice in design education. Ramirez’s (2007) worldwide survey shows that the majority of the programmes have either compulsory or optional modules on sustainable design. In particular, projects in sustainable design studio modules often deal with social or environmental sustainability issues with little attention to the practice of design for systemic changes for sustainable businesses. This paper aims to provide one such case: design project on how to scale-up sustainable businesses based on upcycling through systemic changes. A half-day student design workshop was co-planned and organised by De Montfort University and the University of Liverpool. Second-year undergraduate students in Industrial Design, University of Liverpool participated as part of Product Development 2 module. Throughout the workshop, participating students learned different approaches to sustainable design, production and consumption, challenges faced by upcycling-based businesses in the UK, and how to generate and develop ideas, concepts and system maps to resolve complex design problems involving multiple stakeholders

Understanding Upcycling and Circular Economy and Their Interrelationships through Literature Review for Design Education

open access articleDesign and engineering are fundamental activities in shaping the world we live in. Educating new generations in design and engineering, therefore, is crucial to build a better and more sustainable world. The changes in education for the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy, in particular, has become a priority for many educators. Aligned with the circular economy, a promising umbrella concept and practice called 'upcycling' is emerging. The concepts and practices in the circular economy and upcycling overlap depending on the definitions of the terms in various disciplines and sectors in different parts of the world. This has caused some confusion and misunderstanding. For educators aiming to teach students about sustainable design, production and consumption, it is beneficial to distinguish between these two concepts. Understanding the relationships (or interrelationships) between them in theory and practice is important for the educators to offer clear guidance and recommendations to future designers and engineers. This paper provides literature review on upcycling and circular economy, compares these two concepts, and visualises their interrelationship as draft teaching materials for design education

Evaluating two interventions for scaling up upcycling: Community event and upcycling plaza

Upcycling – creation or modification of a product from used or waste materials, components, and products for higher quality or value – incorporates multiple strategies for increasing material efficiency and provides other environmental, economic and social benefits. With a growing concern for the environment, the past few years have seen a growth of upcycling practitioners and businesses, yet despite such a growth, upcycling largely remains a niche and requires scaling-up to have a significant impact on the environment and society. For scaling up upcycling, several promising interventions have been suggested. This paper evaluates two of these: community event and upcycling plaza. Two case studies (on “Art with Upcycling” co-creation family event in Leicester, UK, and Seoul Upcycling Plaza in Seoul, South Korea) have been conducted using questionnaire, observation and interview studies. The results show that the community event made positive psychological impact on participants, and that many programmes run by the upcycling plaza were perceived as successful by stakeholders. Based on the aforementioned positive impact, these two interventions are recommended for prototyping, piloting and monitoring in other cities and countries for scaling up global upcycling

A review on upcycling: Current body of literature, knowledge gaps and a way forward

This work was undertaken in Sustainable Consumption Research Group at Nottingham Trent University.Upcycling is a process in which used materials are converted into something of higher value and/or quality in their second life. It has been increasingly recognised as one promising means to reduce material and energy use, and to engender sustainable production and consumption. For this reason and other foreseeable benefits, the concept of upcycling has received more attention from numerous researchers and business practitioners in recent years. This has been seen in the growing number of publications on this topic since the 1990s. However, the overall volume of literature dealing with upcycling is still low and no major review has been presented. Therefore, in order to further establish this field, this paper analyses and summarises the current body of literature on upcycling, focusing on different definitions, trends in practices, benefits, drawbacks and barriers in a number of subject areas, and gives suggestions for future research by illuminating knowledge gaps in the area of upcycling

Developing Interventions for Scaling Up UK Upcycling

open access articleUpcycling presents one of many opportunities for reducing consumption of materials and energy. Despite recent growth evidenced by increasing numbers of practitioners and businesses based on upcycling, it remains a niche activity and requires scaling up to realise its potential benefits. This paper investigates UK household upcycling in order to develop interventions for scaling up upcycling in the UK. Mixed methods were used in four stages: (a) Interviews to gain insights into UK upcycling; (b) a survey to discover key factors influencing UK upcycling; (c) intervention development based on the synthesis of interviews and survey; and (d) use of a semi-Delphi technique to evaluate and develop initial interventions. The results showed approaches to upcycling (e.g., wood, metal and fabric as frequently used materials, online platforms as frequently used source of materials), context for upcycling (e.g., predominant use of home for upcycling), factors influencing UK upcycling with key determinants (i.e., intention, attitude and subjective norm), important demographic characteristics considering a target audience for interventions (i.e., 30+ females) and prioritised interventions for scaling up (e.g., TV and inspirational media and community workshops as short-term high priority interventions). The paper further discusses implications of the study in terms of development of theory and practice of upcycling

Adapting Darnton’s Nine Principles framework for behaviour change:The UK upcycling case study

open access articleDesign practitioners and academics have increasingly recognised the potential value of design for behaviour change. On the one hand, while existing studies address product or communication design as main interventions, there is a growing interest in design as a useful tool for policy development and service innovation. On the other hand, the interplay between social research, design, and policy development in behaviour intervention is not a new concept or practice, yet studies to suggest and evaluate particular general approaches to policy and design interventions are relatively new and rare. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper adapts Darnton’s Nine Principles framework as one promising generic approach, demonstrates how the adapted framework can be applied to the upcycling case study in the UK and evaluates the usefulness of the adapted framework. The study results show that the adapted framework is useful for exploring behaviour and developing interventions in small-scale, exploratory studies, and that it can be applied to other behaviour domains and contexts. The main contribution of this paper is the demonstration of the potential of Darnton’s original and adapted frameworks as a promising general approach useful for policy and design interventions

An exploratory study on the consequences of individual upcycling: is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

This work was undertaken in the Sustainable Consumption Research Group at Nottingham Trent University.Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on manufacturers ’ perspectives rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation or modification out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the composition al elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, engaging user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants. In the meantime, recent evidence suggests that the number of people who upcycle things has increased, possibly as a response to the contemporary ‘Maker Movement’ and aided by physical and digital resources. Despite this growth, individual upcycling has not been investigated extensively, especially its relation to product attachment and product longevity. Acknowledging this, this study investigated the consequences of individual upcycling with respect to product attachment and the product longevity of upcycled products, and compared the results with mass-produced products with the same functions through an exploratory questionnaire with 23 UK-based upcycling practitioners. The results demonstrated that the attachment to upcycled products is positively correlated with irreplaceability, and irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity. The results also showed that the expected product lifetime years of the upcycled product with attachment are longer than the estimated average product lifetime years of the mass-produced products with the same functions

CAD Education Curricula in Product Design: The Case of De Montfort University, UK

Computer Aided Design (CAD) has become one of the essential parts of design education (especially product design) in higher education (HE). Although CAD can be defined broadly as the use of computer systems (i.e. hardware and software to perform specialized design functions) to assist in the creation, modification, analysis or optimization of a design, it is often used to refer to the process in which mathematically precise geometrical descriptions of physical objects can be created. CAD education in HE, therefore, typically entails teaching parametric modelling software programmes such as SolidWorks, SolidEdge, TFlex or BricsCAD. Such software programmes enable (product) design students and practitioners to translate sketches into precise CAD models that can be refined, developed and tested in a virtual environment and generate fully-defined technical drawings for global manufacture. As the use of CAD reduces the amount of physical model making (e.g. in order to produce a working representation of a semi-final product) for decision making in industrial design process, CAD increases production efficiency (by reducing resources and therefore cost) from the industrial and market-driven standpoint. Proficiency in CAD, therefore, is required especially for product design graduates to be employable (by meeting industry-level design expectations that emphasise production). British Industrial Design Association’s (BIDA) student employability survey in 2017 also emphasised that CAD abilities is one of the key aspects that recruiters are looking for (along with good design process, sketching, strong sensitivity for user experience, CMF – colour, material and finishing – and latest trends and technologies). Despite such importance, research on CAD education in HE in the context of product development is still in its infant stage. The existing research has focused predominantly on theoretical discussions and high-level suggestions for CAD education in HE (e.g. from CAD education towards CAx education, frameworks for general support, role of CAD in training engineers, strategies for the transition to CAD-based education). Relatively little attention has been paid to practical implementation of CAD education. Even when practical implementation experiences in actual courses were described, the studies were based mostly on mechanical engineering. Reports on the implemented CAD education curricula from product design perspectives are largely missing. This paper, therefore, aims to provide one such case in order to provide the status quo of CAD education curricula in product design in the UK

Promoting Upcycling through an International Research Network

open accessThe current linear economic growth model detached from environmental challenges is flawed and has resulted in environmental challenges such as pollution, climate change and many others. Different organisations and countries have devised various interventions and policies to address environmental issues such as reuse, recycling, upcycling, sustainable waste management and circular economy. However, environmental depletion is continuing at an alarming rate. There is an urgent need to re-examine and change the environmental management strategies, consumption, and production patterns of extract-manufacture-consume-dispose to a sustainable model. This paper discusses upcycling innovation as one of the promising sustainability strategies. The authors observe the research in the area is isolated, e.g., country-specific and uncoordinated. Therefore, there is a need for joint research collaboration at a global level to promote upcycling. This may be achieved through an ongoing research project on the International Upcycling Research Network, which has networked upcycling actors on all continents. The International Upcycling Research Network aims to promote the upcycling practice and research to increase resource efficiency and encourage behavioural change toward sustainable lifestyles