2 From Eco-design to Circular Economy
Emma Rex, (RISE), addressed in her presentation the Sustainability of design for
circularity, with integration of user and its behaviour into the design choices that
can be made to shift from linear to circular business models in the Swedish furniture
industry. Circular business models, promoting resource productivity and pollution
prevention, are currently supported and encouraged by various policy agendas,
resulting in an increased interest in design for modularity, adaptability and
remanufacturing. The expected environmental benefits such circular business
models offer are usually perceived as obvious, and seldom evaluated. Nevertheless,
different design choices will have different impacts on the amount of material used,
expected lifetime of products and possibilities for recycling. User behaviour patterns are neither commonly examined, even though user acceptance has been
identified as a key enabler for the transition to a circular economy. The study
combines interviews with potential users of pre-owned furniture, and customer
experiences from furniture producing companies. Five pieces of furniture from three
different producing companies are analysed. For each type of application, the
environmental impacts of linear versus circular business models are compared
through the use of LCA, and different user behaviour patterns are included as
scenario analyses. User interviews pointed to the importance of functionality over
novelty, and indicated a potential to increase the service content in existing business
offers. LCA results further show that the environmental impacts of a shift from
linear to circular business models both can decrease and increase, from −30 to
+50%, depending on scenario settings, type of impact categories assessed, and
assumptions made. Notably, results depend on expected user behaviour following
decisions taken in business development and product design. The study demonstrated the importance of including user perspectives when designing for circularity,
as well as when evaluating the effects of circular design offers. Also, whilst the
calculations in this study revealed the potential direct environmental effects of a
circular economy shift in existing industry, they also open up for discussions on
indirect and broader sustainability effects following circular design attempts.
The question of multiple cycles arisen in the discussion, as well as how to build
scenarios representative of the users’ behaviour, and include them to the environmental impacts. Emma Rex explained that user behaviours have been decomposed
into several typologies, allowing a scenario-based analysis. The discussion also
touched on the service oriented solutions.
Venkata Krishna Kumar Upadhyayula (Umeå University) presented a concept
where Life Cycle Assessment is used as a Decision Making Tool for Designing
Products and Engineering Systems contributing to Circular Economy.
Implementation of circular economy largely depends on three factors: (a) development of industrial infrastructure capable of enhancing the resource productivities on
one hand and minimizing environmental externalities on the other, (b) understand
the market dynamics & consumer behaviour to promote sustainable consumption
practices, (c) building sustainable cities and communities with smaller ecological
Sustainable Design of Complex Systems, Products and Services …
367
Emma Rex, (RISE), addressed in her presentation the Sustainability of design for
circularity, with integration of user and its behaviour into the design choices that
can be made to shift from linear to circular business models in the Swedish furniture
industry. Circular business models, promoting resource productivity and pollution
prevention, are currently supported and encouraged by various policy agendas,
resulting in an increased interest in design for modularity, adaptability and
remanufacturing. The expected environmental benefits such circular business
models offer are usually perceived as obvious, and seldom evaluated. Nevertheless,
different design choices will have different impacts on the amount of material used,
expected lifetime of products and possibilities for recycling. User behaviour patterns are neither commonly examined, even though user acceptance has been
identified as a key enabler for the transition to a circular economy. The study
combines interviews with potential users of pre-owned furniture, and customer
experiences from furniture producing companies. Five pieces of furniture from three
different producing companies are analysed. For each type of application, the
environmental impacts of linear versus circular business models are compared
through the use of LCA, and different user behaviour patterns are included as
scenario analyses. User interviews pointed to the importance of functionality over
novelty, and indicated a potential to increase the service content in existing business
offers. LCA results further show that the environmental impacts of a shift from
linear to circular business models both can decrease and increase, from −30 to
+50%, depending on scenario settings, type of impact categories assessed, and
assumptions made. Notably, results depend on expected user behaviour following
decisions taken in business development and product design. The study demonstrated the importance of including user perspectives when designing for circularity,
as well as when evaluating the effects of circular design offers. Also, whilst the
calculations in this study revealed the potential direct environmental effects of a
circular economy shift in existing industry, they also open up for discussions on
indirect and broader sustainability effects following circular design attempts.
The question of multiple cycles arisen in the discussion, as well as how to build
scenarios representative of the users’ behaviour, and include them to the environmental impacts. Emma Rex explained that user behaviours have been decomposed
into several typologies, allowing a scenario-based analysis. The discussion also
touched on the service oriented solutions.
Venkata Krishna Kumar Upadhyayula (Umeå University) presented a concept
where Life Cycle Assessment is used as a Decision Making Tool for Designing
Products and Engineering Systems contributing to Circular Economy.
Implementation of circular economy largely depends on three factors: (a) development of industrial infrastructure capable of enhancing the resource productivities on
one hand and minimizing environmental externalities on the other, (b) understand
the market dynamics & consumer behaviour to promote sustainable consumption
practices, (c) building sustainable cities and communities with smaller ecological
Sustainable Design of Complex Systems, Products and Services …
367