Capabilities required to tackle barriers to remanufacturing

The transition towards a circular economy proposes to deliver sustainable, lower carbon opportunities to society, governments and companies. This paper focuses on finding barriers encountered during remanufacturing activities and interpreting the barriers by using a framework for dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities enable companies to...

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...

Eco-design opportunities for critical material supply risks

A number of recent publications point to the important role of eco-design approaches in risk mitigation for critical materials supply. The core of eco-design is life cycle thinking – usually as some form of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach together with a set of generic guidelines such as checklists, etc. There has however been little...

Rethinking Eco-design Priorities: The case of the Econova television

Eco-design heuristics (defined as experience-based techniques for problem solving) can play a useful role in helping designers prioritize eco-design strategies. One of these eco-design heuristics (the ‘use phase’ heuristic) is: Frequently used electric and electronic products usually have, over their life span, a dominant impact in the use phase...

Materials scarcity: A new agenda for industrial design engineering

Societal stakeholders are expressing concerns over the increasing scarcity of critical elements on which high-tech industries rely. Geochemical rare elements are indispensable in producing high-tech products such as electronic gadgets and renewable energy technologies. The surge in demand for critical elements presents a risk of exhaustion of...

Materials scarcity: A new agenda for industrial design

Societal stakeholders are expressing concerns over the increasing scarcity of critical elements on which high-tech industries rely. Geochemical rare elements are indispensable in producing high-tech products such as electronic gadgets and renewable energy technologies. The surge in demand for critical elements presents a risk of exhaustion of...

Innovation and complex governance at times of scarcity of resources - a lesson from history

Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical...

Innovation and complex governance at times of scarcity of resources: A lesson from history

Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical...

Living climate change: Design thinking and learning in complexity

As the world moves into an era of significant changes predicated by the challenge of sustainability, the future holds many questions, with serious consequences depending on the answers. Given the implications of these changes, the world’s design community needs to be constantly challenged to respond. To support conversations on what life will be...

Living climate change: Design thinking and learning in complexity

As the world moves into an era of significant changes predicated by the challenge of sustainability, the future holds many questions, with serious consequences depending on the answers. Given the implications of these changes, the world’s design community needs to be constantly challenged to respond. To support conversations on what life will be...