Towards design strategies for circular medical products

The framework of design for the circular economy is increasingly used in industry to improve product sustainability and decrease costs, and in academia various models have been developed to guide circular design. However, in the medical sector, although it generates a large amount of waste, application of circular design principles is...

The Role of Product Design in Creating Circular Business Models:: A Case Study on the Lease and Refurbishment of Baby Strollers

In the transition to a circular economy companies are exploring new business models, implying a shift from selling products to offering products in circular business models, such as leasing.<br/>Product design is thought to play a crucial role in enabling this. Having a robust overview of relevant design roles and competencies is of foundational...

The role of product designers in the transition towards the circular economy: A reality check

This paper examines the role of product designers in the transition towards the circular economy. Both scientific and grey literature show remarkable optimism when it comes to role strategic and coordinating role designers could play in this transition process. However, there has been little examination of the actual role and influence designers...

Additive manufacturing for circular product design: A literature review from a design perspective

Circular product design is a relatively new approach to design suitable strategies to realize circular products. Additive manufacturing (AM) is seen as a promising enabling production process. It has digital and additive characteristics, which makes AM different from conventional production techniques. However, it is yet unclear how this...

Developments and challenges in design for sustainability of electronics

Sustainability of electronic products until recently mainly focused on improving the energy efficiency. Recently, resource efficiency has become of growing importance. Due to the use of relatively small amounts of many valuable and scarce materials, often intimately mixed, the design of electronic products deserves specific attention. From a...