Transforming the Built Environment through Product Service Systems: A Path towards a Circular Economy: “Exploring the Key Characteristics, Challenges, and Solutions in Implementing PSS in the Built Environment"

As climate change and resource shortages increasingly threaten our planet, the built environment sector is under scrutiny due to its significant contribution to carbon emissions and global raw resource extraction. A transition towards a circular economy, replacing the prevailing "take-make-dispose" model, is crucial. This research explores the...

A New Method to Improve the Environmental Sustainability of the Operating Room: Healthcare Sustainability Mode and Effect Analysis (HSMEA)

Highlights: What are the main findings? Using the HSMEA, it is possible to systematically reduce operating room waste. The HSMEA identifies carbon hotspots of surgical waste based on waste stream analysis. Solutions for improvement are found by applying the six Rs of waste management. What is the implication of the main finding? A...

Design an Intervention to Support Food Waste Prevention at Home

FAO reported that one-third of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away (FAO, 2013). Food waste is a wicked problem that causes environmental deterioration and the socio-economic food gap. At the EU level, disposing of 89 million tons of food waste per year consumes 261 million tons of resources, equal to 170 million tons of CO2...

Food Waste Prevention: a design intervention for Households

Globally one-third of all food that is producedfor human consumption is wasted (FAO, 2013). Although it happens across theentire Food Supply Chain, 53% of all food waste in Europe takes place withinconsumers’ households (Stenmarck et al., 2016). All this waste has seriousconsequences for the environment and if we want to...

Design for waste separation and reduction during big events

Tons of residual waste is being produced during big events nowadays, which can be expensive to manage and negatively influence the environment. Insufficient waste separation is identified as the leading cause, which is feasible to tackle in the near future. To reduce the negative environmental and financial impact of the event's waste, this...

A peaceful fight against food waste in Amsterdam: an explorative case study on the impact of food waste prevention initiatives

Food waste is a global problem that has a significant impact on the environment and society. Nevertheless, the Dutch government lacks a clear strategy to reduce food waste. The city of Amsterdam also lacks such a strategy. Therefore, various social innovation initiatives are actively preventing food waste. These initiatives emerge from local...

Saving food through transformation

This graduation report describes the motivation and processing that resulted in the Zesturn. The product is designed to make vegetable trimmings and leftovers, which are otherwise discarded, directly available for cooking in Dutch family households. The Zesturn facilitates this through converting vegetable scraps into powders that can be...

Wasting food on the level of a household: System Dynamics based study towards the potential effects of interventions

A System Dynamics study towards the potential effects of interventions on the food waste produced by households. Households are a major contributor to the waste of food within the Netherlands. There are negative consequences regarding the waste of food. A causal relation diagram is created, a set of interventions is defined, and based upon a...

Veggie-Table: Designing an inspiring tool to encourage the consumption of leftover vegetables at home

Food waste is the fastest growing issue of our time. Countries in the EU discard an estimated 89 million tons of food every year. Worse, the food waste will increase to about 126 million tons in 2020 if we do not take action (European Union Committee, 2014). Moreover, most countries are burying food waste in the landfills. This manner of...

Energy potential mapping: Visualising energy characteristics for the exergetic optimisation of the built environment

It is difficult to fully satisfy the energy demand of today’s society with renewables. Nevertheless, most of the energy we use is lost as non-functional waste energy, whereas a large part of the built environment’s energy demand is only for low-quality energy, so the initial demand for primary, high-quality energy can be reduced by more...

Building renewal on social housing: Case study on the Rubem Berta settlement, Porto Alegre, Brasil

This study proposes a method and presents a proposal to re-qualify social housing complexes, with diversification and expansion of units. The construction of large social housing condominiums can be criticized from several points of view. These projects has limited financial resources and there is a gap among the project and user’ requirements,...