The ever growing world population - 10 billion by 2050 - brings many challenges to the table. One of the most imminent is the way we handle and take care of our planets natural resources. More people means more needs. How do are we going provide for all these people? Over the past decades, we have reached a general consensus that our planet is a closed system: what you take, is taken forever. In other words, limitless growth without treating earths resources accordingly, is a myth. Our current economic system in place does not coincide with this consensus. This economy encourages a linear, take-make-waste, approach which thrives on the depletion of earths resource supplies. Looking ahead, at the world of 10 billion people, its not hard to understand that the linear economy is no longer tenable. We need to make the transition towards the circular economy, an economic paradigm which respects the boundaries of our planet. The circular economy adopts a take-make-use-reuse approach, which aims to decouple economic growth from the consumption of finite resources. This circular paradigm came about several decades ago and sounds hopefull. Nevertheless, it has been far from being mainstream as the transition towards this circular paradigm is surrounded by barriers, challenges, and complexities. In other words, this transition is halted due to a so-called linear lock-in. This graduation project aims to circumvent this linear lock-in for the purpose of mainstreaming circular economy principles. It does this by adopting the Design Thinking methodology, thé design approach to tackle untenable social, environmental and political problems for which no unambiguous solutions can be found (Dorst, 2015). This project focusses on the consumer appliances segment, praised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2013) as the ‘sweet-spot’ segment for circularity, and the European Commission has made the sector an important point on their agenda, as its one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU (EC, 2020). An iterative research and design approach led to a platform concept solution which delivers value to the consumers, product brands and integrates circular economy strategies. At the core of this opportunity is digital product-to-user registration. The design is communicated via manifesting its features and a service design blueprint. The thesis is concluded with a roadmap for implementation and recommendations for further development.

This thesis ‘Towards sustainable projects´ will focus on the integration of sustainability aspects in projects in the engineering industry. This research uses the following definition for ‘sustainability’: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). This means that in this research ‘sustainability’ is about aspects which ensure that a population’s present and future needs can be met. These are in essence relevant variables within the three ‘topics’ within sustainability: environmental, economic and societal aspects. The integration of sustainability within engineering projects is still limited. Regulation and tools give guidance on integrating sustainability aspects, for example BREEAM and the Sustainable Development Goals, however, these seems to be more of an exception rather than a rule. Even though projects are part of a bigger system, they can influence the part they are involved in. As Robert Swan quotes (2012): "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” The role of project managers is to steer their projects. Project manager are the connecting link between the client and the engineers, and from this position they can influence both parties to incorporate sustainability in their projects. It is unclear what influences the incorporation of sustainability in projects, so the following main research question needs to be answered: What influences the integration of sustainability in engineering projects? In order to answer this main research question, three research steps were taken. Firstly, the most relevant sustainability aspects within projects were collected from Sustainable Impact Assessments (SIAs) from literature. Thirty aspects were selected as most important for sustainable projects as these were mentioned most in all SIAs. The thirty aspects consist of: eleven aspects about the environment, for example minimising CO2 emissions or minimise the amount of waste; eleven aspects about society, for example development of human capital or respecting human rights; and eight aspects about economy, for example procurement and business agility. Secondly, a group of 20 Dutch project managers of Royal HaskoningDHV with various types of projects within the engineering industry ranked the thirty sustainability aspects based how difficult it was to integrate the sustainability aspects in their project. It was determined that the aspects about people were most easy to integrate, meaning ‘health & safety’, ‘ethical behaviour’, ‘fair and safe labour’ and ‘human rights’. On the other hand, the most difficult aspects to integrate were the aspects about planet, meaning ‘transport’, ‘CO2 emissions, ‘harmful emissions’ and ‘material efficiency’. Thirdly, the participants were asked to give motivations for ranking the five most easy and most difficult sustainability aspects to integrate in projects, as they have during the second step. It was expected that project characteristics as the type of project, the type of client and the project size would influence the ease of integrating sustainability aspects in projects. Results show that the integration is influenced more by the personal motivation of the client, the project manager or the company strategy and vision, rather than by the project’s characteristics. This is shown in the interviews and because there is no direct link between the sustainability aspects and the project’s characteristics. In order to answer the main research question, the most influencing reasons can be divided into five groups: process, product, supplier, client and society.

The world of today is facing a large environmental challenge. We all need to reduce our impact to remain sustainable. Companies must look at a more circular approach of producing their goods. Without consumers engaging in circular behavior however, the circular economy will not reach its potential.To examine the circular economy approach in a medical domain, a case study is done at Philips Design. Specifically, we look at the Healthdot, a medical sensor for at home, currently not envisioned to become circular, being developed by a venture team within the company.The objective in the case is: How can we engage patients to send back the device after wearing it at home in order to enable a circular offer for the Healthdot? To find opportunities that make a circular offer for the Healthdot the product and its ecosystem is analyzed. When a device with the current product design can be recovered, the PCBA can be reused. To increase circularity, it needs a redesign. A feasible redesign allows every component except for the adhesive part to be reused. Since the latter opportunity requires are design, it is a long-term opportunity. Both scenarios require the Healthdot to be retrieved from the patients wearing it at home. The hospitals role is limited in this recovery. They are pressured to move the care they provide more outside of the hospital and extra handlings with a device means a less attractive value proposition towards them. By interviewing ex-patients it became clear that the experience they have after surgery, is not pleasant in any way. Specific pain points throughout this recovery show potential to improve patient experience and motivate them to send back the device. Patients receive scattered and non-personal information, are physically and mentally burdened, are uncertain about their progress. Next to that, family and friends are heavily involved during this period. Picking the device up at patients homes is an expensive undertaking and needs an additional pick-up service to be realized. The most promising opportunity is to have the device sent back by the patients. According to Fogg (2009), three preconditions need to be present simultaneously for an action to happen.These elements are addressed in a first concept, which aimed to provide motivation through pleasure in the means of a package with insight in patients data. The concept increases their ability to perform the behavior by providing all the materials needed for send-back, together with clear instructions. The concept aimed to trigger them through several text messages. After testing this with 6 other ex-patients and their partners at their dinner table, 4 main insights led toan improvement and final design.• The hospital contacting patients created the feeling of reciprocation, this was perceived as the most motivating factor to send back the device.• When patients are being monitored they have expectations for meaningful insight in the data. They except to hear something from the hospital related to their monitoring and recovery.• Perceived as easiest to send back was taking it to a regular mailbox, when the materials such as a return envelope were provided and sending was free of charge. This allowed patients to be in control of when and where exactly to return the healthdot. • Physically moving the device out of the house while sending back resembled closure of are covery phase for patients.These insights led to a final solution of an advent calendar, communication platform and a redesigned device. To reach this solution in 2022, the first step that can be made towards the end of 2020 is a concept that entails a messaging service and send-back materials for the patients. One component of the final solution is an advent calendar that patients receive when they are discharged. It is to be placed at their homes, and includes several boxes to be opened during the recovery phase at home. The final box includes all material needed for sending back the Healthdot. The calendar works together with a communication platform. Patients receive notification when they can open another box and QR-codes link to the platform. Healthdot functionalities are integrated in a larger communication platform in development by Philips. The platform enables communication between different care providers and the patient. It also can be accessed by a patients partner or other loved one, if permitted. The Healthdot needs a redesign to increase value retention and go from a parts recovery strategy on the short-term, to refurbishment for the final solution. This redesign would enable reuse of all components except the adhesive part of the device. The Healthdot becoming circular results in a triple win. Philips is able to save money, improve their value proposition towards hospitals and can add yet another proof point of sustainability to their repertoire. The patients will go through an improved recovery experience compared to the current experience. Thirdly, the environmental impact decreases through the reuse of components and less intensive use of the full manufacturing processes. This thesis led to the Healthdot venture team pursuing circularity already on the short-term, instead of a future possibility onthe longer-term.