Product design is one of the most important sectors influencing global sustainability, as almost all the products consumed by people are outputs of the product development process. In particular, early design decisions can have a very significant impact on sustainability. These decisions not only relate to material and manufacturing choices but have a far-reaching effect on the product’s entire life cycle, including transportation, distribution, and end-of-life logistics. However, key challenges have to be overcome to enable eco-design methods to be applicable in early design stages. Lack of information models, semantic interoperability, methods to influence eco-design thinking in early stages, measurement science and uncertainty models in eco-decisions, and ability to balance business decisions and eco-design methodology are serious impediments to realizing sustainable products and services. Therefore, integrating downstream life cycle data into eco-design tools is essential to achieving true sustainable product development. Our review gives an overview of related research and positions early eco-design tools and decision support as a key strategy for the future. By merging sustainable thinking into traditional design methods, this review provides a framework for ongoing research, as well as encourages research collaborations among the various communities interested in sustainable product realization.

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Integrated Sustainable Life Cycle Design: A Review

Three decades ago, planned obsolescence was a widely discussed ethical issue in marketing classrooms Planned obsolescence is topical again today because an increasing emphasis on continuous product development promotes shorter durables replacement and disposal cycles with troublesome environmental consequences This paper offers explanations of why product obsolescence is practiced and why it works It then examines the ethical responsibilities of product developers and corporate strategists and their differing responses to this problem Pro-environment product design and marketing practices and innovative government policies may alleviate the problem over time However, given the current lack of understanding about consumer replacement and disposal behavior, it is questionable as to whether these practices and policies will be sufficiently informed to be effective Thus, marketing scholars have a significant opportunity to contribute to sustainable durables product development

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40295074.pdf

Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence

Design stages have been widely recognized as a key phase in a product’s life cycle in implementing sustainability. Since the late 1990s, various sustainable design methods and techniques have been developed in response to the requirements of sustainable product development. Understanding what types of sustainable methods have been applied in which design phases is advantageous for determining future research directions. The main purpose of this study is to systematically review past studies on sustainable product design. These studies are categorized into different types according to a two-dimensional framework. The ideas and limitations of representative approaches in each category are discussed. The results show important findings and implications.

/pdf/review-of-sustainable-product-design-from-life-cycle-54km2wa81a.pdf

Review of Sustainable Product Design from Life Cycle Perspectives

PROMETHEE based sustainable concept selection

Increasing competition in the global marketplace demands products with better functionality, higher quality, lower cost, shorter delivery lead time, and increased environmental friendliness. Although advanced manufacturing technologies can partially address these challenges, advanced design technologies are considered critical, since most design and manufacturing properties of a product are influenced by the design decisions made in the early design stages. This paper provides a comprehensive review on a new design paradigm — adaptable design — that aims at developing adaptable products to satisfy the various requirements of customers. The topics discussed in this review include the fundamental concepts, objectives, methodologies, and applications. The paper also presents the differences between adaptable design and other design methods, such as modular design, platform design, and product customization. The focus is on mechanical product design; however, potential applications of adaptable design...

Adaptable design: Concepts, methods, and applications

This paper discusses the concepts associated with a new methodology, design for adaptation (DFAD), under development for achieving advanced sustainable designs. The DFAD methodology concept is based on the hypothesis that product life ends because a product is unable to adapt to change. A product may be retired for myriad reasons including that it is broken, out of style, or has become inefficient due to technology obsolescence. In these cases, the product was not able to adapt to change-it was unable to self-heal, it could not modify or reconfigure to meet changing fashion needs, or it could not be upgraded, for physical or economic reasons, to utilize new technology. To address these and similar issues, we are developing the DFAD methodology. DFAD is based on classical control theory and products are conceptualized and modeled as dynamic systems with feedback control strategies to respond, or adapt, effectively to changes in product performance criteria. The DFAD concept takes into account that changing performance requirements may be based on physical, cultural, environmental, and/or economic considerations, among others.

Design for adaptability (DFAD)-a new concept for achieving sustainable design

With the economics of racism of the 1930s and 1950s American South in mind, our essay explores the relationship between the act of writing and institutional penology. Taking an obscure, but visceral autobiographical account by Paterson and Conrad (Scottsboro Boy, Garden City Doubleday, 1950), we examine how discipline, punishment, and institutional identity emerge out of publishing, or, as Foucault put it, “the power of writing.” Narratives of delinquency born out of a racialized penal economy tend to resist attempts to tame the criminal, making institutional survival a productive discourse, and its articulation, a unique revolutionary act.

Karl R. Precoda

Papers

Design for adaptability (DFAD)-a new concept for achieving sustainable design

To Discipline and Publish: Scottsboro and Narratives of Delinquency