Designing value through less by integrating sustainability strategies into lifestyles

Abstract

The article argues for a need to overcome a conventional notion of product design. In this regard, the article offers an integrative and systemic approach to sustainable design.Instead of focussing on objects, a user-centred perspective is adopted. A sustainable design of products and services requires the integration of production-orientated (efficiency and consistency) and consumption-orientated (sufficiency) strategies. The article introduces the concept of an indicator that is capable of comprehending a lifecycle-wide analysis of products and that favours the integration of existing sustainability strategies. The goal is not to design sustainable products but rather to design systems that manage to foster sustainable lifestyles.The article illustrates the usability of the introduced concept by showing examples of strategic integrative thinking in sustainable design from the Sustainable Summer Schools 1 .

Who are the consumers? – The need for a sustainability-integrated consumer research agenda

“…in the first place. Consumer research and its assumptions have thus to consider social institutions such as working time regimes, but also public infrastructures such as roads or the structure of products and services supply in the private sector (see Liedtke et al 2013bLiedtke et al , c, 2015a, in a much more detailed way.…”

Nachhaltiges Design und Suffizienz – ressourcenleicht durchs Leben

“…Gestalter sind längst nicht mehr nur für die ästhetische Formgestaltung von Produkten zuständig, sondern auf der Suche nach neuen Lösungen für nachhaltige Produkt-und Dienstleistungsarrangements (siehe Liedtke et al 2013a). Sie können gestalterisch gewünschte Lebensstile ermög-lichen -quasi über materialisierte Ideen und Innovationen Vorstellungen von gutem Leben eine Gestalt, Codierung oder Erzählung geben.…”

Resource Use in the Production and Consumption System—The MIPS Approach

“…For the specific assessment the service bundle will be described respecting the individual and social needs (e.g., identity, relatedness, competence, security, self-determination [15,80] and for calculating a quantified measure related to a service unit (e.g., good life in my home environment: which amount of resources per chosen product mix and m 2 and year or an average life time per flat is consumed?) [14,50]. In the broader sense MIPS is asking the question about quality of life or personal meaning [15,80,81], because quality of life is not determined only by the consumption of goods [15,82].…”

“…During the last 20 years resource intensity of production and consumption patterns gained specific political and scientific attention in discussing increased resource productivity as a key element of sustainable development and especially for reducing environmental impact, e.g., [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In particular, Dematerialisation is seen as a strategy to decouple natural resource use from economic growth [6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The term natural resources refers to extraction and harvest of biotic and abiotic raw materials as well as the use of water, air and soil.…”