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Global concerns about climate change and resource management have escalated the need for sustainable consumer products. In light of this, sustainable design methodologies that supplement the product design process are needed. Current research focuses on developing sustainable design curricula, adapting classical design methods to accommodate environmental sustainability, and sustainability tools that are applicable during the early design phase. However, concurrent work suggests that sustainability-marketed and innovative products still lack a reduction of environmental impact compared to conventional products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proven to be an exceptional tool used to assess the environmental impact of a realized product. However, LCA is a reactive tool that does not proactively reduce the environmental impact of novel product concepts. Here we develop a novel methodology, the PeeP method, using historical product LCA data with kernel density estimation to provide an estimated environmental impact range for a given product design. The PeeP method is tested using a series of case studies exploring four different products. Results suggest that probability density estimations developed through this method reflect the environmental impact of the product at both the product and component level. In the context of sustainable design research, the PeeP method is a viable methodology for assessing product design environmental impact prior to product realization. Our methodology can allow designers to identify high-impact components and reduce the cost of product redesign in practice.
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Sustainable Design of a Reusable Water Bottle: A Systems Thinking Approach
Despite the efforts to increase the pace of sustainable design adaptation in industries, several systemic barriers currently hinder this shift. The design for sustainability methods have been utilized in product design and development phases in many industries. However, they do not have a holistic approach that can capture these systemic drivers and barriers while considering all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. This research proposes a systems thinking approach toward sustainable design that can collectively consider different aspects of the production system in an attempt to resolve the multi-dimensional challenges within the design for sustainability. A reusable water bottle is selected as the case study to illustrate the applications and limitations of this approach. In addition, this case study also helped to define the boundaries and stakeholders involved in the system and reduce the abstractions. The results from this analysis are demonstrated as a causal loop diagram that could be implemented in a system dynamics model to quantitively identify the systematic forces and leverage points driving sustainable design in product development. The comprehensive understanding provided by this analysis revealed many improvement possibilities, trade-offs, and feedback loops within the system that can assist in realizing sustainable product design proliferation and associated positive sustainability outcomes.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2044853
- PAR ID:
- 10434657
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Conference on Systems Engineering Research
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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