Design for sustainability

The increasing concern for sustainability-related issues leads to the rise of new fields in design research, dedicated to limit the negative impact of human activities on the environment and society. After addressing issues related to production, efficiency, recyclability and disassembly, designers start to recognize their responsibility in guiding users to behave in a more responsible and sustainable way. For this reason, designing products to support users' behaviour change is becoming one of the most popular trends in design research at the moment. To achieve the desired results design for behaviour change, and in particular, Design for Sustainable Behaviour exploits a variety of approaches. In this Chapter, we explore the use of Design for Sustainable Behaviour techniques through a literature review of theories and case studies. Then, we defined a framework which describes the use of multisensory stimuli as elements to support different phases of interaction during the user experience with an interactive product. We relate this framework to previous works and then we discuss two case studies.

The fields of eco-design and design creativity have not found strategic synergies yet. This applies despite the fact that the paramount objective of eco-design, i.e. sustainable development, might benefit from the radical design changes creativity can engender. In parallel, those significant changes should also support the transformation of products towards designs that exhibit major success chances, which is still in line with the perspectives of sustainable development. The authors have developed ten guidelines to guide eco-design towards creative and successful outcomes and the present paper illustrates the first experimentation thereof. The results of the experiment show that the compliance with the guidelines determines a satisfactory trade-off between environmental friendliness and success chances, as well as fully increasing the novelty of ideas. The outcomes are however affected by a remarked misalignment between the views of the two evaluators, i.e. an industrial player and an academic expert in eco-design.

Keywords: Design creativity , Eco-design guidelines , Eco-ideation , Success

Eco-Design Strategies lead to both enhanced environmental sustainability and product differentiation, which, however, takes place only if observers recognize and value these advantages. To study this aspect, a sample of 40 product pictures has been administered to 12 subjects with experience in eco-design. They were asked to evaluate whether one or more Eco-Design Strategies (in Vezzoli and Manzini's version) were implemented in each depicted product. The outcome of the evaluation was an overall fair agreement. Useful information for eco-design is inferred from nuances of the results.

Keywords: design evaluation , ecodesign strategies , product design , sustainable design

Eco-design strategies aim to integrate environmental considerations into product design and development. Several regulations, directives and standards have been issued on this topic during last years. In particular, European Directive (2009/125/EC) establishes the eco-design requirements related to domestic and commercial kitchen appliances (e.g. cookers, hobs, grills). The present paper focuses on the virtual product eco-design of domestic induction heating cookers, which are becoming one of the leading cooking systems due to their advantages, e.g. energy efficiency, rapid heating, cleanliness, and user safety. The adoption of numerical analysis tools for the simulation of cooktops use phase, based on thermodynamic modelling, allows to provide useful information regarding the performance of cooking system at each phase of cooking. The paper provides a progress beyond the state-of-art on thermodynamic models for induction hob simulation considering interaction between the cooktop and the pot in the work environment. The goal of the paper is therefore to propose a methodology able to support designers in evaluating heating performances of induction cooking appliances, early in the design phases, through a virtual and multi-physical product model. Thermodynamic performances are determined by measuring several parameters and reproducing the energy consumption test by the mean of a virtual prototyping tool. Results highlight how the proposed model is adherent with the real tests following a specific standard in this sector with a maximum deviation of 3.2% considering the different cooking pot sizes.

Keywords: Design methodology , Eco-design strategies , Virtual Prototyping

Nowadays, packaging represents around 35% of the total municipal solid waste yearly generated. This paper aims at analyzing a methodology to support the redesign of a sustainable packaging for the household appliances. The approach considers the environmental impacts related to geometrical parameters and materials. In particular, here the test case is focused on the packaging for kitchen hoods. Through the proposed method, based on the use of virtual prototyping tools, an eco-design approach has been identified to analyze the main environmental impacts. A packaging redesign has been performed to reduce waste and increase the use of the components from the perspective of the circular economy. This study has been performed in accordance with the international standards ISO 14040/14044, by using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from Cradle to Gate. The integration with a CAD tool has been considered to redefine the packaging shape, materials, and internal composition, keeping the same standard requirements (performance, security, etc.). LCA software SimaPro 8.5 has been used to carry out the life cycle assessment, and ReCiPe method has been chosen for the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). A comparison has been proposed between a traditional packaging for household appliances and a new solution which integrates an interior part in molded pulp. The results show the possibility to cut down the environmental impacts of approximately 15% by a redesign with a molded pulp interior and avoiding EPS structures.

Keywords: Molded pulp , Sustainable design , Sustainable packaging

The paper discusses the process that leads to choosing a modular building system and how this has suggested a framework to make the right decision in clarifying the task and in generating and selecting new concepts. After illustrating the genesis of the need to build in a modular way, attention shifts to the criteria for evaluating the characteristics of modular buildings. The evaluation criteria were identified and sorted by category and, after an assessment of what already exists on the market and in literature, the guidelines for the design of a new modular building system were provided. The paper also illustrates some conceptual solutions that have arisen from the application of the identified criteria.

Keywords: Concept assessment , Concept generation , MCDA , Product assessment , Sustainable modular buildings

The present work shows how 3D models extracted from a computerised tomography (CT) scan can be processed to be 3D printed into 1:1 orthopedic scale models, which find unquestionable utility in pre-operative surgical planning. Relying on the CAT-CAD methodology, which produces a 3D surface called “mesh” from diagnostic images of body parts, the CAD-AM process elaborates a volumetric bone model which a cost-efficient FDM printer can work with. The suitable materials for these applications are PLA polymers, due to their thermo-mechanical properties, affordability and ecological sustainability; these anatomic 3D printed models allows surgeons to accurately see bones injuries and trauma, resulting in a minimisation of risk and a much more flowing doctor-patient communication. Furthermore these 3D printed objects can be manufactured with specific density in order to simulate bone tissues, resulting in a useful tool through which experienced surgeons can pass on their knowledge to medical students at a very reasonable cost, overcoming the glaring limitations of two-dimensional images provided by CT scans. Here represented is a 3D printed 1:1 scale model of a femur donated to the Bone Bank of IOR-Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna.

Keywords: CT scan , FDM printer , Orthopaedic Reproduction Model , PLA polymer

Internal insulation is a typical renovation solution in historic buildings with valuable facades. However, it entails moisture-related risks, which affect the durability and life-cycle environmental performance. In this context, the EU project RIBuild developed a risk assessment method for both hygrothermal and life-cycle performance of internal insulation, to support decision-making. This paper presents the stochastic Life Cycle Assessment method developed, which couples the LCA model to a Monte-Carlo simulation, providing results expressed by probability distributions. It is applied to five insulation solutions, considering different uncertain input parameters and building heating scenarios. In addition, the influence of data variability and quality on the result is analyzed, by using input data from two sources: distributions derived from a generic Life Cycle Inventory database and "deterministic" data from Environmental Product Declarations. The outcomes highlight remarkable differences between the two datasets that lead to substantial variations on the systems performance ranking at the production stage. Looking at the life-cycle impact, the general trend of the output distributions is quite similar among simulation groups and insulation systems. Hence, while a ranking of the solutions based on a "deterministic" approach provides misleading information, the stochastic approach provides more realistic results in the context of decision-making.

Keywords: Energy efficiency , EPD , Historic building , Internal insulation , LCA , Monte-Carlo simulation , Uncertainty analysis

Design for disassembly is a key enabling strategy for the development of new business models based on the Industry 4.0 and circular economy paradigms. This paper attempts to define a method, based on Data Mining, for modelling disassembly data from large amount of records collected through the observation of de-manufacturing activities. The method allows to build a repository to characterize the disassembly time of joining elements (e.g. screws, nuts) considering different features and conditions. The approach was preliminary tested on a sample of 344 records for nuts disassembly retrieved by in-house tests. Disassembly time and corrective factors were assessed including the analysis of probability distribution function and standard deviation for each feature (i.e. disassembly tool).

Keywords: Big data analysis , Data mining , De-manufacturing , Design for disassembly , Disassembly time

Energy efficiency standards in the context of cooking appliances are an important strategy to preserve electric energy consumption and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although successful standards and labels have been launched in many countries, the implementation of eco-design directive does have not a unique structure, energy policy and consumers understanding. The aim of this study is to describe the environmental performance of cooking appliances in real use conditions derived by the analysis of food habits and diets in EU countries. The final goal is to link cooking performance and the environmental features (i.e. energy consumptions, emissions) in different cooking conditions. The work is structured in three phases: (i) definition of recipes based on food habits in EU countries, (ii) development of energy consumption tests for each recipe, and (iii) characterization of eco-design actions considering the diet specificity. The outcome of this study provides interesting insights in the development of sustainable products for different markets as well as the definition of dedicated eco-design initiatives.

Keywords: Cooking appliances , Ecodesign , Food habits , Product development , Sustainability

Eco-design is the integration of environmental considerations within product design and development. Eco-design represents an important innovation driver for companies; however, well-known barriers limit the diffusion of this design paradigm in the industrial world. Amongst these, lack of eco-knowledge is correlated to the adopted eco-design teaching methods. Previous experience has highlighted that traditional teaching methods such as university lectures or refresher courses are not an effective means for disseminating eco-design knowledge in the industrial world. In this context, the present paper proposes a novel eco-design teaching method based on a transformative strategy for promoting eco-design and facilitating the learning process. This approach, tested in collaboration with an Italian manufacturing firm, is considered the first attempt to implement a repeatable eco-design teaching approach that can be scaled up in different industrial contexts. Several company departments, including management, marketing and commercial affairs, design and engineering, and a testing laboratory were involved in the training program. Technical results show that company employees were able to autonomously implement re-design solutions and improve the environmental performance of a coffee machine upon completion of the course. The quantitative evaluation of formative outcomes through assessment before and after the course highlights a significant increase in the awareness of personnel and knowledge relating to eco-design.

Keywords: Eco-design , Eco-knowledge , Life cycle assessment , Product portfolio , Teaching

Aviation strives today to include environmental and social considerations as drivers for decision making in design. This paper proposes a serious game to raise awareness of the value and cost implications of being 'sustainability compliant' when developing aerospace sub-systems and components. After describing the development of the game, from needfinding to prototyping and testing, the paper discusses the results from verification activities with practitioners, revealing the ability of the game to raise sustainability awareness and support negotiation across disciplinary boundaries in design.

Keywords: critical materials , decision making , risk management , serious game , sustainability

The transition towards more sustainable practices is one of the main challenges that companies and organizations are currently facing. The use of serious games and gamification has shown to be effective in creating awareness and support learning in many contexts, including sustainability education of practitioners and future ones. We performed a systematic mapping of the use of games on sustainability for companies and organizations. The results show current trends and voids in research concerning a series of categories and provide insights on possible future directions in this area.

Keywords: Gamification , Human behaviour , Sustainability , Sustainable design

Although the increasing use of automation in industry, manual assembly stations are still common and, in some situations, even inevitable. Current practice in manual assembly lines is to balance them using the takt-time of each workstation and harmonize it. However, this approach mostly does not include ergonomic aspects and thus it may lead to workforce musculoskeletal disorders, extended leaves, and demotivation. This paper presents a holistic human-centric optimization method for line balancing using a novel indicator the ErgoTakt. ErgoTakt improves the legacy takt-time and helps to find an optimum between the ergonomic evaluation of an assembly station and its balance in time. The authors used a custom version of the ErgoSentinel Software and a Microsoft Kinect depth camera to perform online and real-time ergonomic assessment. An optimization algorithm is developed to find the best-fitting solution by minimizing a function of the ergonomic RULA-value and the cycle time of each assembly workstation with respect to the worker's ability. The paper presents the concept, the system-setup and preliminary evaluation of an assembly scenario. The results demonstrate that the new approach is feasible and able to optimize an entire manual assembly process chain in terms of both, economic aspects of a well-balanced production line as well as the ergonomic issue of long term human healthy work.

Keywords: Assembly digitalization , Ergonomic assessment , Line balancing

A change in the current waste management practices is needed to improve the reuse and recycling rates and limit the increasing environmental impacts (EI) on the environment. The construction sector is one of the major contributors to the global EI, regarding energy consumption, emissions released into the atmosphere and extracted natural resources. In this context, the reuse of waste and scraps from other sectors/production chains (i.e. fibers from end of life tires – ELT) in road pavements potentially represents a best practice. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) among three different typologies of hot mix asphalt mixtures (HMA): standard, cellulose-reinforced and ELT fiber-reinforced. The study focuses on the environmental analysis of the realization and maintenance of 1 m2 of HMA mixtures for a motorway road, during a time lapse of 30 years. The life cycle inventory includes primary data, collected from different industrial companies and from laboratory test, secondary data, derived from the GaBi professional database 2016. The service lives of the different typologies of HMA have been evaluated through a laboratory study and a full-scale application in a trial section located in an important Italian motorway. The porous asphalt mixture containing ELT fibers showed about 70% increase in the fatigue resistance with respect to the porous asphalt mixture containing cellulose fibers. The environmental impacts have been quantified in terms of Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), Global Warming Potential (GWP), and ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint indicators. The obtained results show that raw materials (particularly bitumen) are the most impactful flows for all the three considered mixtures and for all the impact categories. Also the transportation phases contribute with relevant impacts, while energy flows consumed during the HMA preparation and laying are almost negligible. Considering the CED, GWP and ReCiPe endpoint indicators, the ELT fiber-reinforced HMA resulted the best alternative (reduction of 25% in comparison with the standard HMA), followed by the cellulose-reinforced HMA (−10%), thanks to the higher service life. For some ReCiPe midpoint categories (Agricultural land occupation, Freshwater ecotoxicity, Freshwater eutrophication, Marine eutrophication and Terrestrial ecotoxicity), instead, the worst scenario is the cellulose HMA, due to the high contribution of the cellulose material.

Keywords: Cellulose fiber , End-of-life tires fiber , Hot mix asphalt mixtures , Life cycle assessment

In the recent years, many methodologies and tools to support the energy efficiency re-design of production systems have been developed, however, they do not investigate the real-time manufacturing process. In this paper, a methodology for energy efficiency re-design of production systems in a context of smart manufacturing is proposed. The continuous production-machine data collection with operator feedbacks enables the creation of a knowledge-based repository that provides useful support during the design of manufacturing systems. A case study in an automotive sector company has allowed to implement the methodology and to assess its effectiveness.

Keywords: Energy efficiency design , knowledge management , manufacturing systems , smart manufacturing

Nowadays, climate change requires companies to reduce their energy consumption and make their production systems more efficient. However, the complexity of the methodologies, the lack of transparency or high efforts (personnel/time) make this challenge especially difficult for SMEs. In this context, the present paper proposes a workflow to supports SMEs in a lean energy analysis. Through the implementation of several methodologies, a comprehensive assessment of energy consumption was carried out. The application to a real case study allowed to identify energy inefficiencies and to evaluate the energy saving and performance improvement actions.

Keywords: Energy efficiency assessment , Lean analysis , Manufacturing systems , SME

A comparative life cycle assessment analysis among pressure bag molding and bag molding with autoclave for the manufacturing of car components in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) was carried out. Four scenarios were analyzed: i) autoclave bag molding with aluminum mold, ii) autoclave bag molding with CFRP mold and plastic master, iii) autoclave bag molding with CFRP mold and medium density fiberboard master, and iv) pressure bag molding with aluminum mold. The collected data for life cycle inventory derives from an Italian manufacturer of CFRP car components, scientific references and Ecoinvent database. Cumulative energy demand, global warming potential, ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint methods were used as impact and damage categories for quantifying the environmental impacts of the different manufacturing processes investigated. The results showed that the pre-impregnated composite fibers with thermoset polymer matrix, used as input material for the four investigated scenarios, represents the main source of total environmental impact, due to the use of polyacrylonitrile as a precursor for carbon fibers. The comparison among the environmental assessments of the different scenarios demonstrated that the most impacting process is the autoclave bag molding with composite mold and polyurethane master, whilst the most sustainable process is the autoclave bag molding with aluminum mold.

Keywords: Autoclave process , Carbon fiber reinforced plastics , Life cycle assessment , Pressure bag molding

This study investigates the possibility to reuse finished leather scraps, produced by the leather goods industry during the cutting phase, for the preparation of innovative panels for thermal-noise building insulation. Experimental panels were prepared by chipping the leather cuttings, using polyvinylacetate binder, and pressing the paste in a mold through a mechanical press. Boards were tested for thermal and acoustic performance, thermal stability, hygrothermal, wettability and ignitability properties. Acoustic measurements by means of a Kundt's tube, and thermal characterization by means of a small hot–box system were performed. The measured thermal conductivity was 0.104 W/(mK) and 0.108 W/(mK) for the 45 °C and 50 °C set-up hot temperatures, respectively. Concerning the acoustic performance, two panels with thickness of 18-mm and 28-mm were produced: they were characterized by a noise reduction coefficient of 0.46 and 0.20 and transmission loss values in the range of 25–33 dB and 25–42 dB, respectively. Results revealed that the leather cutting waste panels were characterized by interesting thermal and acoustic performance, which are of the same order of magnitude of other residual-based insulation panels. The other analyzed properties confirmed the potential application in building insulation.

Keywords: Acoustic characterization , Building insulating systems , Leather cutting waste , Thermal conductivity measurements , Thermal stability

Leather material is used in different industrial sectors that generate high quantities of wastes, especially during the cutting phase. This study aims to propose a reuse path for leather scraps focused on the production of an insulation panel. The technical feasibility evaluation demonstrated that the innovative material has acceptable performance to be applied as thermal insulation for building. The preliminary life cycle assessment study compared the environmental performance of the innovative panel against a polyurethane panel. Results demonstrated benefits in some impact and damage categories (-36% in terms of climate change and -15% in terms of ReCiPe single score).

Keywords: Circular economy , Leather scraps , Life cycle assessment , Thermo-acoustic insulation