Understanding the transition from eco-design to Sustainable Design 
a workshop prepared by the Ecodesign SIG

 

Chairs:

• Sophie Hallstedt, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola (BTH)
• Daniela Pigosso, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
• Tim C. McAloone, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

 

The purpose with this workshop was to introduce the socio-ecological sustainability perspective in design and how to bring sustainability in the early design phases. A workshop method was presented and tested with a group of 35-40 participants. The purpose with the method was to support multi-disciplinary teams in sustainable product development. 

 

The workshop method aims to map the sustainability challenges and opportunities of a concept at an overarching level, utilizing backcasting from sustainability principles in three steps: create vision, assess current state, derive strategies.

 

The method was later applied in industrial cases later on and presented in a paper during Design 2018: Schulte, J. and Hallstedt, S., (2018) Workshop method for early sustainable product development. International Design Conference - Design 2018 Dubrovnik - Croatia, May 21-24, 2018.