Abstract
Environmental quality is an increasingly discussed topic, being a global and urgent issue. Among the environmental problems, it is highlighted in this study the great generation of solid waste, especially associated with the footwear production, which is an important sector of the Brazilian economy. In this context, design is considered a potential tool to minimize the negative environmental impacts of this sector. Thus, this research aims to analyze the development and production of shoes from the sustainable design perspective to reduce the leather waste generation. Thus, a case study in a footwear company situated in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul is presented. Data was collected from in loco visit, observation and interviews. Subsequently a content analysis relating the collected data and the theoretical framework is presented. Results demonstrate that the application of concepts and strategies from sustainable design in the development and production of footwear, in the studied company, generated satisfactory results in terms of minimizing leather waste without losing competitiveness. Keywords: design, sustainability, solid waste, footwear development.
Highlights
The footwear industry is an important pillar of the Brazilian economy (Abicalçados, 2015)
It is known that environmental impacts are inherent to the footwear production, those impacts associated with the generation of high toxicity solid waste (Alves and Barbosa, 2013), which culminates in relevant environmental risks (Yabroudia et al, 2013; Bouzayani et al, 2014; Vrijheid, 2000)
The present study aims to analyze the development and production of children’s shoes in a Rio Grande do Sul industry from the perspective of design for sustainability for the reduction of leather waste generation
Summary
The footwear industry is an important pillar of the Brazilian economy (Abicalçados, 2015). [...] It links innovation, technology, research, business, and customers to provide new value and competitive advantage across economic, social, and environmental sphere Based upon this premise, the present study aims to analyze the development and production of children’s shoes in a Rio Grande do Sul industry from the perspective of design for sustainability for the reduction of leather waste generation. As a practical example of the sustainable design application in the development of footwear, it is presented the case of children’s shoes production in a large footwear company (production of 15 thousand pairs per day) situated in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil At this company, the development process is conducted based on traditional factors such as trends and season, but is considered a different factor: the volume of waste (leather scraps) generated in the prior collection production. In three weeks of production, 21 Kg of leather were reused only in one of two plants of the analyzed company
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