Abstract
In the past decades, industrial design practice and research have focused extensively on how to optimize production and consumption, as a way to prevent negative environmental impacts, such as resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Recently, the “circular economy” concept is increasingly used to achieve environmental benefits and economic growth simultaneously. Industrial design can contribute to a circular economy by fostering systems changes to achieve durability, optimal reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling of products and materials. Indeed, researchers have examined both the theoretical and practical aspects of how design knowledge can support the transition to a circular economy. However, this body of knowledge has not been systematically analyzed yet. To address this critical gap, this paper poses the following question: How has industrial design research so far contributed to advancing the circular economy knowledge? Accordingly, we survey relevant design literature focusing on the circular economy, through a review of contributions published in 42 scientific journals. Based on our results, we discuss how industrial design practices can potentially contribute to a circular economy across four thematic areas: (1) design for circular production processes, (2) design for circular consumption, (3) design to support policy towards the circular economy, and (4) design education for the circular economy.
Highlights
Planet Earth cannot sustain the current ways of human development
Lofthouse and Prendeville [41] analyzed the positioning of design within current circular economy studies, noting how they tend to reflect a “dominant positivist paradigm that leads to the treatment of users as passive subjects of innovation” [41], rather than considering how design can foster more participatory innovation processes
In order to address this gap, Mestre and Cooper introduced a conceptual framework in which technical cycles—that is, “technical and/or technological use and transformation of material and energy resources, and their design optimization to the highest possible levels of efficiency” [117]—and biological cycles—that is, “the biological design solutions occurring in by the natural ecosystems, in which materials are cycled in nature over time” [117]—are leveraged to frame circular economy design interventions
Summary
Planet Earth cannot sustain the current ways of human development. The negative side-effects of human activity include climate change, destruction of natural ecosystems, and depletion of critical resources on a global scale, jeopardizing the survival of our species [1]. The concept of sustainable development is inextricably intertwined with the idea of staying within limits This entails slowing down our growth rate, which seems to be in striking contrast with the dominant economic logic [2,3]. In this regard, the concept of the circular economy has recently emerged as a new paradigm for creating the basis for a sustainable society.
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