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Green supply chain management (GSCM) has a necessary goal of performing a firm’s social and environmental responsibilities, and SMEs employ GSCM practices with constrained resources. SMEs need to determine which areas they need to concentrate their limited resources to result in positively noticeable economic outcomes. This study aims to identify what GSCM practices would influence economic and business profitability for first-tier suppliers in the electronics industry. Specifically, this examines whether internal environmental management (IEM), green purchasing (GP), cooperation with customers (CC), and eco-design (ECO) have a role in enhancing an organization’s economic performance (ECP) and business performance (BP). Survey data from 193 South Korean electronics firms were collected to test the proposed model. The survey responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the present study showed that IEM, CC, and ECO of the responding SMEs had direct positive influences on ECP. Moreover, economic performance has a statistically significant influence on BP. However, GP did not show a significant relationship with ECP. This study investigated first-tier suppliers within the electronics industry and identified what GSCM practices would be important in improving the performances of SME manufacturing companies.

Different studies in the scientific literature have shown how the transition towards a circular economy (CE) can benefit from product design, although maintaining a rather broad and qualitative perspective of analysis. This study investigates and compares which product design strategies (from routinely design, structural optimization, industrial design and systematic innovation) are most used by students and professional designers to implement different CE strategies (i.e., waste reduction, reuse, remanufacturing, recycling and biodegradability). Students’ data were collected from year projects and MSc degree theses based on real industrial case studies and carried out in two Italian engineering universities, while those of professional designers, were collected from selected scientific articles. Among the main outcomes emerged that the design strategies deriving from systematic innovation were preferred by students quite clearly. The design strategies referred to industrial design, e.g., user-centered design and timeless design were preferred by professional designers. The design strategies related to routine design, i.e., materials substitution, reducing resources and energy consumption, and structural optimization, were indistinctly used by both students and professional designers. The obtained results and their discussion can be useful during eco-design teaching to show the main gaps that students should fill in comparison with professional designers.

The influence of government policies on the selection of recycling channels has been widely discussed, but there are few studies from the perspective of product Eco-design. This paper examines the recycling channel options for a manufacturer applying Eco-design under government environmental regulation. We consider a system that includes a retailer, a manufacturer, and a government, and develop a three-stage Stackelberg game model. The government firstly decides whether to impose environmental regulations. Next, the manufacturer decides whether to recycle by himself or delegate the recycling task to the retailer, deciding both the wholesale price of the product and the collected price (recycled by the manufacturer) or the recycling compensation to the retailer (recycled by the retailer), and the retailer decides the retail price of new products and the collection price (recycled by the retailer). Our study finds that for the regulator, the optimal policy is not to implement environmental regulation because the manufacturer has implemented the product Eco-design. For the manufacturer, the choice of recycling channel depends on the recycling cost of the manufacturer and the retailer. When the manufacturer’s recycling cost is below a certain threshold, he will prefer to recycle the waste products by himself, and when the cost increases beyond this threshold, the manufacturer will transfer the recycling task to the retailer.

This paper explores how design in the public realm can integrate city data to help disseminate the information embedded within it and provide urban opportunities for knowledge exchange. The hypothesis is that such art and design practices in public spaces, as places of knowledge exchange, may enable more sustainable communities and cities through the visualization of data. To achieve this, we developed a methodology to compare various design approaches for integrating three main elements in public-space design projects: city data, specific issues of sustainability, and varying methods for activating the data. To test this methodology, we applied it to a pedogeological project where students were required to render city data visible. We analyze the proposals presented by the young designers to understand their approaches to design, data, and education. We study how they “educate” and “dialogue” with the community about sustainable issues. Specifically, the research attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How can we use data in the design of public spaces as a means for sustainability knowledge exchange in the city? (2) How can community-based design contribute to innovative data collection and dissemination for advancing sustainability in the city? (3) What are the overlaps between the projects’ intended impacts and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Our findings suggest that there is a need for such creative practices, as they make information available to the community, using unconventional methods. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand the short- and long-term outcomes of these works in the public realm.

Face masks are currently considered key equipment to protect people against the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for such devices is considerable, as is the amount of plastic waste generated after their use (approximately 1.6 million tons/day since the outbreak). Even if the sanitary emergency must have the maximum priority, environmental concerns require investigation to find possible mitigation solutions. The aim of this work is to develop an eco-design actions guide that supports the design of dedicated masks, in a manner to reduce the negative impacts of these devices on the environment during the pandemic period. Toward this aim, an environmental assessment based on life cycle assessment and circularity assessment (material circularity indicator) of different types of masks have been carried out on (i) a 3D-printed mask with changeable filters, (ii) a surgical mask, (iii) an FFP2 mask with valve, (iv) an FFP2 mask without valve, and (v) a washable mask. Results highlight how reusable masks (i.e., 3D-printed masks and washable masks) are the most sustainable from a life cycle perspective, drastically reducing the environmental impacts in all categories. The outcomes of the analysis provide a framework to derive a set of eco-design guidelines which have been used to design a new device that couples protection requirements against the virus and environmental sustainability.

To date, many studies have been carried out to develop new approaches and methods to eco-design products. However, these have not been implemented and adopted by industry as much as they should. A better understanding of real-world industrial eco-design and development processes, and the eco-design tools applied during these, could inform the development of more effective and applicable eco-design methods and tools, for generic as well as for specific product categories (e.g., LED lighting products). This paper addresses this issue by describing and examining a real-world process followed to design and develop a LED lighting product by a lighting manufacturer, via case study research. The case study involved direct participatory observation to gather the data and provided new insights about the stages of the design and development process, as well as the tools applied, which were examined and discussed to inform the improvement of existing methods and tools, or the development of better new methods and tools.

The number of consumers with green awareness have grown these days and as a result they have turned to purchase eco-friendly products. For this reason, this study aims to propose a method for eco-design based on the anticipatory failure determination method to develop eco-design products. By using eco-design concepts adopted from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the process will limit the failures and issues related to environmental impact in product design. The proposed method for eco-design product in this study follows the following procedure. First, we analyze product failure. Second, we propose the determination of the non-green phenomenon of the failure. Thirdly, we integrate the intensified non-green phenomenon to generate non-green hypotheses and fourthly, we eliminate each non-green phenomenon hypothesis by introducing the contradiction matrix of TRIZ for obtaining solutions. Finally, we assess alternative eco-design solutions by evaluation. To verify the practicality of the new procedure, a washing machine is used as an example for illustration.

Experience and evaluation research on sustainable products’ design is increasingly supported by eye-tracking tools. In particular, many studies have investigated the effect of gazing at or fixating on Areas of Interest on products’ evaluations, and in a number of cases, they have inferred the critical graphical elements leading to the preference of sustainable products. This paper is motivated by the lack of generalizability of the results of these studies, which have predominantly targeted specific products and Areas of Interest. In addition, it has also been overlooked that the observation of some Areas of Interest, despite not specifically targeting sustainable aspects, can lead consumers to prefer or appreciate sustainable products in any case. Furthermore, it has to be noted that sustainable products can be recognized based on their design (shape, material, lack of waste generated) and/or, more diffusedly, information clearly delivered on packaging and in advertising. With reference to the latter, this paper collected and classified Areas of Interest dealt with in past studies, markedly in eco-design and green consumption, and characterized by their potential generalizability. Specifically, the identified classes of Areas of Interest are not peculiar to specific products or economic sectors. These classes were further distinguished into “Content”, i.e., the quality aspect they intend to highlight, and “Form”, i.e., the graphical element used as a form of communication. This framework of Areas of Interest is the major contribution of the paper. Such a framework is needed to study regularities across multiple product categories in terms of how the observation of Areas of Interest leads to product appreciation and value perception. In addition, the potential significant differences between sustainable and commonplace products can be better investigated.

Mobile health (mHealth) innovations are considered by governments as game changers toward more sustainable health systems. The existing literature focuses on the clinical aspects of mHealth but lacks an integrated framework on its sustainability. The foundational idea for this paper is to include disciplinary complementarities into a multi-dimensional vision to evaluate the non-clinical aspects of mHealth innovations. We performed a targeted literature review to find how the sustainability of mHealth innovations was appraised in each discipline. We found that each discipline considers a different outcome of interest and adopts different time horizons and perspectives for the evaluation. This article reflects on how the sustainability of mHealth innovation can be assessed at both the level of the device itself as well as the level of the health system. We identify some of the challenges ahead of researchers working on mobile health innovations in contributing to shaping a more sustainable health system.

This research was an empirical effort to uncover the influence of eco-design of airport buildings on customer approach responses and behaviors. A survey methodology with empirical data analysis was used to attain the research purpose. Our findings revealed that eco-design contributes to enhancing airport reputation and airport customers&rsquo, subjective well-being. In addition, eco-design, reputation, and well-being directly/indirectly increase customer approach intentions. Our result also indicated that the association between eco-design and airport reputation is under the significant influence of biospheric value. Moreover, airport reputation and subjective well-being mediated the effect of eco-design on intentions. The comparative importance of airport reputation in determining approach intentions was identified. Overall, the proposed theoretical framework satisfactorily accounted for approach intentions. Given the lack of knowledge about eco-design in the airport literature, this research help boosts airport researchers&rsquo, and practitioners&rsquo, understanding of the role of eco-design and its criticality in explicating approach formation and behaviors.

Product design and development are key to moving towards a circular economy, however, the majority of products and components that are currently recirculated have not been designed for circulation of any sort. Circular economy business models and closing the loop can be functional only if the products and services are designed for circularity. This paper presents a set of generic design guidelines for different circular strategies. The guidelines are then used to map companies&rsquo, circular product design initiatives in the early stages of product design and development. The guidelines have proved to support decision-making and enhance the circularity of products. The guidelines were developed, validated, and tested at four companies within the Nordic countries through an action research approach. Sourcing raw materials, recycling, and ensuring the robustness of products for the use phase are the most common strategies used by the studied companies. There is an ongoing transition towards other recirculation strategies, such as repair, remanufacture, and reuse.

To battle climate change, the search for sustainable solutions and the reduction of environmental impacts are activities that must be pursued in all areas of human life. This study aimed to conduct a Life Cycle Evaluation of the environmental aspects and potential benefits associated with two different innovative adaptations to a sauna bath. The first adaptation is related to the selection of wooden materials for the bath&rsquo, s interior construction, the second is related to the source of thermal energy. For the selection of wooden materials, experiments were performed to evaluate a graphene coating and its capacity to increase the durability of wooden materials. For the thermal energy source, a solar air heater was experimentally assessed to confirm its capacity to supply the thermal energy required to operate the sauna bath. Finally, the material selection and the heating operation were integrated in a Life Cycle Impact Assessment, contrasting two scenarios: &ldquo, business as usual sauna bath&rdquo, and &ldquo, sustainable sauna bath.&rdquo, The findings showed a significant reduction of around 61% of total emissions from the application of a solar air heater and wooden materials treated with a graphene coating. At the end of this study, &ldquo, human well-being,&rdquo, &ldquo, ecosystems,&rdquo, resources&rdquo, were expressed in monetary values to assess the impact of the above practices in a sauna bath.

Previous studies have failed to provide a comprehensive view on the value perception of green products. The present research takes up this challenge through an experiment in which 43 participants have interacted with and evaluated 40 products&mdash, 20 baseline products and 20 green products of the same categories. The experiment included both self-assessments to monitor conscious evaluations of the products and biometric measurements (Eye-Tracking and Galvanic Skin Response) to capture unconscious aspects. The results show that different forms of perceived value emerge clearly. Green products, for which participants required greater efforts in the search for relevant information, boost the value attributed to creative solutions still believed of high quality. This effect is significantly more evident for participants showing remarkable interest for sustainability issues. Conversely, alternative products feature greater value perception because they are acknowledged to be functional and reliable.

Industrial areas are set up on plots of roads and associated infrastructure. These use materials and machinery that have environmental impacts, and thus require constructive solutions throughout their lifecycles. In turn, these solutions and their components cause environmental impacts that can be measured by sustainability indicators. The concept of sustainability is closely tied to sustainable development, which is defined as &ldquo, development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs&rdquo, The large number of possible and available solutions means that identifying the best one for a given road section must employ a set of heuristic techniques, which conceptualize the issue as a combinatorial optimization problem that is purely discrete and non-differential. The system chosen can be based on a genetic algorithm method that differentiates individuals based on three sustainability indicators: CO2 emissions, embedded energy (also known as embodied energy, defined as the energy expended to manufacture a product), and economic cost. In this paper, we supplement traditional cost analyses using a three-objective multi-objective genetic algorithm that considers the aforementioned criteria, thus addressing sustainability in aggregate planning. The procedure is applied to three objective functions&mdash, CO2 emissions, economic cost and embedded energy&mdash, for each possible solution. We used the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to implement multi-objective optimization in MATLAB. Additional results for a random walk and multi-objective search algorithm are shown. This study involved 26 design variables, with different ranks of variation, and the application of the algorithm generates results for the defined Pareto fronts. Our method shows that the optimal approach effectively solves a real-world multi-objective project planning problem, as our solution is one of the Pareto-optimal solutions generated by the NSGA-II.

International audience; Immortal products are updated and upgraded to go from application to application and, in so doing, to extend their life as long as possible. Designing such products is the key to a sustainable society from the circular economy perspective. It is a new way of designing that must be supported by engineering tools to be deployed in companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) included. The implementation of circular loops and the associated industrial systems are very dependent on the contexts and life scenarios of the products. Thus, depending on the products to be re-circulated, the processes controlled, and the actors involved, the requirements to be reported at design level are very diverse. This paper proposes a new design method based on lifecycle scenarios to be analyzed and designed. Supported by classical engineering tools that has been adapted for circular economy (CE) context, the lifecycle model enables simultaneous design of businesses, products and services and the evaluation of their environmental values. Three industrial design cases showing the application of engineering tools for implementation of CE lifecycle scenarios are presented.

Lighting products are essential for our modern life nowadays, but they also produce high negative impacts on the environment. Although there are tools and methods available for reducing the environmental impact of lighting products, it is a challenging task to integrate them throughout the product development process. To overcome the challenge, this research developed an approach to integrate tools/methods relevant for the eco-design through product development process to reduce the environmental impact of lighting products. Six types of methods, such module design, and 30 tools, such as lifecycle assessment software packages, are considered in the integrated approach. The product specification with eco-constrains is established for implementation at each design stage to ensure the product eco-features. The approach was applied in the development of an LED table lamp which was then assessed in comparison with a benchmark LED lamp regarding environmental lifecycle impact and lighting performance. The comparative assessment results indicate that the LED lamp developed with this approach is much better than the benchmark lamp.

This paper mainly aims at investigating the governments&rsquo, take-back policy of penalty or subsidy that motivates eco-design or remanufacturing. For this purpose, we consider a two-stage Stackelberg game between a government and a manufacturer. The government first decides to impose a take-back penalty or offer a take-back subsidy, and then the manufacturer selects to remanufacture or invest in eco-design as a response to the take-back policy. Upon analyzing and comparing game equilibrium, we find that the government prefers to offer a subsidy policy for eco-design and to impose a penalty policy for remanufacturing. The manufacturer will decide on investing in eco-design when the monetary value of the environmental impact of landfill and eco-design coefficient is medium. However, if the eco-design coefficient is high, the manufacturer practices remanufacturing instead of eco-design whether penalized and subsidized. The present study provides a set of guidelines in practical managerial recommendations for governments and manufacturers.

With the increasing awareness of sustainability, eco-design has been an important trend in the fashion industry. Many fashion brands such as Nike, Adidas, and The North Face have developed sustainable fashion by incorporating eco-design elements. Eco-design is an important part of sustainable supply chains. In this paper, we conducted a product line analysis of eco-designed products from a famous outdoor sportswear brand, Patagonia. We collected Patagonia’s 2017 Spring Season product line data and analyzed the data through descriptive analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis. We found that Patagonia mainly uses organic, recycled, and traceable materials in their eco-product line development. We identified that the usage of eco-materials may significantly affect the number of color choices and product weight as well as gender difference, pattern design, product fit and online reviewers’ opinions at Patagonia. We argued that Patagonia should focus on functionality more than aesthetics in eco-design. We discussed how sustainable fashion firms should manage eco-design in the supply chain.