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Introduction As the world begins to grapple with numerous sustainability challenges such as zero waste, de-materialisation, sustainable consumption, zero emissions, a fair society etc., it is essential that product design students are educated on key sustainable concepts. In industry product designers are embedding sustainable values and processes within their everyday design practice when developing new products and services. At Nottingham Trent University (NTU) the Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) project (funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund) is working to support local businesses within the Greater Nottingham area to help improve their environmental performance across four key areas: People, Products, Processes and Premises. We present a case study whereby 1st year BSc Product Design students at NTU act as design consultants during a focussed “Sustainability Week” to support local enterprise in the design of new sustainable product solutions. Methods During Sustainability Week, teams of BSc Product Design students undertook a project alongside a Nottingham, UK, based chocolate shop and bakery by reviewing their existing product line and packaging solutions. Students selected an existing packaging solution and redesigned it to become a more sustainable and carbon neutral. Students learnt through discovery, experience, experimentation, research, practical doing, and other forms of experiential learning. Feedback was collected from students at the end of sustainability week via a questionnaire to gain insight into their learning experience. Results The development of Sustainability Week has resulted in improved student knowledge on sustainable product development. Delivered sessions promoted knowledge acquisition, skills development, and improved attitudes towards global issues. Having attended Sustainability Week, >80% of the student cohort suggested that this helped them improve their understanding of sustainable concepts within product design. Students demonstrated through their project outputs and vocational taught sessions improved knowledge on, life cycle assessment, methods of communicating sustainable product solutions through design sketching, an understanding of calculating a products carbon footprint, a basic understanding of designing for longevity and an improved knowledge on sustainable design considerations and material selection using materials databases. Discussion/Conclusion Based on the trial of Sustainability Week, the success and positive feedback from students has resulted in this intense week of sustainability learning now been fully integrated into the BSc Product Design curriculum, with further improvements planned to enhance Sustainability Week in the future. The implementation of sustainability week to the BSc Product Design curriculum will contribute to shaping new sustainability-conscious product designers and professionals who have insight into the sustainable product development whilst being equipped with dedicated tools/learnings that will enhance their professional expertise.

In an ever-increasing digital environment, the need for successful utilisation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within energy efficiency interventions is never more prominent. The use of ICT can aid the digitalisation of actions, improve information access to users, increase user awareness and harness potential energy savings. However, with the increased push to utilise ICT within energy efficiency interventions, we often focus on the technological benefits and potential energy savings rather than listening to the end-user’s needs. As such many ICT-based energy efficiency interventions fail to produce the impact expected, often resulting from user disengagement, a complex array of competing demands on target users and misaligned perceptions of end-user’s willingness and understanding. Co-design methodologies allow for the end-user to become part of designing a successful solution which takes into consideration the context in which the ICT-based intervention is being implemented. This paper presents findings from an EU H2020 funded project, eTEACHER, which aimed to empower energy end-users in achieving energy savings and improved health and comfort conditions in a range of building typologies by enabling behaviour change via a set of ICT solutions, including an app and website sharing building-specific data. The paper presents novel results of co-design workshops held across 12 pilot buildings in three European countries, covering several residential and non-residential building typologies, and with various target end-user groups. The paper presents the requirements for energy efficiency ICT-based interventions from the ground up, highlighting the complexities behind user preferences. This paper discusses the challenges involved with designing one tool which fits across diverse building and user typologies and provides reflections on lessons learnt in empowering end-users towards energy efficiency in an ever-increasing digital reality.