DESIGN PRODUCT CONCEPT AND ENGINEERING

SCORE! – Sustainable Consumption Research Exchanges

2005-2008

Coordinator of the design area for the international research, funded by the European Union, 6° Framework program.

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is key policy priority world-wide. In our view, sustainable consumption and production structures can only be realized if experts that understand business development, (sustainable) solution design, consumer behavior and effectiveness of (policy) instruments work together in shaping them. Furthermore, this should be linked with the experiences of actors (industry, consumer groups, ecolabelling organizations) in real-life consumption areas.

Since in the EU a network with these characteristics is absent, this project sets up a Co-ordination action on SCP, emphasizing “user awareness” for sustainable consumption, involving key expertise covering all relevant steps of the value chain in the priority consumption domain s Mobility, Agro-Food, and Energy/electronics. These domains contribute to over 70% of the life cycle impacts of household consumption, are a priority in the EU's Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), and give good examples of user awareness schemes (e.g. labeling).

The CA is organized around a series of Workshops and Conferences. The first workshop will provide a general exchange of views. The second phase of the project gives sustainable consumption cases in the domains center stage. These are used as vehicles for a positive confrontation of insights from different science fields, leading to true best practice generation, suggestions for implementation of user awareness approaches, research programming, and development of conceptual insights. The science and consumption domains are covered by 8 WP leaders and 21 Participants and will involve a much larger community of SCP experts from industry, government, and science. A close liaison with UNEP, promoting a 10 Year Framework of Programs on SCP will be organized. Finally, the CA should have to build a permanent, self-supporting research network in this field.

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MEPPS. Product Service Systems Methodology – Development of a toolkit for industry.

2001-2004

Coordination of the design area for the international research, coordinated by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), funded by the European Union, 5° Framework program.

The aim of this project was to develop an integrated methodology for the design of sustainable Product Service Systems (PSS), starting from three main thematic areas:

– PSS design (scenario development and sustainable PSS design)

– Assessment of environmental impacts (impact on micro, meso, and macro level)

– Success and failure factors (consumer acceptance, culture, and ethics)

These diverse approaches are converged in a unique methodology. The application of a common language as well as the definition of an ideal design process was crucial.

MEPSS is part of the Competitive and Sustainable Growth Programme of the Fifth Framework Programme, coordinated by PricewaterhouseCoopers N.V. with eight partners and 14 subcontractors.

The dimension of this project is strictly necessary, as its strength lies in its multidisciplinarity. This allows the chance to achieve one of the principle aims of the research: the development of an integrated methodology and theory on PSS.

Every scientific group of the project will provide its contribution to the development of this integrated methodology. At the same time, all of the results will be tested by an internal peer group and applied to pilot projects by other industrial partners (part of a larger group of participants who are coordinated through MEPSS).

The project proved promising because of its approach and because of the concreteness of the expected results, which were possible thanks to the direct application of the results and to the test of the set of tools and methods through pilot projects. All of the project participants agreed that the complexity of the problems raised from environmental degradation can be faced only through a complex approach made up of many different contributions. Communication among diverse disciplines is only possible through a common language and the overcoming of diverging purposes (industrial and private needs vs. social and public problems).

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The most important research projects are the following: (1998-2000) national coordination of the EU funded research Strategies towards the Sustainable Household; (2001-2004) coordination of design research area of the EU funded research, MEPSS. Product Service Systems Methodology – Development of a toolkit for industry; (2005-2008) coordination of the design research area the EU funded research SCORE! Sustainable Consumption Research Exchanges; (2007-2010) coordination of the EU funded research (Asia Link project) LeNS. The Learning Network on Sustainability. Network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability focused on Product-Service System; (2011-2013) national coordination of the EU funded research, TANGO-Towards a new Intergenerational Openness; (2012-2014) national coordination of the EU funded research Sustainability maker; (2013-2016) coordination of the EU funded research (EduLink program) LeNSes.

The Learning Network on Sustainable energy systems. Multi-polar and open network for curricula and lifelong learning capacity development focused on locally based Sustainable Energy System Design and Engineering; (2013-2016) coordination of the EU funded research (Erasums+ program) LeNSin. The international Learning Network of networks on Sustainability. A Multi-polar and open network for curricula and capacity development focused on design for sustainability and focused on Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) applied to Distributed Economies (DE).

Among the consultancies done, some examples are the following: NECTA vending (vending machine), Dandy Line (electric beds), Illy coffee, GIFCO (professional associations of corrugated cardboard producers), Federlegno (professional associations of furniture producers), Caremi (furniture), Soliani (furniture), Fumagalli (building components), Kone (elevators), Tetra Pak (packaging), Artemide (lightening), General Beverage (vending machine), ASM Brescia company (waste treatment), Kone company (elevators), Tetra Pak (beverage packaging), Area Tortona lab (exhibitions/events promoter) and Bonaveri (mannequins).

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