EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I

Locally oriented design and manufacturing is a critical issue for sustainable development in rural areas. This study proposes the modeling of local product development through multidisciplinary collaboration in Nagara, Japan, as a case study by using design thinking methodology and considering how the proposed model can contribute to a sustainable local society. This study describes the social impact of the role of universities in creating new collaborations in local product development, providing learning opportunities for participating students, and forging new opportunities for residents to participate in the production of regional brands. By modeling the process, this multidisciplinary approach to local product development could be used as a reference for developing unique products in other rural areas and may contribute to sustainable community development.

This research investigates consumers’ perception of two main types of reusable packaging systems: refillable and returnable packaging systems. An online experiment was conducted with Dutch consumers (n = 250) in which attitudinal and behavioural responses to two reusable packaging systems were compared to the responses to disposable packaging. We created three types of packaging (disposable, refillable and returnable) for either food (ketchup) or non-food (shampoo) products. Results showed that consumers evaluate refillable and returnable packaging positively. Three benefits (environmental benefits, anticipated conscience and enjoyment) and three risks (contamination, complexity and performance risks) of reusable packaging are measured in this study. This research contributes to the understanding of consumers’ perception of reusable packaging systems, which can help future designers and companies to design their systems more effectively.

The electricity demand for cooling in the future is projected to increase substantially in humid, tropical Southeast Asia, and the subsequent increased greenhouse gas emissions from the region may hinder global mitigation activities for climate change. We therefore designed advanced energy-efficient houses for Thailand on the basis of techniques used in zero energy houses (ZEHs) in Japan, and we assessed the potential energy savings, as well as other benefits and costs. We estimated that the advanced energy-efficient houses could reduce the annual cooling load of detached houses and townhouses in Chiang Rai and Bangkok by 60–78%. Energy-efficient townhouses also have the benefits of lower cost and higher energy performance. Two webinars were presented in 2020 where professionals working in the Thai housing market participated and discussed the acceptance of such houses. Despite the clear potential to save energy, the participants raised several concerns, including the odor and heat from cooking and the additional construction cost. Lack of experience of living in such a controlled environment and lack of understanding about the cooling effect and importance of dehumidification were identified as problems. At the same time, clean air and health promotion were highlighted as appealing co-benefits. Although knowledge transfer is important, we found that experience transfer will also be important for introducing advanced energy-efficient houses in Thailand.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has forced teachers to teach remotely. However, there are disadvantages in distance teaching. On one hand, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) (Inclusive and Equitable Educational Opportunity) is challenged because the opportunities for distance education in underdeveloped areas are severely restricted; on the other hand, online teaching will lead to the decrease of students’ interest in learning and the increase of learning pressure in the areas where distance education is convenient. For Gen Z college, students who have been exposed to digital games since childhood, gamified teaching can increase their interest in learning and is one of the ways to improve the weaknesses of online teaching. This study explores the framework of gamified teaching for the purpose of cultivating creativity in the basic design courses of design majors. This study adopts the methods of literature analysis and expert interview to construct a preliminary framework of gamification teaching for the purpose of stimulating creativity, supplements, and corrections based on the results of expert interviews. The results show that the framework of gamification teaching can be divided into four parts: (1) interactive story context introduction, elicits the topic by ask; (2) think creatively with game dynamics of positive emotions and relationships; (3) do creative design works with game mechanics of reward, feedback, and status; (4) convenient evaluate works by means of online social network.

In this chapter, we have developed a future design-based policy making card game to introduce the concept of future design to the younger generation. 347 high school students played it and we researched about it. This game was designed with the actual master plan of local government. Thirty policies from that master plan were converted to cards and categorized into four categories. The students played this game twice: first, they played the game as the current generation and, second, they did the same as the imaginary future generation after the explanation of the concept of future design. We analyzed the differences between two processes. In addition, we investigated the players’ mindset about future design.

Co-designing with people from BOP communities is an essential strategy for developing frugal innovations. This chapter presents the development of a solution focused on solving a local agronomic need. The solution is based on traditional and modern knowledge in the central area of Mexico. Traditional knowledge was provided by habitants of the town named San Martín de las Pirámides in the Mexican province of Mexico in Mexico. Modern knowledge was provided by mechatronics students at the National Polytechnic Institute (Mexico). The findings suggest that the development of technological solutions with greater social impact is possible if the links between engineering professionals and rural communities are properly built. Frugality helps avoid the tendency toward “overengineering.”

Ecodesign strategies allow for addressing the economic and environmental impacts of a product. However, at the bottom of the pyramid, design considerations need to include the social sphere for a systemic approach to sustainability. Social entrepreneurs and small enterprises in emerging markets are setting new precedents for innovation. In environments where resources are scarce, they have developed innovative and affordable solutions focused on improving the quality of life of BoP communities. Known as frugal innovation, this approach has the potential to drive sustainable development. It involves using resources wisely to reduce costs without sacrificing value. Research on frugal innovation has made it possible to understand its origins, design criteria lists, and attributes. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the strategies implemented by local entrepreneurs in the BoP. The aim is to highlight the frugal innovation strategies implemented by local innovators under conditions of limited resources. Applying the case study methodology, an exploratory analysis of the development of a water access system in Mexico was carried out. Water scarcity is a major and urgent problem worldwide, particularly in marginalized areas. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and a thematic analysis was carried out. We identified three main strategies: frugality, resource sharing, and integration of the human aspect of innovation. These frugal innovation strategies have the potential to enrich traditional Ecodesign practices. The results can serve as support and a set of tactics for entrepreneurs and academics interested in developing frugal innovation projects for BoP communities.

In times of global warming and other causes challenging our current use of material resources, the issue of sustainability and sustainable development is becoming increasingly important. Society’s demand for responsible resource-saving products is steadily increasing. Meanwhile, there are many approaches to methodologically develop sustainable and innovative products. So far, no concept has been able to establish itself. A key aspect that highlights the problem is that often attempts are made to “rework” rather than develop from scratch. This is where the methodology of radical innovation came in. In the past, it has been shown that incremental approaches are not as effective as radical approaches. In order to face the new challenges of competition, companies have to change their entire product development and innovation process. Thereby, companies have to tackle barriers specific to sustainable innovation such as uncertainties about environmental benefits and market benefits, lack of interest from customers, suppliers or investors and time, skill, money and knowledge shortage.This chapter introduces a new methodological approach to promote product longevity by an integrated model combining radical innovation and design aesthetics, both of which seem promising to increase the sustainability of products. The concept should be applied in the early phase of the innovation process in order to enable a high enough impact of sustainability indicators and to ensure the leverage of the aesthetic influence on the sustainability dimension. To portray the existing approaches for the development of both innovative and sustainable products, the chapter starts with a thorough literature review. For this purpose, design guidelines were collected and assigned as requirements for the new approach. In addition, user-oriented implementation propositions were developed and subsequently assigned to a reference process that considers the early phase of the innovation process. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the possibility of a more comprehensive consideration of the early product development phase that leads to a relevant improvement in product sustainability.

Under environmental constraints, transformation to sustainable manufacturing is indispensable. The backcast way of thinking (BWT) promotes creation of new values based on the environmental constraints. To introduce the BWT widely to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we explicated implicit knowledge of SME innovators who might use similar thinking process to create new products. The developed thinking model framework is ontology engineering method for innovation strategy (OntoIS).

With the increased recognition of the sustainability imperative, many manufacturers have formulated and enforced environmental strategies such as zero waste and zero emissions to minimise their negative impact on our planet. However, the aim of zero impact or ‘no intervention’ is not only challenging (or impossible) for manufacturing organisations, but also too narrow to meaningfully identify operational practices to achieve it. Instead, we can conceptualise ways to operate within the planetary boundaries as a starting point by considering the possibility to generate environmental benefits while delivering goods and services with the minimum requirements to meet human needs. In this paper, such an approach is proposed to help manufacturing organisations adopt the concepts of regeneration and restoration by moving away from ‘doing less bad’—i.e. eliminate or reduce negative impacts—and shifting toward ‘doing more good’—i.e. create benefits or positive impacts.

There is an increasing demand for low-cost innovations in the context of developed nations and their societies and economies. Considerable attention is now being given to creating frugally engineered innovations that successfully diffuse from developing nations into developed nations. However, despite its potential, only limited knowledge and understanding of this approach—commonly referred to as reverse innovation—are available. Further academic studies are necessary to advance insight into and understanding of reverse innovation. In this chapter, a study is presented which aims to reveal the potential of reverse innovation to support sustainable development. This endeavor was successfully conducted by taking a fresh view of the reverse innovation phenomenon in regard to problem identification and formation, context of use exposure, and technological convergence disclosure, using a knowledge-oriented approach. This study deals with actual examples of successful reverse innovation from the automotive industry, information and communication technology, and public healthcare. The approach taken gives insight into some of the potential, which often remains overlooked or undetected. However, in order to translate this insight and understanding into concrete actionable knowledge and into contributions to sustainable development, certain knowledge gaps first need to be closed.

The unsustainable nature of linear production models has instigated the emergence of new, circular industrial systems. In a product-centric approach, reuse and remanufacturing strategies are relatively straightforward but there are still issues when attempting to close material loops via recycling scenarios. Even now, secondary raw materials are scantly used due to difficulties in finding suitable applications or a lack of confidence in their properties and performance. This chapter is inspired by Ashton et al. (Int J Sustain Eng 11(6):420–428, 2018), who used Ashby property charts to identify applications for recycled polymeric multi-materials from toothbrushes. Here, we propose a systematic and generalized method to determine applications for secondary raw materials. It is based on the identification of virgin materials that can be potentially replaced. These materials have similar or inferior properties compared to the secondary raw material and can be visually targeted using Ashby charts as previously proposed. Applications can also be identified using a new analytical software tool applied to a large database. It utilizes an index based on nearness criteria defined by relevant properties to find suitable materials. The database in question contains information on typical applications for these materials. The final assessment is then made to maximize the potential value of a subsequent material substitution. Examples are given from existing and potential material loops. This chapter is aimed at facilitating circular business models, which need innovative methods to turn waste into secondary raw materials.

Digital product passports have been recommended as a tool to improve circularity and sustainability. The European Commission has published a proposal for the regulation of sustainable batteries, proposing a concept of battery passport for each individual battery placed on the market. This paper presents the results of a study defining the data needs of battery value chain actors and how battery passport should address these needs. A literature review was conducted, key battery value chain actors in Finland were interviewed, and a workshop was organised that defined the data requirements. The key matters that need to be settled in the implementation of a battery passport are where the data will be stored, who will have access to the data, how the data will be analysed, and what the key performance indicators are and how they will be calculated..

Climate change and other urgent environmental challenges necessitate system-level solutions and quick actions. The linear business models of taking, making and disposing are not sustainable and further contribute to the systemic changes. Our economy needs to adopt circular principles. Data and digitalization can provide the leap forward for the sustainable next generation circular and sustainable business models and solutions. Based on 29 in-depth stakeholder interviews in the battery value chain, we report practical circular economy (CE) data drivers, needs, and opportunities, and discuss the role of data platforms and their ecosystems as the new means of circular value creation, as well as challenges in large-scale data utilization. The key drivers for extending data use in CE were customer pull for transparency and sustainability, regulation, and compliance, product traceability to manage a sustainable supply chain, and improving product and process sustainability and efficiency. Two shared development topics were identified through the value chain by different stakeholders: side stream management and implementing traceability. Both of these themes require tight collaboration in the ecosystem and through the value chain, and the solutions could be built on data platforms. Overall, based on the findings, the vision and/or know-how for impactful data utilization is yet to be discovered. The role of data, the rules for data use, and the opportunities are still unclear in the field. The current platform initiatives, such as the battery passport, are designed to collect battery data upstream from the user and not include downstream use data collection. We suggest that the market and stakeholders would benefit from use data as a new element. These data would provide benefits for the manufacturers to prolong the product lifecycles, promote safe use and disposal of batteries and enable new business models (lifetime extension, product-as-a-service, recycling). This study proposes the establishment of a battery ecosystem operating on a hybrid platform (supporting innovation and transactions), established around co-creation and based on the Battery Passport data, with low entry barriers for any startups or SMEs, to enable data-driven business.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a vital technology amongst the emerging technologies. It plays a crucial role in maximising resource efficiency, especially in the production and remanufacturing sectors where they can be deployed in different applications to enhance material utilisation, thereby providing environmental benefits alongside the potential to revolutionise vital remanufacturing processes. Most importantly, the inspection and process control applications use AI-based methods in modelling inspection and process control using deep learning, a hierarchical technique for learning abstract concepts from data. For example, the use of deep learning models in the post-cleaning process control involves collecting case-specific samples of images of components and products and using the samples to train a deep convolutional neural network. The model is used to classify dry parts and parts with water clogs for further processing. Besides, the process control activates another subsystem when wet samples are identified from the live image feed.The deep learning-based system for inspection and process control was tested on the torque converter (TC) system casings for process control during the post-cleaning inspection process. The data was collected from Mackie Transmission Limited, a torque converter remanufacturing facility in Glasgow United Kingdom and used to test the developed model. An 80–20% train test split for the training and test samples, respectively, alongside the live video feed sample, confirming the generalisability of the model. The model was trained on an NVIDIA RTX2080 SUPER GPU and was effective in recognising the torque converter system components to an accuracy of 99% when tested on the test samples. The process control application also produced a prediction accuracy of 99.9% on the test set used for the model evaluation. These results outline the feasibility of using digital technologies in enhancing production during remanufacturing. This model can improve remanufacturing inspection by automating the post-cleaning inspection process, improving process efficiency and maximising resources used to achieve remanufacturing, thereby minimising environmental impact.

In Japan, due to increase and rapid replacement of small-sized electronic products, recycling of those electronics is an emerging problem. Since high cost of recycling is a barrier to increase recycling amount, finding an appropriate method of automated recycling is significant. For the purpose, a method to distinguish between high value pieces and low value pieces by image recognition based on CNN is proposed to reduce the cost in recycling process of small-sized electronics. Based on the classification result, this study demonstrates the potential of the proposed machine recognition of ICs in recycling process of small-sized electronics, and it is the first step for fully-automatic recycling.

This research is an experimental design, which concerns translating the practical proposal design and survey results of preference from the general Japanese public towards product label information and ecolabels. Initially, we focus on the most traditional and popular media of product labels which are annexed during their production phase and used during their sales phases. The analysis of the current product label with environmental information permitted developing a conceptual framework about a concrete tool for incentivizing more sustainable consumption. According to the preliminary research, the current daily life product, e.g. clothes, shoes, personal goods and others, their basic media information is the printed labels with limited information.

We present a digital platform (Modelling Factory), which facilitates collaborative design of Circular Economy (CE) solutions from product and process level to strategic design questions. The platform supports integration of arbitrary open source and commercial software-based simulation models and environments. It helps the users to find quantifiable model-based solutions to their CE design tasks. Due to its multi-disciplinary and multi-player nature, CE applications offer an ideal playground for integrated design solution generation methods and their IT support. Various design methods supported will be introduced and examples provided of the possibilities of their integration, ultimately resulting in the capability of finding value-chain and value-network level optimal solutions needed to make circular economy a more lucrative option as compared to our present linear system.

Design for disassembly is an effective strategy to increase the possibilities for repairing, remanufacturing, and recycling, which means to keep products in circulation longer. The furniture industry in Sweden is becoming more and more circular. By applying a design for disassembly strategy to a product from European Furniture Group (EFG), this chapter aims to show how products in the furniture industry can be better adapted for a circular economy, especially for repair and remanufacturing. This chapter provides critical insights into circular furniture design through enabling design for disassembly to promote the environmentally conscious design of products. The industrial contribution of this chapter is that it brings value to furniture designers and manufacturers who want to design products for longer and multiple lifecycles.

This study focuses on the current challenges in the lifetime extension of smartphones. The factors influencing the lifetime are identified through a literature and sector-specific interviews. Several life cycle stages such as design for durability and repair, business strategies for retail, and use phases are detailed and discussed. Additionally, the study reviews current state of art European policies and potential solutions, means, and actions to extend the lifetime of a smartphone. Finally, the current best practices for lifetime extension are discussed, and further development needs are identified.

In recent years, much research has been conducted on how to utilize dielectric elastomer (DE) transducers in order to build a sustainable social infrastructure in an energy recycling society. As one of the effective technologies that succeed in emitting virtually zero CO2, they are lighter than conventional technology, structurally simple, and aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, power can be recovered from various renewable energy sources, and the power generation efficiency is good. With these features in mind, there seems to be an urgent need to take advantage of what the DEs that can offer. In particular, they are thought to be able to contribute significantly to the construction of the power grids. Another major advantage of this technology is that it does not use rare earths, which are indispensable for powerful motors.In this chapter, we discuss wind power (including smart buildings), marine current power generation, and solar thermal power generation systems that apply the latest DE technology in comparison with conventional technologies. In this chapter, we also discuss the possibility of energy-saving and high-performance DE motors that are thought to contribute to the stabilization of power grids in each region.

This research explores and analyzes the potential for sustainable services in convenience stores to minimize food waste from an industrial design viewpoint. As a consequence of the findings, we identified the barriers that have discouraged users from contributing to food loss reduction. These barriers relate to design features such as the discount label on food products that encourage users. To do this, we designed a reusable label that includes information on food discounts. Users’ views and preferences were analysed, as were those of experts and organizers engaged in Japan’s sustainable development.

This study reviews the literature and activities of sustainable development activities held in China in the past 29 years (1992–2021). Based on the real data of sustainable development of different industries in China, through the investigation of China’s current situation and environmental policies, examples, and data analysis, this chapter studies and discusses the role of industrial designers in the circular economy strategy and the application of sustainable design methods in practice and, finally, summarizes the different market segments of companies related to product design and puts forward the short- and long-term feasible strategy based on circular economy. Chinese industrial designers can contribute to the sustainable development of Chinese society.

This study analyses and discusses the material flow, pollution impact and environmental footprint of the personal protective equipment (PPE) life cycle using five critical themes: raw material processing, manufacturing process, transportation, product use and management of end-of-life PPE and other medical equipment. A systematic review of the literature is combined with interviews with industry practitioners across different sectors in the PPE life cycle. Findings from this study show that the environmental footprint and pollution impact of PPE is significant across the five life cycle themes analysed in this research. However, the environmental impact is more severe during the manufacturing and end-of-life management phases of the life cycle. The efficiency of resources, energy and materials during these phases is reported to significantly impact sustainability. The implications are PPE manufacturing can result in as much as 500,000 tonnes of industrial waste from the manufacturing process and 26 million face masks may be inappropriately disposed of each month in the UK. This research suggests the need for environmentally conscious design of critical medical equipment, the improvement of PPE life cycle management and methodical planning for post-pandemic impact by developing policies and legislations to discourage the use of single-use PPE outside clinical settings. This new knowledge is expected to help inform policies to reduce the long-term adverse impacts and to encourage a drive toward green medical equipment design and manufacturing.

Crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells contain material resources such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), silicon (Si), glass, and resin. Approximately 600 g/t of Ag is contained as a current collector, so-called finger wires, in PV modules; hence, the recovery of Ag from spent PV panels is an important issue. For Ag recovery, it is necessary to separate the resin part before a nitric acid dissolution process to reduce recycling cost. In this study, an electrical wire explosion was applied to the Ag finger wires to achieve high separation selectivity with a small number of discharges. Three kinds of experiments were conducted: (1) electrical explosion, (2) mechanical milling, and (3) a combination method, that is, additional mechanical milling of the remaining cell sheet after the electrical explosion. The particle size distribution, Ag concentration, and Ag recovery ratio were compared for each condition. The PV cell sheet sample was prepared by removing the aluminum frame and cover glass plate from a spent PV panel. Electrodes were placed on Cu busbars, to which 102 Ag finger wires were connected, diagonally across the cell sheet sample. The Ag finger wires between the electrodes were exploded by applying pulsed electrical energy. As a result of the electrical explosion experiment, Ag was recovered as particles smaller than 1.18 mm and the recovery ratio was 36.9%. Only Ag finger wires between the busbars connected to the electrodes were exploded and the Ag that existed outside of the electrodes was hard to recover. The combination method successfully increased the recovery ratio of Ag. The additional mechanical milling process concentrated all of the remaining Ag in the cell sheet after the electrical explosion into the ground size fraction under 4 mm, showing a higher separation efficiency than that of simple mechanical milling because the electrical explosion separated the Ag from the resin.

The ever-increasing complexity and design variability of modern lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and battery systems prevent their cost-effective and efficient recycling. As a consequence, the generation of recyclates to competitive prices compared to virgin materials is currently impossible. This is troublesome as the extraction of the resulting demand for raw materials is associated with high environmental and social burdens. Additionally, the prospected increase in electric vehicle (EV) sales will further intensify this problem. In this context, the purposeful design of products has gained increasing interest, being a possibility to address issues regarding the recyclability of a product, already in its development. The challenge for an efficient and effective design for recycling approach is the complexity of a multitude of different, sometimes conflicting requirements, which have to be defined and regarded throughout the process. Therefore, methods and tools for an easily accessible overview of what needs to be addressed and proposals for specific courses of action are needed. In our work, we identify necessary elements and information-flows for the successful development of guidelines that enable the implementation of design for recycling strategies for LIBs. This is done by analysing currently applied recycling methods and the associated prevailing issues that partially result from current battery designs. Furthermore, already existing guidelines and development procedures for a recyclable design of LIBs are evaluated to identify, why their integration in the industry was not successful thus far.

Due to a number of potential environmental and economic benefits, conventional product-oriented organizations are increasingly aiming to shift toward more sustainable and circular offerings through the development of sustainable Product Service System (PSS) solutions. However, the organizations still struggle with the development of concrete PSS solutions due to the lack of knowledge and experience with tangible processes and tools for sustainable PSS development. Thus, this chapter proposes an overarching sustainable framework for organizations focusing on ecodesign and transitioning to a circular economy through PSS. The framework has been developed and iterated through a case study conducted with a Danish manufacturing company, related to the automotive industry, with core focus on implementing viable take-back systems. This chapter will showcase the outcomes of implementing the overarching framework in a realistic scenario resulting in a circular PSS solution. The framework provides a holistic approach with (1) guidelines for screening an organization including its ecosystem and environmental impacts to prepare for selection of sustainability strategies; (2) overarching toolkit to develop and select new sustainable solutions for the organization; and (3) proposals of methods to validate and implement the developed sustainable solutions. This chapter reflects on the utilization and selection of tools in the framework including its impact on sustainable developers, organizations, and other ecodesign methodologies.

This chapter addresses two critical aspects of sustainability integration in product design and development. The first aspect considers the scope and rigor of the approach to identify criteria to guide development of solutions with high sustainability performance, i.e., the depth and detail. The second aspect is the limited implementation of existing sustainable product development approaches in industry, which wants new tools and methods to be quick and easy to use. In three use case applications the approaches to identify leading sustainability criteria are evaluated. The results are discussed to provide guidance for industry and academia in what approach to select depending on design context, as well as directions for future research.

Acknowledging the inherent complexity of many sustainability challenges, and the shortcomings of traditional linear approaches in tackling them, we have seen a rise in design-driven approaches, which are deemed better suited in handling socio-cultural, economic and environmental implications. Existing literature shows that products and services guided by EcoDesign concepts have the potential to promote users’ behaviour towards a sustainable direction. However, due to the primary focus on the material aspect of design (e.g. environmental impact, reusability and recyclability), there is a lack of guidance for incorporating the behaviour perspective of users into the design research phase. This research aims to develop a framework to help designers determine factors that can possibly impact the behaviour of the target user. The study draws on theoretical insights obtained from a non-exhaustive literature review (observed to be driven by Global North perspectives) and a meta-synthesis of five case studies, primarily situated in the Global South. The findings showed that to influence users’ behaviour through design interventions, the designer would need to account for various determinants. We summarized these determinants into three lenses—context, culture and intent and then developed a conceptual framework based on these lenses. We believe this framework can guide designers in selecting relevant user behavioural determinants in their design research phase, thus supporting them in identifying what factors should be considered for introducing design interventions to promote sustainable behaviour.

Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted each year all over the world, which is one-third of all food produced by human beings. This not only represents a waste of food, increases hunger in the remote country, but also results in a waste of resources and destruction of the environment. Therefore, this study aimed to answer the following questions: (1) What causes food waste in the process of marketing chains and channels for distribution, and consumer purchasing? (2) How to solve the food waste problems from a sustainable product-service system design perspective? A Research through Design (RtD) approach was used for this study. The authors followed a set of design methods during the design process, such as collecting the evidence and causes of food waste through observation and semi-structured interviews, conducting a brainstorming section to identify the potential design solutions to solve those problems. The results presented that food waste phenomena were significant in the supermarkets. Generally, the most common waste food categories were fruit and vegetables. Four key causes resulting in food waste were distinguished: (1) Negative consumer behaviour or habits; (2) Unfriendly regulations for dealing with the nearly expired food in the supermarket; (3) A lack of effective utilization of the nearly expired food; (4) Asymmetric information between buyers and sellers. Four design opportunities were generated to solve the food waste problems at the supermarkets as the following: (1) Increasing citizens’ sustainable food consuming awareness and encouraging positive public consuming behaviours; (2) Extending the edible life of food by using technical means; (3) Reducing the surplus food in supply chains and establishing redundant food sharing mechanisms on the retail side; (4) Recycling the decayed food. A sustainable product-service system called ‘Refresh’ was proposed. It included an application and a composting machine to balance the supply and demand relationship between buyers and sellers in supermarkets. The application adopted the sales model of online booking and offline purchase, which may help solve the problems of retail food loss and waste before retailer purchasing. And the composting machines could be used to fully utilize the expired food.

In industrial sites where assembled products are produced, usage of natural materials in production is indispensable. Recently, increased consumption and depletion of resources have caused environmental pollution and wastes though components and materials inside products can be reused and recycled by remanufacturing. For a circular economy, upgrading is expected to extend product life and value by replacing some components with higher performance on products. To promote the circular economy, upgrading and remanufacturing selection by disassembly is environmentally and economically required in the manufacturing field. It entails upgrading, remanufacturing, recycling, reuse, and disposal as life cycle options for each component. The upgrading and remanufacturing selection through reutilizing components causes less environmental impacts than producing new components. In addition, upgrading improves the products’ performance and adds value to the product. However, the process of disassembling and reassembling products for upgrading and remanufacturing brings higher labor costs. Therefore, these processes should be harmonized for higher recovery rate and profit simultaneously. In addition, each component’s material has different profits according to the process, and the precedence relationship between disassembled components should be considered. This study addresses an environmental and economical design problem for upgrading and remanufacturing option selection to evaluate the recovery rate and profits. First, the recovery rate and profit for each component’s material are estimated. Secondly, upgrading and remanufacturing option selection is formulated using 0–1 integer programming and ε constraints. Finally, the differences in recovery rates and profits are analyzed.

The use of batteries can usually address the challenge of intermittency in renewable energy (RE). However, there are problems with the widely used electrochemical batteries, such as toxicity, short lifetime, and disposal challenges. In this study, we employed the Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) method to examine a database of RE-based off-grid community case studies to reveal the correlation between their characteristics such as the location, type of RE technology, ownership, year of operation, the status of the operation, served population, generation capacity, and their choice of storage.

Energy management in protected cropping is critical due to the high cost of energy use in glasshouse facilities. The main purpose of this research was to investigate two different methods of regulating cooling energy consumption, by adjusting the settings (opening/closing) of either vents or curtains during the day, at the protected cropping facility at Western Sydney University in Australia. This research study adopted an experimental approach to investigate energy consumption under four different open/closed combinations of vents and curtains (vents open/curtains open, vents closed/curtains open, vents open/curtains closed, vents closed/curtains closed) and develop an optimal cooling strategy for energy management using multi-temperature acquisition points. The daily average consumption and the temperature (both gutter and rooftop levels) during the day at the protected facility were measured over four different open/closed combinations of vents and curtains. The results show significant differences in temperature between rooftop and gutter levels during the day across all four combinations tested. Furthermore, analysis of energy consumption shows significant differences in daily average energy consumptions, including the highest daily average of 121 kWh using vent (closed)/curtains (open) and the lowest daily average of 70.5 kWh using vent (open)/curtains (closed). Since the combination of open vent and closed curtain is the better experimental setting with the lower daily and average energy consumption among four combinations evaluated, adjustable settings for the opening of vent and closing of curtain, based on the required temperature and tolerance levels, are recommended as the optimal cooling strategy for energy management using multi-temperature acquisition points at the selected protected cropping facility, taking into consideration of the type of crop and stage of the crop cycle. These findings can be used as a guide for developing timeframes for adjustable settings of vent opening, depending on the measured temperature differences inside the facility and external temperature. Although vents opening using the adjustable settings could provide better cooling energy consumption, taking the advantage of the warm temperature outside, a longer period of vents opening could have adverse effects on other conditions such as level of CO2. Therefore, a holistic approach to energy consumption taking consideration of key control variables is recommended for future research.

The role of wind turbine is an inevitable in a renewable microgrid system (RMS). The development of small scale RMS is an ultimate solution for remote areas where a reasonable section of population is still deprived of basic facility of electricity. In this chapter, the power losses on each stage of a wind turbine are investigated in detail. In order to minimize the losses of wind turbine, a novel Nonlinear Programming (NLP) model of an optimization using General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is developed. Considering minimum power loss as the optimization criterion, the objective function of the model consists of each stage’s power losses, including mechanical, electrical, and power electronics devices of the wind turbine. The optimum results of GAMS model are validated with the real system that consists a 100 W Permanent Magnetic Synchronious Generator (PMSG) directly coupled with 400 W Induction Motor (IM). By considering the corresponding range of wind speed from 4.57 m/s to 11.4 m/s in the optimization model, a reduction potential of 9.3% of total power was observed from the results.