Putting consumers first in design for sustainable behaviour: a case study of reducing environmental impacts of cold appliance use

To slow down the increasing environmental degradation, design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) has emerged in sustainable design aiming to promote behavioural change through design innovations to reduce environmental and social impacts from the demand side or consumer side. This paper presents a practice-based journey to investigate the process and results of the application of social-psychological theories into sustainable design. Focusing on the behaviour-related impacts of products and services during the use stage, a Design Behaviour Intervention Model (DBIM) is developed through the analysis and synthesis of the social-psychological theories and behaviour-changing strategies. The DBIM indicates that an in-depth study of consumer behaviour is the preliminary step in DfSB, which determines the application of design strategies and potentially the effectiveness of design interventions. A case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the model. The results show that consumer behaviour insights offer rich resources to assist designers in sustainable design innovation. Product-based design suggestions and a proposed solution highlight that the application of DBIM coupled with consumer involvement throughout the design process could produce desirable and sustainable patterns of household fridge use. Finally, the structured consideration of behavioural change and their possible application in DfSB are discussed.     

The implications of cultural differences in laundry behaviours for design for sustainable behaviour: A case study between the UK,India and Brazil

Traditional research into sustainable design has typically focused on reducing the environmental impact of products during the manufacture and disposal stages of a products' lifecycle. The last decade, however, has seen an explosion of research into understanding and moderating user behaviour during the use phase of a products' lifecycle; often the most resource-intensive phase. One of the biggest factors that affects behaviour is a users cultural context; however, the effect of cultural context on design for sustainable behaviour has had little exploration in this relatively new research field.     

Comprehensive emergy evaluation and optimization of corn straw power generation system: a case study

Biomass energy has become an important measure to alleviate ecological environment security and energy supply security in China. Emergy accounting method is used to analyze and evaluate economy, environment, and sustainability of corn straw generation system, which includes corn planting subsystem, collection and transportation subsystem, and corn straw power generation subsystem. The key substances that need to be optimized in the system are identified by using sensitivity analysis. Based on the position of key substances in the system, emergy accounting optimization methodology is conducted. Corresponding optimization design scheme is proposed based on the “3R” (reduce, reuse, and recycle) principle of circular economy. Current study shows that emergy yield ratio, emergy investment ratio, environmental loading ratio, and emergy sustainability index of the corn straw power generation system are 3.69, 2.68, 1.61, and 2.29, respectively, which are better than wind power generation system and thermal power generation system. In addition, it is proposed that the fertilizer alternative plan and the transportation redesign plan can replace 50,000 tons potash and reduce equipment resources by 20% and energy resources input by 30%. Economy and sustainable development of the system is significantly improved. The optimization design method based on the “3R“ principle proposed in this paper can provide a useful reference for the research in the field of resource recycling.