This design strategy is about connecting with people emotionally, through products, experiences or interactions, in order to encourage sustainable behaviour. Compelling narratives encourage attachment, and can mean a shift in attitude away from the cycle of use–disposal–replacement. This type of design can reduce the consumption and waste of natural resources by making people want want to keep products in use for longer. To achieve this the products must be physically enduring but, more importantly, must be dynamic enough that the consumer resists the usual urge to replace them with a newer model. This could be achieved by engineering the user experience to allow for customisation, updates or personalisation; adaptation over time that will maintain relevance for the user.
Attachment can also be achieved by simplification (the Bialetti or Brown Betty over the Nespresso) or conversely by the inherent value and craftsmanship of an item. Certain materials – usually but not necessarily natural materials such as wood or softer metals – lend themselves particularly well to this approach. Careful design of the user journey can allow the consumer to draw meaning through elements that appeal to the senses, including proportion, texture, colour, smell and sound. This approach is also known as ‘emotional durability’ and is intended to create a deeper bond between the user and the product or experience – possibly extended over many users or several generations of users. This deepened relationship with an object, environment or lifestyle can overrule human desire for the new, and in the best case scenario can change perceptions around what these relationships could be; leading to a shift in mindset and behaviour.
Other design strategies such as localisation can be useful when designing for an emotional connection. This means building local or regional value into a product to improve social and environmental impact. This could be via local resources and materials, production methods, labour and skills, supply chains, investment or ownership, consumer markets and/or end-of-life path. In terms of storytelling, this can be a useful device for ensuring relevance for the consumer, as well as for forming communities and commitment around products or experiences.
Pros:
Think about how they’ve employed the storytelling strategy. How much do you think these examples contribute to the circular economy?
This strategy is all about using transparency in order to incentivise sustainable behaviour from consumers, but also the organisations they buy from. It requires provision of the right information at the right time, providing transparency about a product, experience, manufacturing process or transaction, without overwhelming the consumer. The objective is to empower the user by placing more of the responsibility in their hands. If they don’t know what a product lifecycle entails then how can they take responsibility for whether they make the purchase, and how they use it? When that information is carefully designed into the physical fabric of a product, or the touchpoints of an experience they’ve bought into, it’s a different story.
Providing the facts can raise the bar on the supply side too. Claims can be made but trust can’t be built with consumers unless those promises are delivered upon. This open approach ideally covers supply chain, materials, manufacture and mechanics, ethics, and plans for the future. In recent years this approach has become strongly linked with “wiki” and open-source culture.
This culture, sometimes known as informationalisation, makes the product or service more valuable and beneficial to the user by building in data. By providing relevant, timely, accurate, easy-to-read data, new or superior benefits are possible. Transparency and openness can serve to create a competitive advantage by explicitly stating something which a competitor won’t reveal. This can be executed in increasingly sophisticated ways. Information about a product can be given through its design rather than through surrounding blurb. Packaging can be reimagined to allow consumers to make more informed choices which they can be proud of. Organisations can use communications to share the challenges they face in shifting their operations in line with a more circular economy, and bring consumers along on that journey. Transparency can create reinforcing loops of incentive, encouraging better decisions on both the supply and demand side.
Think about how they’ve employed the openness strategy. How much do you think these examples contribute to the circular economy?
The service approach offers a system of ongoing support for users, and interaction points that create an overall experience designed for ease of use. This approach is about reconfiguring systems so the user experiences a new relationship to an organisation, transaction or product. This model is based around providing new kinds of value for the consumer, ie a fun, worry-free or money-saving experience. In some cases the service model removes the need for outright ownership or consumption, allowing for a new kind of sharing economy. For example, the recent rise of car sharing, enabled by technology and mobile platforms. Sometimes known as transmaterialisation, this is the process of providing the benefits of a physical product, using a service. The service might be a virtual replacement such as digital music, or a more efficient way of using a physical product, such as public transport or power tool sharing.
Services can play an enabling role for other circular economy strategies, such as design for reuse. It might be a consumer facing service allowing people to refill food and drinks containers, or a business-to-business service allowing organisations to collect their distributed packaging or products. This focus on great customer interactions through simple and intuitive touchpoints incentivises uptake beyond just the niche.
Strategies such as design for disassembly are also hard to deliver without taking a supportive service approach. If an organisation goes to the trouble of designing an item specifically so it is easy to take apart, which might require more upfront investment in design and material costs, they need to ensure there are systems in place to enable that lifecycle. This is where a service approach becomes a systems approach. Considering a holistic viewpoint and supporting the weak links in the system will allow the whole thing to operate with more resilience.
Pros:
Think about how they’ve employed the service strategy. How much do you think these examples contribute to the circular economy?
Novelis Inc. is the global leader in aluminium rolled products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, delivering unique solutions for the most demanding global applications, such as beverage cans, automobiles, architecture and consumer electronics. In 2014 Novelis opened the world’s largest cutting-edge aluminium recycling facility in Nachterstedt, Germany.
Forum is an independent non-profit organisation that works globally with business, government and others to solve complex sustainability challenges. We believe it is critical to transform the key systems we rely on to shape a brighter future and innovate for long-term success.
Novelis Inc. is the global leader in aluminium rolled products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, delivering unique solutions for the most demanding global applications, such as beverage cans, automobiles, architecture and consumer electronics. In 2014 Novelis opened the world’s largest cutting-edge aluminium recycling facility in Nachterstedt, Germany.
Forum is an independent non-profit organisation that works globally with business, government and others to solve complex sustainability challenges. We believe it is critical to transform the key systems we rely on to shape a brighter future and innovate for long-term success.