C.A. Bakker

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Design Engineering

Bio-based plastics are attracting increasing attention due to their perceived sustainability and circularity. While enabling circularity by using renewable feedstocks, they still contribute to plastic pollution. Furthermore, their rapidly growing market will cause bio-based plastics to constitute significant fractions of plastic waste, necessitatin...

Bio-based plastics are gaining attention as a sustainable, circular alternative to the current, petrochemical-based plastics. The main application of bio-based plastics is in single-use packaging with short lifetimes. Extending the application of bio-based plastics products towards durable consumer products requires the involvement of different val...

Designers and engineers need better tools and methods to create highly repairable products. Design for disassembly and reassembly is an important product related design feature that can enhance repair. In a highly repairable product, those components that fail most often should be easily accessible for repair or replacement. This paper describes th...

The process of fault diagnosis is an essential first step when repairing a product: it determines the condition of the parts and identifies the origin of failure. We report on how product users go through the process of fault diagnosis in consumer products and the influence of design features on this process. Two groups of 12 participants were aske...

Adopting design approaches that allow products to last multiple use-cycles supports European Commission objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce primary material impacts. Remanufacturing is an example of an appropriate circular strategy and it can be applied in a variety of industries that are intensive materials users. However, mos...

In a recent study, we identified seven key circular competencies for design: (1) Design for Multiple Use Cycles, (2) Design for Recovery, (3) Circular Impact Assessment, (4) Circular Business Models, (5) Circular User Engagement, (6) Circular Economy Collaboration, and (7) Circular Economy Communication. These were derived from small-scale studies...

Designers play an important role in service transformation and the development of product-service systems by applying co-creation methods. This paper presents a case of how we applied co-creation in practice and the impact this has had on developing a circular product-service system. It details the method used in the co-creation process and highlig...

The circular economy requires high-value material recovery to enable multiple product lifecycles. This implies the need for additive manufacturing to focus on the development and use of low-impact materials that, after product use, can be reconstituted to their original properties in terms of printability and functionality. We therefore investigate...

This special issue asks how product lifetime extension in a circular economy can best be understood and managed. Product lifetime extension through design for durability, reuse, repair, refurbishment and remanufacture, and the associated circular business models, are regarded as an important way forward to achieving a circular economy. As a researc...

Fault diagnosis is the process of identifying and characterising a fault when a failure occurs. It is, therefore, an essential step to take before product-repair. In this study, we ask how conventional users diagnose faults in household appliances and how the design of these appliances facilitates or hampers the process of fault diagnosis.To invest...

This study addresses what competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) designers need in order to successfully design products and services for a circular economy. Existing literature, though sparse, has identified a number of circular economy competencies for design. Yet, a coherent overview is lacking. To complement the competencies found in t...

For the transition toward a circular economy, it is essential that products are returned for reuse, refurbishing or recycling. In order to address the lack of literature on the topic from a user perspective, this paper explores how users can be stimulated to return used smartphones. Taking a Research through Design approach, we developed a novel se...

Limited research has been done on design competencies for a circular economy in practice. Yet, an overview of design competencies for a circular economy would be useful to understand which topics should be emphasized in both education and practice. This paper focuses on deriving circular economy competencies for product designers working in industr...

This paper presents the result of a co-creation and context mapping study amongst seventeen washing machines users. The users had widely varying experiences with products offered through alternative ownership models, including three who were active users of a washing machine with pay-per-use or monthly subscription model. Through the co-creation pr...

This report presents an overview of the most recent design methodologies for multiple product life cycles in literature today and provides an analysis of the current design practices for the two EU project demonstrators from the white goods and automotive spare parts industries. The design methodologies found in literature are presented in three c...

The transition towards a circular economy proposes to deliver sustainable, lower carbon opportunities to society, governments and companies. This paper focuses on finding barriers encountered during remanufacturing activities and interpreting the barriers by using a framework for dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities enable companies to adjust...

Remanufacturing is seen as a key strategy as part of the transition towards a circular economy. Remanufacturers encounter various barriers in their operations, even after being applied in various for over decades. These barriers, along with propositions to overcome them, are discussed extensively in academic literature. This paper focuses on the pr...

In the transition to a circular economy companies are exploring new business models, implying a shift from selling products to offering products in circular business models, such as leasing. Product design is thought to play a crucial role in enabling this. Having a robust overview of relevant design roles and competencies is of foundational import...

This paper explores the use of annotated portfolios as a method to support the qualitative analysis of interview data about design projects. Annotated portfolios have so far been used to support artefacts with text in order to discuss them in the context of 'research through design' In this paper, we interpret the five-step method of McCracken and...

Value creation in a circular economy is based on products being returned after use. In the case of smartphones, most are never returned and tend to be kept in drawers. Smartphone access services (e.g., leasing or upgrade) have been experimented with in the Netherlands but have been largely unsuccessful. This study explores the reasons why consumers...

The aim of this article is to explore how ecodesign dilemmas contribute to a firm's ecodesign evolution. The article achieves this through empirical research into a process of ecodesign decision-making in a single firm. The study spans a timeframe of nine years. The article describes how recognising and dealing with ecodesign dilemmas fuels cycles...

This paper examines the role of product designers in the transition towards the circular economy. Both scientific and grey literature show remarkable optimism when it comes to role strategic and coordinating role designers could play in this transition process. However, there has been little examination of the actual role and influence designers ha...

Circular product design is a relatively new approach to design suitable strategies to realize circular products. Additive manufacturing (AM) is seen as a promising enabling production process. It has digital and additive characteristics, which makes AM different from conventional production techniques. However, it is yet unclear how this technique...

The Circular Pathfinder tool, which provides guidance to companies looking for appropriate circular design strategies, was developed based on OEM (original equipment manufacturer) case studies. Ease of use was one of the main requirements during development of the tool, resulting in a software-based guide that asks a maximum of ten product-related...

The framework of design for the circular economy is increasingly used in industry to improve product sustainability and decrease costs, and in academia various models have been developed to guide circular design. However, in the medical sector, although it generates a large amount of waste, application of circular design principles is difficult bec...

Deliverable for the ResCoM-project. By combining the lessons learned from the four ResCoM industrial cases, a generic methodology was developed for other companies that want to engage in the development of multiple-lifecycle products. This report describes a stepwise approach for developing such products. The approach includes a suite of design too...

In a circular economy (CE), the economic and environmental value of materials is preserved for as long as possible by keeping them in the economic system, either by lengthening the life of the products formed from them or by looping them back in the system to be reused. The notion of waste no longer exists in a CE, because products and materials ar...

Extending the product life span of electrical and electronic equipment is considered an optimal strategy for resource conservation as consuming new resources to produce new appliances is avoided, and the amount of generated waste is reduced. However with energy-using products, the energy efficiency of equipment and other user-related behaviour vari...

Recent experience has clearly shown that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are difficult to get back from customers to close loops through current end-of-pipe collection solutions. This paper explores the potential of a shift in business logic away from ownership as its central concept, to use or value (through e.g. leasing or pay-per-...

Repair is a way to extend the life of a product. In a circular economy where resource loops are closed to a maximum extent, repair belongs to the ‘inner loops’. Repairing a product is a way to preserve value by slowing down the product's economic devaluation. The aim of the paper is the development of a reparability indicator: a measure to determin...

Since 2008 the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Delft hosts the minor Sustainable Design Engineering. The minor has been highly useful as a platform to pilot new ways of teaching engineering for sustainable development. Instead of having students make life cycle assessments and introduce them to straightforward checklists to impro...

The transition within business from a linear to a circular economy brings with it a range of practical challenges for companies. The following question is addressed: What are the product design and business model strategies for companies that want to move to a circular economy model? This paper develops a framework of strategies to guide designers...

The transition within business from a linear to a circular economy brings with it a range of practical challenges for companies. The following question is addressed: What are the product design and business model strategies for companies that want to move to a circular economy model? This paper develops a framework of strategies to guide designers...

In the transition towards a circular economy, refurbishment can be applied to regain value from used products, and to reduce waste. Refurbishment is a process in which a professional company collects and restores used products in order to resell these products to new consumers. Building on insights from the remanufacturing literature, this research...

Design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) is becoming increasingly influential in the areas of design research and practice. With its success, however, concerns are also rising about its limitations. This paper bundles these concerns and illustrates how DfSB approaches tend to focus on incremental savings that easily disappear in larger trends, how i...

Recycling crosses the fields of resource engineering, metallurgy and materials sciences, and designers cannot be expected to master all these knowledge areas. However, designers need to have access to this knowledge in a simple and clear form, to be able to design products that allow an optimal recovery with minimum quality losses. This is achieved...

Product lifespans of electric and electronic products are in decline, with detrimental environmental consequences. This research maps the environmental impacts of refrigerators and laptops against their increasing energy efficiency over time, and finds that product life extension is the preferred strategy in both cases: refrigerators bought in 2011...

Starting around 1993 until today, End of Life of electronics has been a hot topic. In accordance with the EU WEEE directive and it is underlying principle of extended producer responsibility, end of life of electronics – in theory – has received an important place in the hierarchy of the product development process. There has been an increasing eff...

An ever-increasing body of research explores the effectiveness of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) in achieving energy savings in households. To date, however, the overall life cycle impact of the HEMS itself has not been taken into account. Thus, no assessment has been made whether the amount of energy saved (esaved) outweighs the energy need...

Developed economies have become highly dependent on a range of technology metals with names such as neodymium and terbium. Stakeholders have warned of the impending scarcity of these critical materials. Difficulties in materials supply can affect the high-tech industries as well as the success of sustainable innovation strategies that are based on...

In this paper we report on an exploration of how to apply the theory of Slow Design to mass produced products to establish more mindful usage of products; the intention behind this is to promote product attachment and the associated sustainable benefits of long term use. Slow Design is a design philosophy that focuses on promoting well-being for in...

A number of recent publications point to the important role of eco-design approaches in risk mitigation for criti-cal materials supply. The core of eco-design is life cycle thinking – usually as some form of Life Cycle Assess-ment (LCA) approach together with a set of generic guidelines such as checklists, etc. There has however been little apprais...

As design for sustainability extends beyond its origins in engineering, and therefore production, increasing attention has been put on the roles technologies and designed artifacts play in mitigating or exacerbating consumption-related impacts. However, there is a prevalence of efforts in user-centered and behavior-based design lacking the systemic...

Between 2008 and 2011, three different home energy management systems (HEMS) that give feedback on energy consumption were implemented in households in the Netherlands. Home energy management systems are defined as intermediary devices that can visualise, monitor and/or manage domestic gas and/or electricity consumption. Through a series of questio...

Eco-design heuristics (defined as experience-based techniques for problem solving) can play a useful role in helping designers prioritize eco-design strategies. One of these eco-design heuristics (the 'use phase' heuristic) is: Frequently used electric and electronic products usually have, over their life span, a dominant impact in the use phase. M...

Electronic textiles are a vanguard of an emerging generation of smart products. They consist of small electronic devices that are seamlessly embedded into clothing and technical textiles. E-textiles provide enhanced functions in a variety of unobtrusive and convenient ways. Like many high-tech products, e-textiles may evolve to become a mass market...

Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions....

Societal stakeholders are expressing concerns over the increasing scarcity of critical elements on which high-tech industries rely. Geochemical rare elements are indispensable in producing high-tech products such as electronic gadgets and renewable energy technologies. The surge in demand for critical elements presents a risk of exhaustion of avail...

Societal stakeholders are expressing concerns over the increasing scarcity of critical elements on which high-tech industries rely. Geochemical rare elements are indispensable in producing high-tech products such as electronic gadgets and renewable energy technologies. The surge in demand for critical elements presents a risk of exhaustion of avail...

Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions....

Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), e.g. energy monitors, are intermediary products that can visualize, manage, and/or monitor the energy use of other products or whole households. HEMS increasingly receive attention for their role in energy conservation in households. A literature review and a case study examine the mid-term effectiveness (more...

The cradle-to-cradle (C2C) concept of McDonough and Braungart, which has a strong emphasis on materials strategy, gives a vision of a sustainable future, inspired by nature. Their guilt-free approach has enthused many new people, drawing them into the field of sustainability. However, the question of when and how the C2C concept can be applied succ...

No matter how efficient the embodied impact of a product is made, the ultimate determinant is in how and how much it is used. It is therefore crucial to consider user behaviour when developing innovative and efficient domestic technologies. This paper describes the conceptual development of a novel research infrastructure for Living Lab, an EU fund...

Short Abstract This paper describes an exploratory study conducted for the Living Lab project, an EU funded program to research the interactions of users with more sustainable and quality-of-life enhancing innovations. An approach is given for applying a user-centered orientation for sustainable design which blends emerging concepts of co-design an...

On both a strategic level and a product level a lot is known on how to integrate sustainability aspects. On the intermediate level of product portfolio management this is not true. Here the strategic sustainability goals of a company need to be translated into products. A company wanting to innovate in a green way automatically has to make product...

As the world moves into an era of significant changes predicated by the challenge of sustainability, the future holds many questions, with serious consequences depending on the answers. Given the implications of these changes, the world’s design community needs to be constantly challenged to respond. To support conversations on what life will be li...

In an ongoing process, three diverse Home energy management systems (HEMS) have been implemented in the households in the Netherlands. Through a series of questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and usability tests, a wide range of knowledge in being gathered. Because of this broad approach, the insights that are gained are not only limited to the...

Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions....

In recent years, the implementation of sustainability into the curricula of engineering has become increasingly important. This paper focuses on the experiences of integrating sustainability in Design Engineering education in the academic bachelor programs at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, at the University College of West-Fland...