Carlo Vezzoli

• Politecnico di Milano

The use of digital technologies in Product Service Systems (PSSs) has increased in recent years. More and more smart devices are used in these models, collecting significant amounts of data to provide personalized and responsive products and services. However, data extraction has been causing disruptions in the social sphere, manipulating users, th...

The role of design for sustainability to promote a Circular Economy (CE) is increasingly recognized as a key leverage. The CE Action Plan adopted by the European Union in 2020 reports that “up to 80% of products’ environmental impacts are determined at the design phase” (European Commission, Circular economy action plan: for a cleaner and more comp...

As awareness of the serious environmental impact of the furniture sector increases, design is increasingly recognized as a crucial lever for innovating towards sustainable furniture products. This acknowledgment was emphasized by the European Union in the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2020 and is further emphasized in the forthcoming Ecodesign fo...

Effective product design strategies play a crucial role in promoting sustainable production, consumption, and disposal practices. In the literature, many such practices have been proposed by various researchers; however, it is challenging to understand which is more effective from the design point of view. This study employs bibliometric analysis a...

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus significantly and effectively address sustainability issues internationally. However, there has been little attention paid to the WEF Nexus challenges related to sustainable livelihoods, such as resource access, resource security, and resource utilization. Given the need to establish design research, policy formula...

Studies on design for sustainability indicate that the concept of Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS) is a promising approach to bring radical changes in the production and consumption system with environmental, socio-ethical and economic benefits. The furniture system has been recently identified as one of the key sectors that should be add...

This open access book introduces design for Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) and for Sustainable Distributed Economies (S.DE). These are introduced as technical and operative tools for the development of a new generation of designers, responsible and capable of designing environmentally-sustainable products. The book provides a comprehen...

The combination of Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) and Distributed Economies (DE) has been considered as a promising mode of developing sustainability through regional resilience and by empowering a shift to a more localized economic model. This chapter examines case studies from around the world that use combinations of S.PSS and DE to...

This chapter presents Distributed Economies (DE) as a promising model for locally-based sustainability. DE consist of small-scale value-adding units (e.g. manufacturing, energy generation, food production, water management, software development, knowledge generation) where there is a shift in the control of core activities towards the user/client.

Assuming S.PSS applied to DE is an opportunity for a locally based sustainability for all, as introduced in this volume, we envision a new role for designers: Designing Sustainable Product-Service Systems applied to Distributed Economies, or shortly System Design for Sustainability for All (SD4SA).

.This chapter introduces the concept of Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS). S.PSS is an offer model providing an integrated mix of products and services that are together able to fulfil a particular customer/user demand (to deliver a “unit of satisfaction”), based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders of the value production s...

Fashion is recognised as one of the most unsustainable systems, being characterized by both severe environmental impacts and unfair working conditions. In this framework, the article describes the design support tool called Sustainability design-orienting scenario for fashion and its development process. The tool has the purpose to inspire designer...

This paper presents a set of Life Cycle Design (LCD) guidelines to operatively support fashion companies to design low-environmental impact cloth. The LCD guidelines for environmentally sustainable clothing care systems has been developed with the following process adopted since several years in company/organization consultancy by the LeNSlab of Po...

It would be comforting to claim that an approach to product Life Cycle Design (that is, reducing both consumption and emissions/waste) can also have economically sound results. Here, in fact, we would not have to worry, but unfortunately the degradation and increasing risks to our ecosystems prove otherwise.

In this chapter, we speak about some tools that have been developed exactly for design process orientation towards environmentally sustainable solutions. These are divided up and described in relationship with two different goals.

In the perspective of a sustainable development aimed at safeguarding resources for the future generations, the degree of renewability or, differently phrased, the degree of non-exhaustibility of those resources becomes of great importance.

Design choices should be aimed at resources (materials and energy sources) with lower impact, while offering equal terms of service or functional unit with the life cycle of a product.

The Design and system Innovation for Sustainability (DIS) research unit of the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano developed a method and some tools to integrate environmental requirements in the product development process.

Design for disassembly (DFD) focuses on how to design easily disassembled products; meaning that the parts and materials can be easily and economically separated.

The environmental limits show us clearly that not a single design activity can be carried out without taking into consideration the impact a product will have on nature. The environmental requirements should be considered necessary from the very first stage of product development, along with the costs, performance, legal, cultural and aesthetic req...

In the last years, the concepts of sustainable development and environmental sustainability entered in the international political agenda. By these expressions, we mean the systemic conditions according to which, at a regional and global level, social and production development occurs.

From the framework highlighted in the previous chapter, a growth of the potential role of design is revealed, because of the growing interest in product and service innovation (not only process anymore), and in the changes in perception of the quality of an offer: its cultural and aesthetic dimension. We will thus see how this growing role really p...

Minimising material consumption means reducing the material consumption of a certain product; it is better if it is at every life cycle stage and throughout the entire service offered by the product; that is, corresponding to the functional unit. Using up less material diminishes the impact not only because less material/resources are extracted (pr...

With reducing energy consumption comes a decrease in the impact, in the sense that less energy needs to be produced, transported and stored. This chapter illustrates with examples the guidelines for minimising energy consumption, considering both the energy required for the production of a product and the energy used by the product, in different ph...

In this part, we describe the supporting methods and tools for analysis and design for environmental sustainability.

Every human activity determines an uptake and acquisition of natural resources as well as release of different emissions, that is, chemical or physical agents such as various substances, noise, etc.

Extending the lifespan of materials means making them last longer than the products they are part of. This kind of reincarnation of materials can take place through two fundamental processes

Este livro apresenta os fundamentos de PSS e foi produzido de forma colaborativa e em licença aberta por diversos professores do Brasil e exterior dentro da LeNS - Learning Network on Sustainability (Carlo Vezzoli, Cindy Kohtala, Amrit Srinivasa with J.C. Diehl,Sompit Moi Fusakul, Liu Xin, Deepta Sateesh, Aguinaldo dos Santos, Liliane Iten Chaves,...

The book addresses the issue of diffusing sustainable energy access in low- and middle-income contexts. The Open Acces version can be downloaded from https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-70223-0 Access to energy is one of the greatest challenges for many people living in low-income and developing contexts, as around 1.4 billion people...

O presente livro foca no Design de Sistemas Produto+Serviço e na Economia Distribuída, temas de central relevância na busca por novos modos de produção e consumo economicamente viáveis, socialmente justos e com baixo impacto ambiental. Seu conteúdo é uma produção coletiva que envolveu a integração de conhecimentos da comunidade internacional com os...

Over the past decade, fashion researchers and designers have been focusing on answering the question “how the fashion industry can be more sustainable?”; however, the fact is fashion has become one of the most polluting industries in the world. Intensively using natural resources and chemical products in fashion industry leads to significant enviro...

see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260831608_Product-Service_System_Design_for_Sustainability

see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260831608_Product-Service_System_Design_for_Sustainability

see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260831608_Product-Service_System_Design_for_Sustainability

see see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260831608_Product-Service_System_Design_for_Sustainability

In industrialized contexts Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) have been studied since the end of the 90's as business models with the potential to decouple the creation of value from the consumption of materials and energy, and thus significantly reducing the environmental load of the life-cycles of current product systems.



This article discusses general strategies to enable environmental sustainability within the clothing sector, providing a framework for decision makers involved in the development of programs and policies for this sector. It initially revises the environmental impact of the clothing system and determines its key environmental sustainability prioriti...

This paper presents the intermediate results of the Learning Network on Sustainable Energy Systems (LeNSes) an African-European multi-polar network for curriculum development on Design for Sustainability (DfS) focused on Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) and Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS). The study identified the convergence between...

This paper presents the intermediate results of the Learning Network on Sustainable Energy Systems (LeNSes) an African-European multi-polar network for curriculum development on Design for Sustainability (DfS) focused on Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) and Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS). The paper discusses the convergence between t...

Energy is a fundamental imperative to the quest for sustainable development. The current challenge is to provide sustainable energy solutions for all, whilst concomitantly increasing the access to energy and improving its efficiency. Within this perspective, design Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to be able to equip design students with a...

Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) carry great potential to deliver social well-being and economic prosperity while operating within the limits of our planet. They can however be complex to design, test, implement and bring to the mainstream. To increase our understanding of the potential benefits, drivers and barriers in S.PSS design, the...

Energy is a fundamental imperative to the quest for sustainable development. The current challenge is to provide sustainable energy solutions for all, while concomitantly increasing the access to energy and improving usage efficiency. Within this perspective, education in design in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) must increasingly equip design...

This paper argues that Product-Service System Design for Sustainability applied to Distributed Renewable Energy DRE) is a promising approach to help achieve the goal of “Sustainable energy for all” (United Nation). Firstly, two understandings are presented: 1) Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) is a key leverage for sustainable development and; 2)...

The paper addresses the issue of how to visualise innovative business models at various stages of the design and development process. The focus is on a particular type of business model, defined Product-Service Systems (PSSs), characterised by an integrated product-service offering, but can be generalised to other business model innovations. The pa...

Eco-efficient Product-Service Systems (PSS, in which the economic interest of the stakeholders involved in the offer continuously foster the optimisation of nvironmental resource consumption) represent a promising approach to sustainability. However, despite their potential win–win characteristics, the application of this concept is still limited....

The designer plays an important part in choosing and using materials, and in the perspective of environmental sustainability design choices should be aimed at materials causing the lowest environmental impact. This assumption, that seems almost a triviality, needs to be seen in a systemic approach: it is mandatory to refer to the life cycle of the...

The research and design path of the TANGO Milan project, has adopted and adapted the MSDS method (Methodology for System Design for Sustainability) for the co-design process, which has involved different existing and potential actors being incorporated in the proposals. The first part of this paper introduces the MSDS method and presents and define...

The pressure of human beings on the environment has profoundly modified natural systems, and today the planet is reaching its limits in the capacity of assimilating environmental effects caused by anthropic activities. In the last few decades the reaction of humankind to sustainability problems has produced a series of approaches that has gone from...

When the socio-ethical dimension of sustainability (i.e. social equity, cohesion and inclusion), is a concern, most of the attention has been given to product design that meets the basic needs of marginalized persons and communities in emerging and low-income contexts, with appropriate technologies. This paper presents Product-Service System Design...

Each year in Italy, millions of tons of fruits and vegetables are harvested, packed and transported to national and foreign retail outlets. Packaging is an essential component of this system, but what is its environmental impact? This study takes into consideration the delivery from the field to the retail outlet of 12 types of fruits and vegetable...

Eco-efficient PSS innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the adoption of such business strategies is still limited because often involves significant corporate, cultural and regulatory barriers. Changes in basic belief, values, and interpretative frames (in other words higher order learning) are required. One way to f...

This paper presents the intermediate results of the Learning Network on Sustainability (LeNS) project, Asian-European multi-polar network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability. LeNS is a mechanism to develop and diffuse system design for sustainability in design schools with a transcultural perspective. The main output of the proje...

EUROPE AID CO-OPERATION OFFICE This W ork is Licensed under C reative C ommons Attribution-NonC ommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 For full details on the license, go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Volume I

Product-service system (PSS) innovation is a promising approach to address sustainability challenges in the automotive industry. Starting form this assumption, this paper presents and discusses the potential contribution that policy measures can have in fostering the automotive sector in innovating on a PSS level. A set of policy instruments (gener...

In Brazil, nearly half the population earns less than $325 a month and lives in rural areas or urban shantytowns. Despite this reality, Brazilian companies tend to ignore the poor as consumers, focusing their efforts on the haves. One company, however, saw possibility in the “bottom of the pyramid (BOP)” and devised a way to serve this population a...

It is a shared opinion that sustainable development requires a system discontinuity, meaning that radical changes in the way we produce and consume are needed. Within this framework there is an emerging understanding that an important contribution to this change can be directly linked to decisions taken in the design phase. For this reason design s...

The present article presents the main results of a research project that aimed to establish guidelines on sustainable design for marble and granite products, a non-renewable material. The study was carried out within an association of 13 small and medium companies in Brazil. During the investigation it was identified a significant lack of literatur...

This special issue is a result of work of Sustainable Consumption Research Exchanges (SCORE!). This EU supported network project under the 6th Framework Program engaged a few hundred professionals interested in sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in Europe and beyond. A key goal of the network is to enhance understanding how radical reduct...

This ‘‘Note from the field,’’ is an edited version of a policy brief summarizing the key findings from the first half of the Sustainable Consumption Research Exchange network (SCORE!) for the policy programs in the field of sustainable consumption and production (SCP). We recommend a framework for action to change to SCP that mentions the key domai...

Design for Environmental Sustainability is a technical and operative contribution to the United Nations "Decade on Education for Sustainable Development" (2005-2014), aiding the development of a new generation of designers, responsible and able in the task of designing environmentally sustainable products. Design for Environmental Sustainability pr...

Extending the lifespan of materials means making them last longer than the products they are part of. This kind of reincarnation of materials can take place through two fundamental processes. The materials can be re-processed into secondary raw materials, or combusted (incinerated) to recover their energy content.

Contrary to widespread and frequently observed social and political terms, the pursuit of sustainability is opposite to that of conservation. Conservation and regeneration of social and natural capital demand that we break away from the ways of living, consumption and production that dominate today, and experiment with new ways. If this experimenta...

The environmental limits show us clearly that not a single design activity can be carried out without taking into consideration the impact that the product will have on nature. The environmental requirements are now considered necessary from the very first stage of product development onwards, along with the cost, performance, legal, cultural and a...

In this last part we shall catch up with topics from previous chapters (but not only) in the light of the historical course of evolution of sustainability in design. First, we should outline the main stages of growing human awareness about environmental issues and sustainable development.

Design for Disassembly (DFD) focuses on how to design easily disassembled products; meaning that the parts and materials can be easily and economically separated. The possibility of easy separation of the parts facilitates the maintenance, repairs, updating and re-manufacturing of the products.

Design choices should be aimed at resources (materials and energy sources) with lower impact, while offering equal terms of service or functional unit with the life cycle of a product. The designer plays an important part in choosing and using materials, even if he/she is generally not concerned where they come from or where they end up after the l...

Minimising resources means reducing material and energy consumption of a certain product; it is better if it is at every life cycle stage and of the entire service offered by the product; that is, corresponding to the functional unit. This strategy concerns a quantitative saving for the environment and in sustainability terms has two implications....

Transition towards sustainability will be a social learning process that will teach us, progressively, through mistakes and contradictions – like every other learning process – how to live better, consuming (a lot) less and how to recreate the physical and social ambient we live in. This phrase summarises effectively all that has been said in the p...

For the last 50 years, humankind has faced possible self-destruction and found itself in an unforeseen condition of being conscious about it, i. e. knowing that nuclear weapons and the ecological crisis can not only change the path of history, but also become the end of history (as in “the day after” there will be no us – humans, to tell the story)...

Every human activity determines an uptake and acquisition of natural resources as well as release of different emissions, that is, chemical or physical agents such as various substances, noise etc. Both acquisitions and emissions are forms of environmental impact. Emissions entail the release of substances into nature, while consumption of primary...

Would it be comforting to claim that an approach to product Life Cycle Design (that is, reducing both the consumption and emissions/waste) can also have economically sound results? Here, in fact, we would not have to worry, but unfortunately the degradation and increasing risks to our ecosystems prove otherwise.

In this part we describe the supporting methods and tools for analysis and design for environmental sustainability.Including the environmental variable in the design process makes the whole activity more complex (and interdisciplinary). New requirements (environmental ones) have to be taken into account and extended along all the stages and among a...

In this chapter we speak about some tools that have been developed exactly for design process orientation towards environmentally sustainable solutions. These are divided up and described according to the different stages at which they are used; • Tools developed for certain environmental goals • Tools for product LCD • Tools for design for eco-eff...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the hypothesis that it is fruitful to study new areas within research for sustainability, through experimental education courses, that are based on international and multilateral (transcultural) learning processes. Design/methodology/approach This way of introducing education into open research iss...

The present paper attempts to establish a connection between lean construction and sustainable design on the issue of waste reduction. Initially it presents the meaning of waste within the lean production theory and the correspondent heuristic approaches used in this area to reduce waste. It then presents the overall strategies adopted in sustainab...

Lo studio affronta il problema della complessità sostenibile nel campo della progettazione su diversi livelli e su variegate configurazioni e ambiti di conoscenza non nettamente delimitabili. La ricerca ha provato a individuare i problemi esistenti nell'area di studio e le loro soluzioni realizzate nei diversi ambiti disciplinari, per avere una let...

This paper underlines and debates the importance of developing specific guidelines and checklist per product typology, as tools to make eco-efficient design become a reality.The argumentation is accompanied by the description of a project commissioned by the NECTA Vending Solutions (the European leader of drinks & food vending machines) to the DIS...

Purpose This paper aims to diffuse the concept of a multi‐lateral learning process as a means to promote experimental didactics and research (and the cross‐fertilization between these two activities) in the field of design of sustainable product‐service systems (PSSs) and to consider the university campus as the locus for the design, implementation...

Lara Penin graduated in 1995 at the Architecture and Urbanism at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she worked as an architect and designer. Since April 2003 she is a PhD candidate at the Politecnico di Milano, at the Research Unit Design and Innovation for Sustainability. In November 2003 she took...

The product service systems’ (PSS) sustainability potential is described in the framework of the new types of stakeholder relationships and/or partnerships, producing new convergence of economic interests, and a potential concomitant systemic resources optimization.In this perspective, it is argued that the design competencies should move towards t...

This paper is a contribution to the debate on the redefinition of needs and perspectives of university level education in the field of sustainable design. It discusses the role of design research in relation to the production of new educational forms, methods and tools for a new generation of designers (and designer educators) enabling them to more...

Trata-se do desenvolvimento de produtos sustentáveis a partir da fase de conscientizaçäo acerca da centralidade estratégica da sustentabilidade ambiental dos objetos industriais (AU)

A case study has been carried out to redesign a telephone with basic functions. The aims of the project were to apply a Life Cycle Design (LCD) approach to redesigning a product in order to extend its working life and that of the materials used, so as to reduce overall environmental impact, and to evaluate the methods and tools used. In redesigning...

1) [sections 2.0, 4.1 and 5.0] and Fabrizio Ceschin (1) [sections 1.0, 3.0 and 4.2] Abstract The paper presents the intermediate results of an on-going research project called Vehicle Design Summit (VDS), run by an international Consortium of Universities coordinated by the MIT of Boston. The project aims at designing and prototyping an eco-efficie...