Promotion of sustainable product development in the Baltic Sea region: Development of a transnational Learning Factory for Ecodesign

Authors: Max Marwede, Andre Paukstadt, Florian Hofmann, Christian Clemm and Tapani Jokinen

Type of publication: Report

Background
Ecologically aware product design will play a key role in the evolution of consumer habits and a commercial environment that is more sustainable for both our limited resources and our world’s climate. Product developers and designers can determine the ecological fate of their output from their original designs across the entire lifecycle of the resulting products and services. The use of secondary materials, the working life expectancy of products, and the ability to maintain, repair, and recycle products are all crucial criteria to be considered when a new product is developed (Umweltbundesamt 2015a, 2015b).
In spite of the proliferation of research projects and initiatives in the field of ecodesign and the circular economy, the concepts and methods that have indeed arrived in corporate practice remain far and few between. One of the steepest challenges seems to lie in the simple lack of applied knowhow in businesses (Maurer 2018; Graulich et al. 2017). This has motivated the German Environment Agency (UBA) to commission the “Development of a Transnational Ecodesign Learning Factory”.

Reference
M. Marwede, A. Paukstadt, F. Hofmann, C. Clemm, T. Jokinen. 2019. Promotion of sustainable product development in the Baltic Sea region: Development of a transnational Learning Factory for Ecodesign. Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM.