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Our perception of design is changing, for design today is no longer concerned only with aesthetics. Now the key factors are interdisciplinary competence and approaches to problem solving. Both politicians as well as businesses recognise design's hybridity and increasingly implement it as a driver of sustainable development (see Chap. 2: Design as a Key Management Factor for Sustainability).
But what exactly does "sustainability" mean? What does it mean in this specific context? People must make use of natural resources to meet their basic needs. In this process, resources are transferred into commercial circulation and usually transformed into products with a particular function. Yet the environment is limited and humanity uses more resources than the Earth can sustainably provide. It is time to rethink and generate the same usage while consuming fewer resources (see Chap. 3: Environmental Space - Challenging Transitions).
Most countries have incorporated sustainability strategies into their political agendas in order to counteract the threats of climate change caused by the overuse of natural resources, high CO2 emissions, and other factors. The indicators for these strategies vary greatly from country to country (see Chap. 4: Sustainability - Challenges, Politics, Indicators).
These indicators need to be taken into account if we are to successfully implement a product or service within a specific context. A concept can only be successful when country-specific indicators are taken into account and the societal context is incorporated into the plan right from the start. The goal is to develop services that support national sustainability targets in production and consumption systems (see Chap. 5: Managing Sustainable Development).
When it comes to companies, these changes can simply be introduced in the form of services or products. In the end, it is the users who decide on the success or failure of innovative solutions by either integrating them into their daily lives or ignoring them. Solutions will only be integrated into users' lives when their role within the social framework remains unchallenged by behavioural transformations caused by use of the solution. In order for users to be able to adopt innovations, sustainable development must take place simultaneously on many different levels. These multi-levelled transitions allow for the transformation of society as a whole. Designers can act as agents of change by providing the needed innovations (see Chap. 6: Transition Requires Change Agents for Sustainability).
If we are to develop suitable solutions and new approaches, the real needs have to be analysed at the beginning of the development process. New physical products, which frequently result in auxiliary products, are often developed without taking into account the overall context, whereas the development of service-orientated solutions is ignored. A physical product is not absolutely necessary. A service (which is naturally dependent on physical products) can usually fulfil the need just as well - or perhaps even better and at a lower cost – while using fewer or no resources (see Chap. 7: Needs & Services - An Approach). There are a variety of possible approaches to integrate sustainability into the design process (see Chap. 8: Design Process).
Precisely which solution is "most or more sustainable" (this is dependent on the defined targets and the indicators used) is often not immediately obvious, and we must turn to a set of methods for a transparent and tangible assessment (see Chap. 9: Sustainability Assessment in Design - Overview and Integration of Methods).
The article argues for a need to overcome a conventional notion of product design. In this regard, the article offers an integrative and systemic approach to sustainable design. Instead of focusing on objects, a user-centred perspective is adopted. A sustainable design of products and services requires the integration of production-orientated (efficiency and consistency) and consumption-orientated (sufficiency) strategies. The article introduces the concept of an indicator that is capable of comprehending a lifecycle-wide analysis of products and that favours the integration of existing sustainability strategies. The goal is not to design sustainable products but rather to design systems that manage to foster sustainable lifestyles. The article illustrates the usability of the introduced concept by showing examples of strategic integrative thinking in sustainable design from the Sustainable Summer Schools.
Das dematerialisierte Design
(2013)
This paper argues that the contemporary growth paradigm needs to be reconsidered on a micro level of consumption and product service-systems. This becomes necessary since a dynamic link between macro strategies and micro implementation of sustainable growth is missing up to date. Therefore, mainstream sustainability strategies of efficiency and consistency are extended by sufficiency in order to integrate strategies for individual welfare within their social environment. Limits to and drivers for growth are revised and updated socially in terms of qualitative values, diminishing marginal utility or symbolic social distinction. We elaborate a definition of sustainable growth that fosters individual welfare by enhancing social enactment within the boundaries of environmental space. Shifting focus on social aspects in design fosters more sustainable production and consumption patterns while sustaining individual welfare. We derive latent indications for eco-intelligent product service-arrangements and evaluate to concepts by referring to introduced definitions and according indications. With doing so, we illustrate new pathways for the translation of sustainable growth and strategies into product service-systems.
In contrast to the original investigation by William Stanley Jevons, compensations of energy savings due to improved energy efficiency are mostly analyzed by providing energy consumption or greenhouse gas emissions. In support of a sustainable resource management, this paper analyzes so-called rebound effects based on resource use. Material flows and associated expenditures by households allow for calculating resource intensities and marginal propensities to consume. Marginal propensities to consume are estimated from data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in order to account for indirect rebound effects for food, housing and mobility. Resource intensities are estimated in terms of total material requirements per household final consumption expenditures along the Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose (COICOP). Eventually, rebound effects are indicated on the basis of published saving scenarios in resource and energy demand for Germany. In sum, compensations due to rebound effects are lowest for food while the highest compensations are induced for mobility. This is foremost the result of a relatively high resource intensity of food and a relatively low resource intensity in mobility. Findings are provided by giving various propensity scenarios in order to cope with income differences in Germany. The author concludes that policies on resource conservation need to reconsider rebound effects under the aspect of social heterogeneity.
Das Ziel dieser Basisstudie ist es Ursachen für Rebound-Effekte und potentielle Gegenmaßnahmen aufzuzeigen. Zudem sollen Möglichkeiten zur Beobachtung und Verringerung von Rebound-Effekten in Living Labs beschrieben werden.
Dieses Arbeitspapier ist ein Ergebnis aus dem Arbeitspaket 1 "Bestandsaufnahme des Innovationsumfeldes für Living Labs" im Rahmen des Projektes "Living Labs in der Green Economy: Realweltliche Innovationsräume für Nutzerintegration und Nachhaltigkeit" (INNOLAB), das im Rahmen der Sozial-ökologischen Forschung zum Themenschwerpunkt "Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften" vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung gefördert wird.
Die Basisstudie stützt sich auf eine Literaturanalyse von ausgewählten Schlüsselstudien sowie auf fünf Experteninterviews und deren Inhaltsanalyse.
Es zeigt sich, dass sowohl technologische Innovationen als auch Verhaltensänderungen als Auslöser von Rebound-Effekten unterschieden werden. Von diesen Auslösern ausgehend, entstehen zunächst unmittelbare Effekte, die dann Rebound- Effekte über drei unterschiedliche Mechanismen bewirken können: über monetäre Effekte (also aufgrund von Geldeinsparungen), über Zeiteffekte (also aufgrund von Zeiteinsparungen) und über sozial-psychologische Effekte. Rebound-Effekte können sich durch die Reinvestition eingesparter Geld- und Zeitbudgets im Bedarfsfeld der ursprünglichen Einsparung (als direkte Rebound-Effekte) oder in einem anderen Bedarfsfeld (als indirekte Rebound-Effekte) ergeben, siehe nachfolgende Abbildung.
Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes wurde auf der Ebene von privaten Haushalten untersucht, in welchem Ausmaß eine Bedürfnisbefriedigung mit materiellen Gütern innerhalb der Randbedingungen von globaler Gerechtigkeit, einer nachhaltigen Rohstoffnutzung und einer umweltverträglichen Gesellschaft möglich ist. Zur Bestimmung des Rohstoffbedarfs langlebiger Haushaltsgüter wurden das methodische Konzept der Verfügungskorridore entwickelt und empirisch fundiert sowie global tragfähige Ausstattungen für verschiedene Haushalte prototypisch dargestellt. Das im Rahmen des Projekts entwickelte Webtool veranschaulicht wesentliche Ergebnisse des Forschungsvorhabens. Vor dem Hintergrund ihrer eigenen Haushaltsausstattungen wird den Nutzer/-innen des Webtools das Forschungsthema "Rohstoffverbrauch und Nachhaltigkeit" exemplarisch veranschaulicht, wodurch eine konkrete Reflexion des eigenen Konsumverhaltens ermöglicht wird.
In early September 2014, about 4.000 scientists, activists and artists at the 4th International Conference on Degrowth sent out two messages.
1. Industrialized societies will change, either by disaster or by design. Accelerated resource exploitation and climate change can force societies into a transition. Or they swiftly develop new forms of economic, political and social organization which respect the planetary boundaries.
2. "Degrowth" has become a new social movement which translates scientific insights into cultural change, political change and social practice. Hence, the conference itself was an experiment on the potentials and limits of share economy, commoning and sufficiency.
A team of young scholars and activists from different German research institutes and non-govern- mental organisations prepared the conference. The team of the Wuppertal Institute was partly involved in the preperation of the conference. Scientists from all research groups took part in the conference, presenting and discussing project results.
The publication is a collection of contributions of the Wuppertal Institute to the conference and covers pivotal issues of the degrowth-debate: indicator development (Freyling & Schepelmann), working time reduction (Buhl), feminist theory (Biesecker & Winterfeld), and urban transition (Best).
Die Transformationsprozesse hin zu einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung sind komplex.
Wie kann Wissenschaft dazu beitragen, dass neue Lösungen und Ideen in der Praxis zu Veränderung führen? Dieser Frage gehen die Autorinnen und Autoren am Beispiel der Gebäudeenergiewende nach. Eine transformative Forschung, die den neutralen Beobachterposten verlässt, braucht entsprechende Konzepte und Methoden: Wie kann Wissen aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen und aus der Praxis integriert werden, um komplexe Sachverhalte und Zusammenhänge zu erklären und zu verstehen? Welche Rolle spielen komplexe (agentenbasierte) Modelle und Experimente dabei? Wie sieht der Methodenmix einer transformativen Wissenschaft aus, die Akteure bei Transformationsprozessen aktiv unterstützt? Illustriert werden diese Fragen am Beispiel des vom BMBF geförderten Forschungsprojektes "EnerTransRuhr".
Rebound-Effekte sind die unerwünschten Wirkungen vieler Nachhaltigkeitsbemühungen. Gleichzeitig zeigen sie, dass gespartes Geld und gewonnene Zeit wieder reinvesitiert werden, damit wir mehr vom Leben haben, mehr tun und mehr erleben können - Rebound-Effekte sind Teil des Steigerungsspiels.
Auf der Grundlage soziologischer Theorien der Steigerung und Beschleunigung liefert das Buch eine umfassende Empirie zu indirekten Einkommens-, aber vor allem zu Zeiteffekten in Deutschland. Im Zentrum der empirischen Studien steht die Überprüfung einer dreifachen Dividende von Arbeitszeitverkürzungen - Ressourcenschonung, soziales Engagement und individuelle Lebenszufriedenheit. Zwar kompensieren Zeit-Rebound-Effekte potenzielle Ressourceneinsparungen in großen Teilen, aber nicht vollständig. Davon abgesehen äußern sich Zeit-Rebound-Effekte in ehrenamtlichem Engagement und individueller Zufriedenheit - erwünschte Wirkungen von Rebound-Effekten.