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Food and nutrition systems are linked to all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which makes their transition toward social-ecological behavior patterns crucial for an overarching sustainability transformation. The perspective of (urban) logistics is of special interest. It couples the production and consumption physically and virtually. In this context, we shed light on the design of the turnover point of food in urban areas from the supply chain toward consumers and contribute to an overarching systemic perspective toward establishing a sustainable multilevel food system. We describe current patterns in urban food systems and propose several principles for sustainable design of (urban) food systems based on concepts such as (regional) collaboration and food literacy. Using these principles, we provide four design scenarios that concretely imagine future urban food consumption and production patterns titled "slow stock supply service," "deliver into the daily walk," "central district food depot," "super food action place." With this work we provide a starting for reflecting whether certain combinations of principles actually lead to patterns of daily life that are feasible, acceptable, or desirable. Moreover, we provide an initial qualitative assessment to stimulate further research that explores scenario pathways and incorporates additional indicators regarding the impact on social-ecological. We open up various research questions with regard to the overarching question of how urban food logistics should be designed to be consistent with the SDGs.
The impending climate catastrophe gives rise to an increased environmental awareness among many designers, who direct their work towards the paradigm of sustainability. While designing with an "ecological lens" is necessarily oriented towards the future, we highlight the past as an inspiring realm to explore. Rather than recycling materials, we encourage the recycling of ideas as a combination of historiographic and speculative design methods.
We will present a framework that extends the idea of design as a "projecting" activity into the idea of design as a constant negotiation process about the relevance and appropriateness of current and past technologies. Design revolves not just about what will be, but to a large extent about what should remain and what should recur, or as Jan Michl put it: "seeing design as redesign" (Michl 2002). We will illustrate the thought of designing futures with pasts by means of a research project that aims at developing a refrigerator for circular economy. The refrigerator - as the currently dominant technology to preserve food - will serve as a starting point to show how artefacts and architecture as well as human skills and knowledge in the preparation and preservation of food are historically interlinked. The history of food preservation unfolds not only along the evolution of the refrigerator, but encompasses household techniques like smoking, curing and fermenting, as well as long-forgotten architectural "answers" such as deep-freeze community buildings. We will revisit three historical examples of food preservation and present the method ‘throwing’ past ideas into the future.
Three main arguments are presented in this richly illustrated paper: First, that historiography is a form of designing, second, that designing is constituted and influenced by path dependencies (cf. David 1985) that are deeply rooted in the past and third, that the past is a valuable source of inspiration when designing for sustainable development. Looking at history becomes a way of "mental window shopping" (Simon 1985, 188) for approaches that are to be reactivated and transformed.
The circle is a ubiquitous metaphor in the current scientific and political debate on possible strategies for coping with the changes brought by the so-called "Anthropocene". Terms such as "recycling", "upcycling", "downcycling", "life cycle" or "circular economy" all refer to the same geometric shape, which in turn can be found in numerous diagrams illustrating the respective design approaches and political strategies. But how does the circle shape the way we think and act as designers? Is it an appropriate metaphor to guide us to feasible actions, or is its degree of simplification too far removed from reality? In this article we look at the circular economy as a designed model, and question the circle as a communication tool for the cultural project of sustainability. As the circle may carry the risk of an oversimplified, unattainable, even disillusioning ideal, we discuss various alternative images and forms for their potential to become metaphors of alternative models. The hole, the plate, the pasture, the wheel, the mill wheel, the hamster wheel, the vortex, the double helix, the spider web and the rhizome - as metaphors, they each open up different perspectives and approaches to reality, they each construct different relationships and dependencies between nature and culture. The aim of this article is less about postulating the end of the circle as a metaphor in the sustainability debate, as it is about to fathom the circle's ends as a metaphorical tool. In other words, when does the metaphor of the circle become too abstract? As designers we can say that falling in love with a form right at the beginning of a design process can be rather limiting, as hardly any alternatives will be considered, and all further decisions are subordinated to achieving the desired shape. Therefore, we would like to emphasise the contingency of the circular economy as a model. We would like to welcome the thought that the circle has an "end".
Next to primary functions, energy-related products have an increasing number of additional functions. This affects the overall environmental footprint, but the question is how? A number of European policy strategies, initiatives and measures, such as the Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan,the Ecodesign Directive and the EU Energy Labelling, aim to ensure that the environmental impact of the overall product is better determined, communicated and finally reduced. A core element of these efforts is the DIN EN 4555x series of standards. However, there is currently no comprehensive and systematic classification of the additional product functions or an approach to assess the associated positive and negative environmental impacts. Therefore, we present in this study an environmental assessment approach for additional product functions and illustrate its application in the case of fridge-freezers. A key element of the life-cycle-oriented methodology is an assessment matrix to categorize and evaluate the direct, indirect and systemic impacts of products' functions. Based on semi-quantitative assessments of experts, the matrix provides an indication of how the additional function affects the overall environmental product impact as well as specific product aspects such as durability or reparability. Based on the results experts can discuss and better understand how specific functions can influence various stages of the product life cycle and how intended systemic changes or rebound effects could occur. As part of the approach, a representative survey was conducted to analyze consumers' knowledge and information needs. Based on the results, recommendations for purchasing decisions and the consumer information were developed. This paper presents the results from the assessment of the additional functions of fridge-freezers. Furthermore, the paper highlights practical experiences made from applying the presented approach. Conclusions are drawn on the potential of the approach to develop a more comprehensive understanding of additional product functions supporting circular design strategies and sustainable purchasing decisions of consumers.
Die Kurzstudie ist eine Entscheidungshilfe, um die potenzielle Einführung eines Reparierbarkeits-Index (R-Score) für Klima- und Einzelraumheizgeräte im Rahmen der Ökodesign-Richtlinie besser bewerten zu können. Das Ziel der Studie ist es, die Relevanz der Reparierbarkeit von diesen Gerätegruppen einschätzen zu können. Für die Ermittlung der Problemrelevanz wurde eine Befragung durchgeführt, sodass Stimmen von herstellenden Firmen und Verbänden, Großhandel, Installateur*innen, Handwerksbetrieben und Reparatureinrichtungen aufgenommen werden konnten. Die Autor*innen sprechen sich grundsätzlich bei beiden Produktgruppen für die Einführung eines Reparierbarkeits-Index aus und weisen darauf hin, dass für diese Produktgruppen die unabhängige Bewertung der Produktlebensdauer ein wichtiger Hebel ist, um die produktbezogenen Umweltauswirkungen zu reduzieren.
Im Projekt wird ein kreislauffähiges Produktdesign für Kühl-/Gefriergeräte auf Basis von im Labor- und Industriemaßstab ermittelten Daten entwickelt, das gleichermaßen energie- als auch ressourceneffizient ist. Übergreifendes Ziel war die modellhafte Weiterentwicklung eines Konsumgutes, das neben dem bereits bestehenden Fokus auf Energieeffizienz auch das Thema Ressourceneffizienz in den Blick nimmt. In der Konzeptphase wurden dazu verschiedene Ansätze entwickelt und mit einem Bewertungs- und Entscheidungstool ergänzt, das als Standard für weitere Konsumgüter dienen kann. Dabei wurde ein übertragbares Designkonzept zur Kreislaufführung der verwendeten Materialien von Konsumgütern am Beispiel eines Kühl-/Gefriergerät-Prototyps erstellt.
Da die dafür erforderlichen Daten in der Literatur sowie über öffentlich zugängliche Datenbanken nicht vorhanden bzw. für Forschungseinrichtungen zugänglich waren, wurden diese über Labor- und Großversuch beim Recycling-Unternehmen Stena (Recular) selbst und damit in jedem Schritt nachvollziehbar erhoben. Auf dieser Grundlage wurden verschiedene Designoptionen, mit dem Fokus auf ein möglichst ressourceneffizientes und reparaturfreundliches Produkt zur Schaffung tatsächlich geschlossener Stoffkreisläufe
und von Möglichkeiten für Repair/Reuse sowie neuer Geschäftsmodelle, entwickelt. Die Zusammenführung der Ressourceneffizienzanalyse mit einem multiregional erweiterten Input-Output-Modell wird zukünftig die Abschätzung der Recyclingfähigkeit von Produkten bereits im Designstadium ermöglichen und dadurch ein Design-for-Repair und/oder -Recycling unterstützen.
