A new circular economy conception for sustainable product design

Abstract The design phase has a significant impact on a product's environmental footprint. To design sustainable products effectively, designers can make use of concepts from circular economy (CE) research. A plethora of conceptions of the CE (CECs) with links to sustainable product design can be found in the literature; however, we argue that they are incomplete and thereby miss effectiveness in enabling circular and sustainable product design. The aim of this paper is threefold: (i) We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of existing CE conceptions (CECs) and derive criteria for a reconception. (ii) Based on this, we propose a novel design approach with the newly developed conceptual CE design diagram (CEDD) in the center. (iii) The link between the CEDD to sustainable product design is established via four areas of decision (AoDs), which encompass CE strategies. One AoD has an overarching position, while the remaining AoDs are located along the three life cycle stages, production, use phase, and end of life, and should be considered jointly during design. Applied together, the CEDD with our design approach supports the structured generation and selection of sustainable design alternatives. Workshops were carried out to perform an initial validation of the conception. The proposition of CEDD and AoDs is targeted at a more effective product design for sustainability, thereby supporting a timely sustainability transition of the economy.