Public announcement if you haven’t realised yet: I am switching to writing monthly PhD Updates from now on. Yet, the last month has been eventful to say the least. Next to turning 27, almost month ago, I have been working on multiple projects.
First of all, I have been super eager to turn my essay into a possible thesis chapter. I realised in that process that while the essay writing has helped to structure my thinking and uncover where I might be making illogical or too big steps in my story. Writing a thesis chapter proved to bet too big of a step for now. Through meetings with my supervisors I realized that—ambitious as I am— that I was trying to describe the world and include all details. Instead, I was adviced to keep it small and include only the relevant topics (me: but everything is important, right?). While I initially thought I was slacking cause it took me so long to describe everything, I realised that I should tone down my ambitions and that I can should be super happy with my progress. In short, writing is a long and sometimes tedious process, but I feel like I'm getting better at it every day. Deciding to write a blog has helped me improve my writing as well.
My main view towards why my research is relevant: design for a circular economy expands the design for sustainability domain, resulting in a re-evalution and possible expansion of the sustainable design competencies Why, you might ask? While the design for sustainability domain has been expanding the focus has mostly been on social and environmental topics (looking at literature). Looking at (design for) sustainability from a business perspective there can be said that is has been mostly culminated in CSR. The circular economy has put an emphasis on developing viable solutions that contribute to sustainable futures. This results in design increasingly having to consider the business model aspects while simultaneously developing the product. In addition, value recover (vs. value destroyed after sales) asks for design to consider the whole system (e.g., engaging customers to bring back products, determining reverse logistics implications,
Second, the circular design interviews. In the interviews I have conducted with design practitioners working in the circular design space, I encountered a lot of challenges that could be equated with sustainability dilemmas. For example, using recycled content in products. While this results in a lower input of virgin materials (and thus not having to mine and produce new materials) this could mean a higher use of the recycled materials or creating a product that doesn’t last as long. Thinking about all these sustainability dilemmas that the designers get confronted with, I was wondering whether the designers that are currently being trained should just know that when in their work they will encounter this or whether they should actually get access to more predictive tools that could help them review the consequences of different scenarios. One of the tools that focuses on this is the circularity calculator developed by IDEO, but what other tools are there out there? Could it be that designers need to learn about the nuts and bolts or is does it require them to just deal with uncertainty?
A last, more indirect reflection, in relation to the interviews is about the fact that there are different perspectives towards the circular economy. While, as an academic, I have one view as to what circular economy is about… the interviewee might have another one. For example, I see circular economy as a way to contribute to a sustainable future. Deducing from that, my interest goes out to talk to practitioners who are rethinking current solutions and even (re)designing solutions to eventually create a system without waste. However, does that mean that a designer working with waste streams to solve the current waste problem is not doing circular activities? I find myself constantly moving between what they call the more absolute, theoretical view on sustainability and a more relative practical approach used in the real world.
Enough contemplations for this time. Some good news! The abstract that I submitted in January for the PLATE conference 2019 in Berlin, has been accepted, so I have to work my ass off in the upcoming month to write and submit the full paper in June. I will also be analysing interviews that I have done with 10 design practitioners in the previous months and extending my theoretical framework. Moreover, I am involved as an expert in the supervisory team of a graduation student and will be finishing of a collaborative project. More about the outcomes in the next blog. In addition, I started a course called Design your next Career Move. It might seem early, but three years have almost passed. So. while I am aiming to submit 3 more papers by the end of this year I also have to start thinking about what I want to do next because this year will be over in a heartbeat as well.
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Interesting pilots that I have encountered in the last months:
Ikea planning to do a lease of a furniture set (€30 p/m) to students. This article (in Dutch) talks about what the perceived benefits are and indirectly touches upon whether it makes sense for the students to use this.
H&M aiming for more transparency by opening up about its supplier list and locations. I’m looking forward to see what other brands will do.