The appraisal of sustainable materials

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand how users appraise sustainable materials. Using think-aloud sessions, appraisals of sustainable materials embodied in products were collected from users and categorised. To account for the appraisal of aspects such as origin, use and end of life of materials, we have extended a previous categorisation of material appraisals to include a systemic theme. The results stress the importance of the sensorial and semantic themes and the existence of relationships between appraisal themes. This understanding is useful to facilitate the uptake of sustainable materials.