Sustainable Design Implementation – Measuring Environmental Impact and User Responsibility

Abstract

Sustainable design in product development has mul-tiple roles in addressing an increased level of sustain-ability. This includes reducing resource consumption and modifying user behaviors to become more eco-friendly. However, these functions are typically as-sessed separately, despite a proposed mutual corre-lation. This paper proposes a framework for defining this correlation. By using the correlated functions in parallel, one can enhance the product development process, and this will strengthen the use of sustainable design as a powerful design tool for future products. A practical approach for implementation is needed, which should show the benefit of the design both from the environmental aspect and a change in the responsibility of users. The primary goal of this manuscript is to propose an approach to fill this gap, using experi-ments to explore the effect of a washing machine mod-ification project in Indonesia. Resource consumption while doing the laundry is measured as a represen-tation of the environmental impact, while the users’ predisposition for environmental responsibility incli-nation is analyzed by scaling the responsibility. The results show that the sustainable design strategy is ef-fective in reducing the environmental impact, while si-multaneously increasing the environmental responsibility of users. Further study is required to define the correlation between the measured factors to formulate a well-developed theory related to this correlation.