Identifying Sustainability Attributes of Products/Services with Ergoecology

Abstract

There are multiple tools in the market to define the scope of sustainable products in terms of their attributes [1], and sustainable corporate guidelines [2]. However, considering the principles of Hannover [3], the so-called “Social” aspects from the traditional TBL [4] are not incorporated into decision-making enough. Besides, some tools do not offer the possibility to adapt the decision-making process to the contexts or make decisions with more technical arguments. In the scenario of sustainable design teaching, the scope of products could be better supported in technical aspects when responding to ambiguous requirements such as “developing a sustainable product”. In this situation, the framework of Green Ergonomics [5] and the Ergoecology [6] with its “eco-concepts” well developed, can help to ground product design in specific sustainability attributes.