Sustainable Design Research
Evidence you can design with
Sustainability claims are easy to make and hard to verify. The research here measures actual environmental outcomes — energy, emissions, material flows, product lifespan — rather than intent.
Coverage includes lifecycle assessment (LCA), circular economy and design for disassembly, repairability and product longevity, recycled and bio-based materials, packaging impact, energy use in production and use phase, and consumer behaviour around sustainable products.
Where a study reports a trade-off, the summary keeps it: a lighter material can reduce transport emissions while making a product harder to recycle.
Questions this research helps answer
- Does design for repairability actually extend product life?
- Which lifecycle stage dominates a product's footprint?
- How do consumers respond to sustainability signals on products?
Sustainable Design research on DesignDex covers lifecycle assessment, circular design, design for disassembly, repairability, recycled materials, packaging impact. Part of 8 design research topics.