Ecodesign and material selection for eco-innovation in office furniture products
Author
Prendeville, Sharon
Date
2015Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This thesis focuses on eco-design trade-offs and material selection in a
Small to Medium–Sized Enterprise (SME) producing office furniture. The
rationale for undertaking this work is based on the wide acceptance that
eco-design uptake in SMEs remains low and the need for SMEs to adopt
eco-design is pressing. SMEs constitute 99.9% of UK private sector business
and it has been estimated that SMEs account for approximately 64-70% of
overall pollution from industry. Supporting SMEs in adopting eco-design is
challenging. The complexities of eco-design decision-making, poor
understanding of environmental trade-offs, limited access to relevant
information and complex eco-design methods (amongst others) negatively
affect an SME’s ability to reduce a product’s environmental impacts.
The aim of this research is to deepen understanding of eco-design by
investigating eco-design trade-offs and material selection during the
development of eco-innovative office furniture products. This improves
understanding of environmental impact reduction at the material selection
and concept stage of the design process.
The research design is an intensive single case study at Orangebox, a UK
market leader in the design and manufacture of office furniture. The case
company is selected, as a best practice example of eco-design integration
within an SME. Four embedded case studies of New Product Development
(NPD) are conducted within the main case. The research employs a multi-strategy
design using both qualitative and quantitative methods and is
delivered over two stages.
The contributions to knowledge of the thesis are (1) the identification and
description of a set of eco-design trade-offs linked to specific eco-design
strategies (design for disassembly, light-weighting, material streamlining)
and (2) the thesis argues that stakeholders play a crucial role in eco-innovative
material selection. From this, the thesis presents a conceptual
classification of a material portfolio incorporating eco-design strategies and
trade-offs to facilitate eco-innovation during NPD.
Description
PhD Thesis
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