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As reported in last year’s annual report, at the
Department of Product Design (IPD), one of
the main research themes related to indus-
trial ecology is design for sustainable be-
havior. In 2012, we have made considerable
advances in this interesting field of research,
which will lead up to two defenses in 2013, to
be reported on in next year’s annual report!
This provides the opportunity for this year’s
annual report to focus on another research
theme: management of sustainable product
development. In 2012, two dissertations were
defended that focus on this theme, both co-
supervised by Prof. Casper Boks from IPD.
Already early in 2012, on January 16, Elli
Verhulst defended her monograph disserta-
tion titled “The human side of sustainable
design implementation from the perspective
of change management” at the University of
Antwerp. Elli carried out her research partly
at IPD funded by an Yggdrasil stipend from
the Norwegian Research Council. The aim of
her dissertation was to gain insights on how
human factors influence the implementa-
tion process of sustainable design in prac-
tice. Drawing on theoretical insights from
change management and having studied
sustainable product innovation processes in
eight Belgian and Dutch companies, Elli’s re-
search results indicate that resistance during
the implementation of sustainable design
does occur, but is in practice seldom directly
connected to sustainability as the subject of
change. Indirectly however, sustainability has
been found to create two types of resistance
– organisational and practical resistance, and
resistance related to various human factors.
Whereas enthusiasm is often observed at the
introduction of sustainable design, resist-
ance is indicated to occur on the moment
when people need to change their daily hab-
its – which is illustrated by a wealth of inter-
viewee quotes in Elli’s dissertation, which by
themselves are already worth the read. Three
communication types emerge from the study
that, depending on the context, each may
provide firms with a better understanding of
how to implement sustainable design suc-
cessfully, circumventing pitfalls of employee
resistance: information spreading, support-
ing the implementation process with meth-
ods and tools, and a focus on empowerment.
Results of Elli’s research have been published
or accepted for publication in the Interna-
tional Journal of Innovation and Sustain-
able Development, the Journal of Corporate
Citizenship, IFIP Transactions, and as a book
Chapter in the Greenleaf book“Entrepreneur-
ship, Innovation and Sustainability”, edited
by. Prof. Marcus Wagner.
On August 30, 2012, Silje Helene Aschehoug
defended her dissertation titled “ Identify-
ing, Collecting, and Compiling Sustainability
Information Relevant to Norwegian Manu-
facturing Firms”. Her main supervisor was
Associate Professor Knut Aasland from the
Department of Engineering Design and Ma-
terials; Professor Sigurd Støren from the same
department was also involved. The project
was part of the Centre for Research-based
Innovation – Norwegian Manufacturing Fu-
ture (SFI Norman), funded by the Norwegian
Research Council and participating firms. The
starting point of Silje’s research was to inves-
tigate what sustainability information be-
yond the traditional aspects of product and
process data can be considered potentially
relevant, and how this could be identified,
collected, compiled, accessed and used. An
important motivation for taking on this re-
search was to help firms in their attempt and
ongoing work to develop more sustainable
products, under the assumption that sustain-
ability may be one way of adding value to
products beyond functionality, quality, and
cost, and thus increase the competitiveness
of firms.
Based on extensive case studies with a vari-
ety of firms in the Norwegian automotive and
furniture industry, Silje developed a sustain-
ability information framework with the aim
to increase sustainability knowledge in prod-
uct development and design as this is key
to increasing firms‘ ability and opportunity
to develop and manufacture more sustain-
able products. It was observed that, without
exception, an increased understanding and
knowledge of sustainability issues in general
was observed throughout the project in all
participating firms. During the first interac-
tion with the case firms, the term sustainabil-
ity was often interpreted as being equal to
environmental. After the interviews and the
following clarifying meetings, however, the
firms gained a more holistic understanding.
Even in the most evolved firm concerning
sustainability issues participating in the re-
search project, several of the product design-
ers were surprised to learn about all the dif-
ferent information elements and how broad
the sustainability concept actually is. Bearing
this in mind, the research project has been
important to the participating firms by con-
tributing to increased sustainability aware-
ness and knowledge. As one of the interview-
ees commented during a feed-back meeting:
―You being here and discussing sustainability
information issues have been more effective
for the sustainability awareness in our organ-
ization (product development) than what we
could have accomplished ourselves through
several months of work”.
Results of Silje’s research have been pub-
lished or accepted for publication in the Jour-
nal of Cleaner Production, International Jour-
nal of Sustainable Engineering, and Progress
in Industrial Ecology, as well as in various
conference proceedings.
Contact Information:
Professor Casper Boks
Department of Product Design, NTNU
casper.boks@ntnu.no
Management of Sustainable Product Development
-
by Casper Boks
RESEARCH