Renee Wever
Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Faculty Member
- Green Marketing, Sustainable Design, Packaging Design, Design For Sustainable Behaviour, Sustainable Packaging Design, Front end of innovation, and 10 moreSustainable Development, Innovation statistics, Industrial Design, Design Research, Energy and Environment, Design Innovation, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Technology And Culture, Environmental Sustainability, and Multidisciplinary design practicesedit
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The classical method to compare the environmental impact or eco-burden of different packaging designs is to use life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA requires a functional unit to compare unequal concepts on an ‘equal’ footing, for instance by... more
The classical method to compare the environmental impact or eco-burden of different packaging designs is to use life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA requires a functional unit to compare unequal concepts on an ‘equal’ footing, for instance by comparing three 0,5 litre bottles, with one 1,5 litre bottle. Creating this ‘equal’ footing usually ignores the very reason for having the differences in the first place. This paper uses the ecocosts/value ratio, or EVR, as a methodology for dealing with the environmental assessment of packaging design alternatives with unequal functionality, while incorporating their different value. The value is here the price of an existing product, or the Willingness to Pay of a new product design. The EVR model will be applied to several product portfolios, namely for bottled water and for table salt. These portfolios consist of groups of products, where the product, the brand and the retail outlet are identical, and only the contained volume, the packaging de...
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Research Interests: Engineering and Charter
Context change is regarded as an opportunity to intervene people’s daily doings towards a sustainable direction. Looking at this opportunity from a product and service design perspective, in order to introduce design interventions, the... more
Context change is regarded as an opportunity to intervene people’s daily doings towards a sustainable direction. Looking at this opportunity from a product and service design perspective, in order to introduce design interventions, the question of how people actually transit their behavioural routines when they are undergoing context change. As the first step to approach this question, in the paper we present the use of activity theory as a theoretical lens to systematically describe and analyze the process and outcomes that context change has in influencing people’s daily doings. First, we report in detail on how we construct an activity based analytical approach to analyze the transition and development process when people are undergoing context change. Then, we illustrate the practical use of our model in a case study for understanding the influences that context change has in South-East Asian exchange students’ food consumption activities. In the end, we summarize our findings a...
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The Circular Design (L4IDS- Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability) project was conceived by members of the EESD network following a three-year application and development stage to secure funding under the European Union... more
The Circular Design (L4IDS- Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability) project was conceived by members of the EESD network following a three-year application and development stage to secure funding under the European Union Erasmus + Knowledge Alliance scheme. The Partners include four academic institutions, four design led SMEs and four national or regional design representative bodies fromCatalonia, Sweden, Netherlands and Ireland. The goal of this Circular Design project is to support the development of skills necessary to promote sustainable production and consumption of products and services in Europe. The project falls within the Innovation, Higher Education and Business area and is aligned with European policies on the Circular Economy. Design has a key role to play in developing innovative solutions to current local and global challenges – approaches that must consider the needs of end users and integrate sustainability criteria in processes and strategies for creati...
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Over the recent years, Industrial Design Engineering students at Linkoping University havefrequently been observed to go directly from sketches into CAD, without making simple sketchmodels for eval ...
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Context change is regarded as an opportunity to intervene people’s daily doings towards a sustainable direction. Looking at this opportunity from a product and service design perspective, in order to introduce design interventions, the... more
Context change is regarded as an opportunity to intervene people’s daily doings towards a sustainable direction. Looking at this opportunity from a product and service design perspective, in order to introduce design interventions, the question of how people actually transit their behavioural routines when they are undergoing context change. As the first step to approach this question, in the paper we present the use of activity theory as a theoretical lens to systematically describe and analyze the process and outcomes that context change has in influencing people’s daily doings. First, we report in detail on how we construct an activity based analytical approach to analyze the transition and development process when people are undergoing context change. Then, we illustrate the practical use of our model in a case study for understanding the influences that context change has in South-East Asian exchange students’ food consumption activities. In the end, we summarize our findings a...
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With new technologies and demands from industry, universities need to adapt in order to educate engineers suited for the job market of tomorrow. Focusing on the fields of product development and mechanical engineering, topics such as new... more
With new technologies and demands from industry, universities need to adapt in order to educate engineers suited for the job market of tomorrow. Focusing on the fields of product development and mechanical engineering, topics such as new lightweight materials and lightweight designs are currently a focus of many industries, and the demand from industry is that engineers graduating should have some knowledge in these fields. In this case, a project was set up for a student-developed laboratory exercise in lightweight material, focusing on the interconnection between material properties, geometry and manufacturing technology in order to fulfil a contextual requirement. The industry chosen was the aircraft industry, due to its heavy emphasis on light weight. The chosen component (a civil aircraft radome) meant that material properties not necessarily connected to high specific strength became important, something that adds educational value to the exercise. Since the introduction of th...
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The continuous management of a manufacturing company's product portfolio is a key aspect of successful product development. Managers determine when and which products should be updated or terminated. This process influences inhouse... more
The continuous management of a manufacturing company's product portfolio is a key aspect of successful product development. Managers determine when and which products should be updated or terminated. This process influences inhouse Industrial design teams, thus prompting a range of development strategies they might deploy. In product portfolio management there is a tension between standardisation and customisation. From a marketing perspective this is may be addressed through brand DNA, from engineering through modularization. The design perspective (merging those two) has been ill-explored, particularly from professional designers. Previously we proposed a theoretical model describing different industrial design projects and how they influence industrial designers strategic thinking. It was developed through literature reviews and examples found in manufacturing industry. Through a multi-case interview study with 16 participants from five manufacturing companies with strong bra...
Over the past decade, the field of design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) has gained a growing amount of research interest. However, as the field evolves, new challenges also arise. A suitable unit of analysis is needed to contextualize... more
Over the past decade, the field of design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) has gained a growing amount of research interest. However, as the field evolves, new challenges also arise. A suitable unit of analysis is needed to contextualize users’ behaviour issues in a broader socio-cultural and long-term perspective. This paper explores the use of activity theory (AT) as a potential lens for guiding empirical analysis and design exploration in DfSB. By employing a meta-synthesis approach, we systematically search and synthesize existing studies that adopted AT in design for sustainability. Key findings show that AT’s principles and theoretical implications are especially useful for helping design researchers frame and address DfSB challenges. We argue that by taking activity as the unit of analysis, the AT lens can enable researchers to incorporate users’ dynamic, multi-level and complex activity systems into DfSB considerations.
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With the pressure of growing environmental problems, the world is changing, and so is the paradigm of design. Accordingly, the calls for change in design education are increasing throughout the literature day by day. As the designers of... more
With the pressure of growing environmental problems, the world is changing, and so is the paradigm of design. Accordingly, the calls for change in design education are increasing throughout the literature day by day. As the designers of the future, students must be prepared for alternative scenarios. This paper provides insights into students’ learning outcomes and competencies related to repair and sustainability in the context of an assignment that integrates repair into design education. This assignment has been part of the master’s degree design course at Linköping University for the last 3 years. During these 3 years, 52 repair projects, including a diverse range of products, were developed. Aiming to find out the insights of this process, focus group sessions were conducted. As a result of these focus group sessions, 12 insights were developed, such as the concepts of brokenness, designed repair, and repair-worthy objects. Findings show that practices of repair constitute comp...
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On-pack date and storage labeling is one of the direct information carriers used by the food industry to communicate product shelf-life attributes to consumers. However, it is also one of the major factors that contribute to consumer food... more
On-pack date and storage labeling is one of the direct information carriers used by the food industry to communicate product shelf-life attributes to consumers. However, it is also one of the major factors that contribute to consumer food waste issues. This study aims to systematically understand the existing tensions within the current date and storage labeling system and explore the potential opportunities for design to intervene. First, we conducted a literature review to identify tensions that the consumer encounters in their food edibility assessment system and summarize the corresponding proposal for actions. 12 tensions and 16 proposals for action were identified and further framed according to a conceptual model developed in this study. Following this, the literature findings were refined and grounded in co-creation sessions in consumer workshops and industry practitioner interviews to develop specific labeling-related design implications. The findings indicate the importanc...
Research Interests: Design and Sustainability
While pen-and-paper sketches is generally considered the best tool for design ideation, there are certain areas of design where the ideas being generated do not easily lend themselves to sketching. This study reports on two cases that... more
While pen-and-paper sketches is generally considered the best tool for design ideation, there are certain areas of design where the ideas being generated do not easily lend themselves to sketching. This study reports on two cases that explores the use of game engines in combination with Virtual Reality (VR) to visualize lighting in the automotive industry. In the first case, the exterior lights of a car were visualized using Unreal Engine 4 and evaluated using research through design and expert interviews. In the second case, Unreal Engine VR Editor was used to explore ideation and concept development of interior lighting in long haulage trucks. The insights from the cases suggest that game engines and VR can be used to quickly develop and display ideas, concepts and scenarios in the early phases of the lighting design process. These strengths suggest that game engines and VR also have the potential to support design ideation for other types of design.
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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the intermediary role of universities in spreading design for sustainability into industry. Design/methodology/approach Three case studies were undertaken on Delft University of Technology, Design... more
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the intermediary role of universities in spreading design for sustainability into industry. Design/methodology/approach Three case studies were undertaken on Delft University of Technology, Design for Sustainability Program from The Netherlands; a center on sustainable consumption and production; and Prof. Göksel Demirer from Middle East Technical University, Environmental Engineering Department from Turkey. Findings The process and evolution of the intermediary roles of the cases are explained. Three types of structures, through which universities undertake intermediary role, are investigated via the cases studies, a program, a center and an individual scientist. Originality/value This study is a first attempt to investigate the intermediary role of universities in the design for sustainability field.
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Abstract In Vietnam, the middle class is expected to grow from 12 million to 33 million people between 2012 and 2020. The growth causes an increase as well as a shift in consumption. Products that were not accessible or affordable before... more
Abstract In Vietnam, the middle class is expected to grow from 12 million to 33 million people between 2012 and 2020. The growth causes an increase as well as a shift in consumption. Products that were not accessible or affordable before will become increasingly so, such as cars, dishwashers, meat products and air-conditioning. In urban areas the changes are most prominent and so are the side effects: increased amounts of waste, smog, pollution and use of fossil energy or pesticides. The main objective of this study was to identify sustainable behaviour that followed or did not follow from the intervention project GetGreen Vietnam. 604 urban middle class consumers participated in a series of sustainable consumption trainings. Before, during and after the trainings, quantitative and qualitative data was collected on 90 sustainable actions. 64% of the participants self-reported to be engaged in a sustainable action before the intervention and this percentage increased to 80% after. The group environment and activity-based meetings of GetGreen Vietnam project (GGVN) were critical for the success of the intervention. Participants reported that before GGVN certain actions were already habitual as a money saving strategy (e.g. sparse electricity use or food leftovers re-use) or due to past scarcity (e.g. sparse water use). Many participants reported the intention to buy sustainable products but fewer participants took action to do so. A powerful strategy toward more sustainable consumption in Vietnam can be to create more group-based activities around the themes of energy and shopping for food. A twofold approach is needed that both installs new sustainable consumption patterns and keeps old habits rooted in daily rituals. Role models should set an example for the young population and consumers and (Vietnamese) producers should be better connected to increase mutual trust and transparency.
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ABSTRACT Sustainability, emerging economies, sustainable lifestyles, Asia, Behaviour change, Food
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Addressing the root causes of (un)sustainability entails fundamentally changing our ways of living. This requires going beyond technology and behaviour-oriented approaches common under the umbrella of sustainable development (SD). More... more
Addressing the root causes of (un)sustainability entails fundamentally changing our ways of living. This requires going beyond technology and behaviour-oriented approaches common under the umbrella of sustainable development (SD). More fundamental change is required to increase the possibility of realizing ecological and psychological well-being. Here, such change is conceptualized as ‘characterological change’. Next to SD another domain is introduced: characterological development (CD). The potential role of design-interventions in CD is explored in this article. Two studies were conducted, a literature study and experts interviews, covering the fields of Design for Sustainable Behaviour, Persuasive Technology, Practice-Oriented Design and Philosophy of Technology. The literature study shows that current research and interventions predominantly fall within the domain of SD, leaving character and related notions largely unaddressed. The expert interviews (n = 10) show a consensus that (design) research concerning the relation between technological artefacts and human character would be valuable. Research challenges and opportunities for design towards ‘living the good life within ecological means’ are discussed.
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... 1.2 Critiques Two documentaries about C2C on Dutch national television (van Hattem 2006, 2007) enthused so many people in The Netherlands that this period is now referred to as 'the ... But reducing... more
... 1.2 Critiques Two documentaries about C2C on Dutch national television (van Hattem 2006, 2007) enthused so many people in The Netherlands that this period is now referred to as 'the ... But reducing unsus-tainability, although critical, does not and will not create sustainability'. ...
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GPS-based route-guidance systems are used for various types of transport, such as airplanes, boats, cars and motorbikes. Such systems have also been developed for pedestrians, focusing initially on hikers in rough terrain. Recently, some... more
GPS-based route-guidance systems are used for various types of transport, such as airplanes, boats, cars and motorbikes. Such systems have also been developed for pedestrians, focusing initially on hikers in rough terrain. Recently, some devices were developed for pedestrians in urban environments. This study focuses on the ways in which route instructions can be presented to urban pedestrians with such GPS-receivers.
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Proper environmental comparison of possible packaging solutions calls for an assessment including all phases of the life cycle. With protective packaging of CE products this would require incorporating the effectiveness of the packaging... more
Proper environmental comparison of possible packaging solutions calls for an assessment including all phases of the life cycle. With protective packaging of CE products this would require incorporating the effectiveness of the packaging ie the percentage of products that reach the point of sale in an undamaged condition.
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ABSTRACT For many everyday products, mechanical shock a.k.a. impact is among the main causes for premature failure. One would therefore e xpect that during the conceptual design of new products, impact resistance is one of the main... more
ABSTRACT For many everyday products, mechanical shock a.k.a. impact is among the main causes for premature failure. One would therefore e xpect that during the conceptual design of new products, impact resistance is one of the main drivers, to be optimized along with functionality, size and weight, styling and of course cost. However, as this paper shows, impact is at best an issue during desi gn engineering (i.e. after many conceptual choices, such as product lay-out, have a lready been made) and even then, it is usually treated through trial-and-error. Beyo nd trivial guidelines, no useful design method seems to exist for the concept phase. With users increasingly demanding care-free and hence, impact-resistant products, and with technologies such as flexible electronics now emerging from the laboratories, design for impact takes on a new urgency. At Delft University of Technology, a research project has therefore been started that ai ms at developing a method for designing impact resistant products, encompassing b oth the conceptual and engineering design phases of new products and addressing their full lifecycle (i.e. production, packaging & transport, use and end-of-l ife). Active partners include external companies and design agencies as well as B Sc and MSc students.
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In recent years, the implementation of sustainability into the curricula of engineering has become increasingly important. This paper focuses on the experiences of integrating sustainability in Design Engineering education in the academic... more
In recent years, the implementation of sustainability into the curricula of engineering has become increasingly important. This paper focuses on the experiences of integrating sustainability in Design Engineering education in the academic bachelor programs at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, at the University College of West-Flanders in Belgium, and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The different approaches are described and discussed. This paper aims to share insights and lessons ...
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Current design practices focus on eco-efficiency as the main approach in the field of sustainable product development. This approach mainly aims at improving existing products and services. Environmental product performance can be greatly... more
Current design practices focus on eco-efficiency as the main approach in the field of sustainable product development. This approach mainly aims at improving existing products and services. Environmental product performance can be greatly improved using ecoefficiency but in many cases the improvements are incremental. Furthermore, the overall environmental impact the product causes is often not reducing, but rising instead. Strategies based on 'learning from nature'-Biomimicry, Natural Capitalism and Cradle to Cradle-offer ...
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For better or worse, products contribute to shaping the behaviour of their users. Hence, designers have the opportunity, or if you are so inclined the responsibility, to take those potential behaviour changes into account in their design... more
For better or worse, products contribute to shaping the behaviour of their users. Hence, designers have the opportunity, or if you are so inclined the responsibility, to take those potential behaviour changes into account in their design process. Through thoughtful design, they may aim to change user behaviour for the better and make it, for instance, more sustainable.
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Two major changes are currently taking place in the world of Consumer Electronics. They are, first, the relocation of production to low-wage countries, in particularly China. This results in longer distribution distances, which lead to a... more
Two major changes are currently taking place in the world of Consumer Electronics. They are, first, the relocation of production to low-wage countries, in particularly China. This results in longer distribution distances, which lead to a higher relative importance of this phase in the entire life cycle. To make this phase as efficient as possible, products should be packed as volume efficient as possible, which means small boxes. Secondly, retail formats for CE products change into large budget-oriented stores selling products in the box. Here ...
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Traditionally packaging design-for-sustainability (DfS) strongly focuses on resource conservation and material recycling. The type and amount of materials used has been the driver in design. For consumer electronics (CE) products this... more
Traditionally packaging design-for-sustainability (DfS) strongly focuses on resource conservation and material recycling. The type and amount of materials used has been the driver in design. For consumer electronics (CE) products this weight-based approach is too limited; a volume-based approach is needed. As this paper will show, from an environmental perspective (as well as from an economical perspective) transportation of goods from factories to the final retail outlets is about twice as important as the materials ...
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On both a strategic level and a product level a lot is known on how to integrate sustainability aspects. On the intermediate level of product portfolio management this is not true. Here the strategic sustainability goals of a company need... more
On both a strategic level and a product level a lot is known on how to integrate sustainability aspects. On the intermediate level of product portfolio management this is not true. Here the strategic sustainability goals of a company need to be translated into products. A company wanting to innovate in a green way automatically has to make product portfolio decisions through the choice of where to start. Resources and time are always limited, so a company will want to utilize its R&D capacity most effectively. This aspect has received ...
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For ten years, the curriculum of the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) bachelor program at Delft University of Technology contained a bachelor research project. This 8 ECTS course consisted of a sma...
Besides contributing to the actual sustainability performance of a product-packaging combination, packaging can also play a role in communicating about sustainability. Such green marketing aspects of packaging may either focus on the... more
Besides contributing to the actual sustainability performance of a product-packaging combination, packaging can also play a role in communicating about sustainability. Such green marketing aspects of packaging may either focus on the sustainability credentials of the packaging itself, or on the credentials of the product contained (or even the company or brand). Communication about sustainability can be explicit (in words or labels) or implicit (through materials, images and/or colours). The implicit form could be described as sustainable aesthetics. The explicit form can be presented either as factual information or in the form of stories. People engage more with stories than with factual information, as it allows for easier connections with previous experiences. Hence, storytelling makes for a compelling marketing tactic. Instead of telling a story yourself as a brand, enabling and encouraging your consumers to tell your story to their peers offers strong marketing potential as we...