Circular Economy Competencies for Design

Deborah Sumter, Jotte de Koning, Conny Bakker and Ruud Balkenende
Additional contact information
Deborah Sumter: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands
Jotte de Koning: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands
Conny Bakker: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands
Ruud Balkenende: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: This study addresses what competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) designers need in order to successfully design products and services for a circular economy. Existing literature, though sparse, has identified a number of circular economy competencies for design. Yet, a coherent overview is lacking. To complement the competencies found in the literature with insights from practice, we conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with design professionals. Our study identifies seven circular economy competencies for design: (1) Circular Impact Assessment, (2) Design for Recovery, (3) Design for Multiple Use Cycles, (4) Circular Business Models, (5) Circular User Engagement, (6) Circular Economy Collaboration, and (7) Circular Economy Communication. We used a general sustainability competencies framework to categorize our findings. Interestingly, we did not find evidence of the Systems Thinking competency in practice, although in the literature it is mentioned as a relevant competency for design for a circular economy. In addition, we found that methods and tools are still largely lacking or in a premature stage of development. We conclude that design for a circular economy can be seen as an upcoming, independent field within the sustainability domain, and that requires a specific set of competencies, methods, and tools. Our overview of circular economy competencies for design can guide the development of relevant methods and tools, circular economy-based design curricula, and training programs in the future.

Keywords: design education; competencies; circular economy; product design; sustainability; circular consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1561/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1561/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1561-:d:322645

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().