A Conceptual Framework for Circular Design

Mariale Moreno, Carolina De los Rios, Zoe Rowe and Fiona Charnley
Additional contact information
Mariale Moreno: Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D), Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Carolina De los Rios: Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D), Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Zoe Rowe: Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D), Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Fiona Charnley: Centre for Competitive Creative Design (C4D), Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Design has been recognised in the literature as a catalyst to move away from the traditional model of take-make-dispose to achieve a more restorative, regenerative and circular economy. As such, for a circular economy to thrive, products need to be designed for closed loops, as well as be adapted to generate revenues. This should not only be at the point of purchase, but also during use, and be supported by low-cost return chains and reprocessing structures, as well as effective policy and regulation. To date, most academic and grey literature on the circular economy has focused primarily on the development of new business models, with some of the latter studies addressing design strategies for a circular economy, specifically in the area of resource cycles and design for product life extension. However, these studies primarily consider a limited spectrum of the technical and biological cycles where materials are recovered and restored and nutrients (e.g., materials, energy, water) are regenerated. This provides little guidance or clarity for designers wishing to design for new circular business models in practice. As such, this paper aims to address this gap by systematically analysing previous literature on Design for Sustainability (DfX) (e.g., design for resource conservation, design for slowing resource loops and whole systems design) and links these approaches to the current literature on circular business models. A conceptual framework is developed for circular economy design strategies. From this conceptual framework, recommendations are made to enable designers to fully consider the holistic implications for design within a circular economy.

Keywords: circular design; design for sustainability; circular business models; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (89)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/937/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/937/ (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:8:y:2016:i:9:p:937-:d:78107

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 ().