Sustainable Material Selection Framework: Taxonomy and Systematisation of Design Approaches to Sustainable Material Selection

Mattia Italia (), Flavia Papile, Romina Santi and Barbara Del Curto
Additional contact information
Mattia Italia: Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milan, Italy
Flavia Papile: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy
Romina Santi: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy
Barbara Del Curto: Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20131 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-22

Abstract: Design can play a fundamental role in addressing the climate crisis and preserving the planet’s finite resources. Through design, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of products and services right from concept stage. The elements that concur within a project are diverse and often have an impact on each other. The material is one of them, being able to influence the product, but also the business model, company relations, etc. To help the designer keep all these aspects under control, various methodologies and tools have been developed, among them design strategies and guidelines. To date, several authors have dealt with the topic, offering different perspectives and generating a critical mass of information, which differs in the level of depth and operability of the suggestions, often differing only in terminology rather than content. This inhomogeneity can confuse both professionals and students. This study proposes an ordered taxonomy of the different levels of detail and a unified terminology of the strategies and guidelines in the literature. To test taxonomy and systematisation, this article focuses on guidelines for material choice, resulting in a framework to guide the selection of materials with a view to sustainability.

Keywords: material selection; sustainability; taxonomy; framework; mapping; design strategy; design guidelines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16689/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16689/ (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:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16689-:d:1296855

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 ().