Design for Circular Economy: The Right Disruption?

Circular Design: Challenges and Opportunities for this Emerging New Field of Design.

What it definitely is not is that it is not Linear Consumerism. Linear consumerism as defined by Tim Brown of IDEO fame is the ‘Take – Make – Use – Discard Economy’. This approach to consumerism has rattled the ecological fabric of our economies repeatedly. There has been a rising interest and inclination towards Circular Design of products, services and systems. Design that essentially contributes to the purpose of Circular Economy. Design for Circular Economy is the “Environment-First” approach to design.

Design for Circular Economy has been holistically described in the research article on ‘Circular Economy Competencies for Design’ 2020 as:

“It has been recognized that the linear throughput of materials and energy, which is focused on resource extraction, production, use, and discarding of products (i.e., the so-called take–make–use–waste model), challenges sustainable development. The circular economy, which is described by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as restorative and regenerative by design, offers an alternative. The aim of design for a circular economy is to maintain product integrity over multiple use cycles (for instance through repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing), and to focus on closing loops (through recycling), while at the same time building economically viable product–service systems.”

The spark for rapid acceleration of the concept of circular design, was when Tim Brown of IDEO endorsed it. And essentially backed it.

Circular design essentially exists as a framework, driving innovation to reduce wastage, increasing product life-cycle and ensuring re-usability.

As the first principle we need to understand The Circular Flows Process. The Circular Flows Process and working with the contexts is aptly explained in this video:

The worksheet of the above video can be downloaded from here: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/design/Circular_Flows_Final.pdf

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Circular Design was developed as a strategy years ago. However, it is still in its nascent stage and there are many gaps in the understanding of its nuts and bolts. This could because of its vastness of scope as it includes designing products, knowing materials and understanding it’s use today and going forward. There is a large gap in the theoretical and in practice connotations of the competencies needed for circular design. This is as evidenced again in the study ‘Circular Economy Competencies for Design’ depicted in the table below:

A more robust list of competencies would be the one that tries to include the nuances of contemporary systems thinking in their mix. As evidenced below:

Another challenge is large corporations are few in number that have started pushing for circular designing and manufacturing. This could be due to the aversion to spend towards research in the field of circularity. The lack of a universally accepted framework and a design philosophy that needs acceptance of a larger cohort of potential stakeholders contributes to this aversion.

In the center of this design strategy, in its current form, lies ‘Materials Knowledge’. This knowledge among product designers is also in its nascent stage. Equally important to Materials thinking is ‘Systems Thinking’. Systems thinking, is the planning for the context in which Circular Design will function to create meaningful impact. It gets its powers from two major factors: defining the right context and the circular life-cycle of the product/service/system. Systems Planning needs to evolve to have a deeper engagement with a wider context of stakeholders. The current research on this is currently led by product designers only.

And the elephant in the room is the economic viability and feasibility of products to drive adoption in supply chain. There are many aspects to this. Understanding the market, understanding the price, availability of funding for stages from Research and Development, Supply Chain and ultimately consumption. And most of the times such innovations at scale might take 10 years, as a lot is at stake when designing for sustainability. These are essentially moon shots not design tactics. Aptly put when Dharan Kirupanantham of Adidas, says to Tim Brown:

“Moon Shots… as it has to make money”

THE WAY FORWARD

Even though, circularity is just revving up and the pedagogy is a blue ocean, there are some green shoots. Some innovations are going in the right direction, like the innovation for Emergency Health Workers. See this video:

This is how circular design needs to deliver.

There are some incredible voices around the world guiding the thought of circularity towards fruition. And marquee universities and institutions starting to understand and vouch for this pandora’s box of a strategy in design. Product designers are considering this as the most interesting movement in design as it opens up a whole new world. It in fact, creates a completely new field of design ready to disrupt design thinking.

Customers are ready to support this effort towards sustainability. And, designers are considering design for circular economy as the future of design. This is all the more reason that this field of design needs to be “nurtured – encouraged – fed”.  

The onus now, to continue this blitzkrieg of the new and exciting, lies in the hands of media. The media needs to proactively push the agenda of design for sustainable development and meaningful impact. Policy makers need to design strategies to meaningfully promote and grow this field for a circular, more efficient economy. Furthermore, defining and experimenting with the ‘competencies’coukld be one way forward in designing a structured framework. What this field currently needs is the right attitude and the right storytelling to set the benchmarks.

Sources:

• The Circular Design Guide: www.circulardesignguide.com
• Disruptive Innovation Festival Interviews (A unit of Ellen MacArthur Foundation): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGTihW_G4y7LKWTkmtXphVA
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation Website: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
• Research Article 2020: ‘Circular Economy Competencies for Design’ 2020 by Deborah Sumter *, Jotte de Koning, Conny Bakker and Ruud Balkenende published in MDPI