Emerging from a study in the European aerospace industry, this paper identifies a gap in the way value-related information is communicated to designers of hardware in the preliminary stages of Product Service System (PSS) design. To fit this gap a Lifecycle Value Representation Approach, named LiVReA, that uses color-coded 3D CAD models to enable value information to be translated into visual features, is presented. Such approach aims at enhancing designers' awareness of the value contribution of an early design concept on the overall PSS offer by complementing requirements-based information with criteria reflecting the fulfillment of customers and system value. The paper details the development of the approach, its underlying rationale, the results of preliminary validation activities and the potential for industrial application in the light of the currently available PSS representation tools

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. In the first paper of this tandem publication, the authors propose a new generic process model embedding the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development. The purpose of applying it in an action-research mode as described in this paper was twofold: (i) to develop a vision for sustainable regional transport and a coarse roadmap towards that vision, and, while doing so, (ii) get additional empirical experiences to inform the development of the new generic process model. Experts from many sectors and organizations involved in the GreenCharge project provided vital information and reviewed all planning perspectives presented in Paper 1 in two sequential multi-stakeholder seminars. The results include a sustainable vision for electric vehicle systems in southeast Sweden within a sustainable regional transport system within a sustainable global society, as well as an initial development plan towards such a vision for the transport sector. The vision is framed by the universal sustainability principles, and the development plan is informed by the strategic guidelines, of the above-mentioned framework. Among other things, the vision and plan imply a shift to renewable energy and a more optimized use of areas and thus a new type of spatial planning. For example, the vision and plan implies a lower built-in demand for transport, more integrated traffic modes, and more multi-functional use of areas for energy and transport infrastructures, for example. Some inherent benefits of electric vehicles are highlighted in the vision and plan, including near-zero local emissions and flexibility as regards primary energy sources. The vision and plan also imply improved governance for more effective cross-sector collaboration to ensure coor- dinated development within the transport sector and between the transportation sector and other relevant sectors. Meanwhile, the new generic process model was refined and is ready to be applied and further tested in the GreenCharge project and in other projects within the transport sector as well as other sectors. The study confirmed that the new generic process model suggested in support of sus- tainable transport system and community development is helpful for giving diverse stakeholders, with various specialties and perspectives, a way of working that is goal-oriented and builds on effective, iterative learning loops and co-creation. 

To turn current patterns of consumption and production in a sustainable direction, solid and understandable market information on the socio-ecological performance of products is needed. Eco-labelling programmes have an important role in this communication. The aim of this study is to investigate what gaps there may be in the current criteria development processes in relation to a strategic sustainability perspective and develop recommendations on how such presumptive gaps could be bridged. First a previously published generic framework for strategic sustainable development is described and applied for the assessment of two eco-labelling programmes. Data for the assessment is collected from literature and in semi-structured interviews and discussions with eco-labelling experts. The assessment revealed that the programmes lack both an operational definition of sustainability, and a statement of objectives to direct and drive the criteria development processes. Consequently they also lack guidelines for how product category criteria might gradually develop in any direction. The selected criteria mainly reflect the current reality based on a selection of negative impacts in ecosystems, but how this selection, or prioritization, is made is not clearly presented. Finally, there are no guidelines to ensure that the criteria developers represent a broad enough competence to embrace all essential sustainability aspects. In conclusion the results point at deficiencies in theory, process and practice of eco-labelling, which hampers cohesiveness, transparency and comprehension. And it hampers predictability, as producers get no support in foreseeing how coming revisions of criteria will develop. This represents a lost opportunity for strategic sustainable development. It is suggested that these problems could be avoided by informing the criteria development process by a framework for strategic sustainable development, based on backcasting from basic sustainability principles.

Green public procurement has emerged as a policy instrument with a significant potential to steer procurers' and producers' decisions in a sustainable direction. The purpose of this study is to assess the process for development of green public procurement criteria at a Swedish governmental expert body from a strategic sustainability perspective, i.e. to identify strengths and weaknesses from such a perspective as a basis for making this process more supportive of sustainable product and service innovation. A previously published framework for strategic sustainable development is used for the assessment. The assessment shows that the criteria development process is transparent, well-documented and that it encourages a high level of participation by the members of the working groups. However, the assessment also points to several weaknesses of the process. These include, e.g., a limited impact perspective and lack of a clear definition of sustainability objectives. The development process therefore results in criteria which mainly concern a selection of current environmental impacts outside the context of long-term objectives and consequently there are no strategies to prepare for future processes. The conclusion is that the current process may result in improvements as regards some known environmental problems, but to allow for a strategic approach that could more significantly promote innovative product-service system solutions in support of sustainable development, process changes are needed. Essential process changes are proposed in this paper.

The un-sustainable course of our societies is the greatest threat humanity has ever confronted. The biophysical systems upon which we are totally dependent have not been challenged by human activities at the global scale before and our impacts upon those planetary systems, as well as upon our social systems, cannot be adequately addressed by ad hoc solutions. Science and leadership will be required to address this threat and transform our current societies into sustainable societies. This Special Volume presents an evolving, yet increasingly cohesive, science-based perspective on leadership towards sustainability. Examples of crucial, overall questions addressed by authors of articles in this Special Volume are: How can science help to clarify sustainability as a foundational platform for success for society's core institutions (e.g. business, governance and education), and how can this platform inform envisioning, planning, monitoring, communication and decision making to accelerate the needed transitions? The conceptual framing of sustainable development in this Special Volume is based upon the logic that it is only if we can define sustainability in a scientifically solid way, as a frame for any vision, that we can analyze current situations in relation to such sustainable visions, and design strategies to close the gap to such visions. In moving from current situations towards possible sustainable futures, specific support in the form of leadership concepts, methods, tools, and requirements are also essential, i.e. given clarity around what needs to be achieved, effective leadership then requires knowing how to achieve it. Both the what and the how questions are addressed in this Special Volume. The research described provides a foundation for moving from ad hoc activities to systemic, systematic and strategic transitions towards sustainability. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

The purpose of this paper is to give a comprehensive and cohesive description of the most recent version of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), and also to describe and discuss the overall method for developing the FSSD, elaborate on the general rational for and general benefits of a framework of this type, and Validate benefits of the FSSD through examples of its application. The purpose is also to point to pertinent future work. In preparation of this paper, we have reviewed previous publications and other documents related to the FSSD and reflected on the 25-year learning process between scientists and practitioners. We conclude that the FSSD has proven to aid organizations in thoroughly understanding and putting themselves in context of the global sustainability challenge, and to move themselves strategically towards sustainability, i.e., to stepwise reduce their negative impacts on ecological and social systems at large while strengthening the own organization through capturing of innovation opportunities, including new business models, exploration of new markets and winning of new market shares, and through reduced risks and operation costs. Specifically, we conclude that the FSSD aids more effective management of system boundaries and trade-offs, makes it possible to model and assess sustainable potentials for various materials and practices before investments are made, and offers the possibility for more effective collaboration across disciplines and sectors, regions, value-chains and stakeholder groups. We also conclude that the FSSD makes it possible to prevent damages, even from yet unknown problems, and not the least, to guide selection, development and combination of supplementary methods, tools, and other forms of support, which makes it possible to increase their utility for strategic sustainable development. Finally, we have shown that the FSSD is useful for structuring transdisciplinary academic education and research. Several examples of ongoing FSSD related research, as well as ideas for future work, are given. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic leadership towards sustainability implies utilization of systems thinking for step-wise approaches to transformative changes towards sustainable societies. This ‘call-for-papers’ (CfPs) for a Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production is focused upon what types of research are needed for us to make the necessary local, regional, national and global changes. This CfPs is for anyone who wishes to address these challenges seriously, that is, to utilize essential aspects of leadership to contribute strategically to the transition towards sustainable societies. To successfully address these challenges, people from different sectors and disciplines must work together in a coordinated and efficient way. We wish to explore the question: What support do such transformative endeavors require and how can science contribute?

In this paper, we present a Method for Sustainable Product Development (MSPD) with the aim of integrating social and ecological aspects of sustainability with a strategic business perspective in product development. The method applies backcasting from basic principles for sustainability, which allows a strategic approach, and it includes a modular system of guiding questions that are derived by considering these principles and the product life cycle. Initial testing in Swedish companies indicates that the suggested MSPD promotes a ‘bird’s eye’ perspective and encourage and aid development of products that support society’s transformation towards sustainability. Furthermore, it is concluded that the modular system provides flexibility and user-friendliness.

Trade-off situations often occur in the product development and procurement processes when alternative solutions emphasize different aspects that have to be balanced against each other. Ecodesign tools can be used in both product development and purchasing, for example to prescribe design alternatives, assess environmental impacts or to compare environmental improvement alternatives. However, it is not always clear what should be chosen in trade-off situations. In this study, fifteen different Ecodesign tools were analyzed to ascertain whether a valuation is included in the tools, in what way the tools give support in different types of trade-off situations and whether the tools give support from a sustainability perspective. Nine of the fifteen tools analyzed included a valuation and were able to give support in a trade-off situation, but the support was not sufficient. The valuation should include a lifecycle perspective and a framework for sustainability. Otherwise it can lead to strategically incorrect decisions from a sustainability perspective with concomitant risks of sub-optimized investment paths and blind alleys. However, all the analyzed tools can be complemented with other tools and methods based on strategic planning towards sustainability in order to include a framework for sustainability.

In this study, cooperation between Stockholm's transport and district heating sectors is analysed. The cooperation concerns the integration of biofuel polygeneration production. A MODEST optimisation model framework is used, assuming various energy market and transport sector scenarios for the year 2030. The scenarios with biofuel production and increased biofuel use in the region are compared with reference scenarios where all new plants introduced into the district heating sector are combined heat and power plants, and the share of biofuel used in the transport sector is the same as today. The results show that the cooperation implies an opportunity to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the sectors by between 20% and 65%, depending on energy market conditions and assumed transport sector scenarios. If we consider biomass an unlimited resource, the potential for greenhouse gas emissions reduction is significant. However, considering that biomass is a limited resource, the increase of biomass use in the district heating system may lead to a decrease of biomass use in other energy systems. The potential for reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions is thus highly dependent on the alternative use of biomass. If this alternative is used for co-firing in coal condensing power plants, biomass use in combined heat and power plants would be more desirable than biofuel production through polygeneration. On the other hand, if this alternative is used for traditional biofuel production (without co-production of heat and electricity), the benefits of biofuel production through polygeneration from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective is superior. However, if carbon capture and storage technology is applied on the biofuel polygeneration plants, the introduction of large-scale biofuel production into the district heating system would result in a reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions independent of the assumed alternative use of biomass.

The National Environmental Objectives (NEOs) adopted by Swedish Parliament in 2001 and proclaimining that major environmental problems should be solved within a generation are often portrayed as good practice of a concrete yet visionary sustainability strategy. In this paper we summarize one and a half decade of the NEOs' experience for the international audience. The NEO5 were based on an eclectic mixture of conceptual reasoning, most importantly the Management by Objectives concept and the notion of a policy deriving its authority and legitimacy from scientifically established 'natural laws and limits'. The 16 NEO5 fall into two groups. The first group is a positive reformulation of existing environmental problems based on well established scientific evidence. While they have scientific authority and can be operationalized and enforced through standards they are hardly visionary, strategic or capable of responding to emerging threats. The second group contains utopian landscape goals which are more visionary but also more difficult to operationalize, especially for local authorities which play major part in the implementation of the NEO5 in Sweden. We argue that the system that mixes these two sets of goals based on two different paradigms of sustainable development inherits the weaknesses of both and the strengths of neither. The NEO system lacks the hierarchical and scientific authority potentially possible for scientific goals and at the same time fails to provide for learning, mobilisation and consensus-building power of utopian landscape goals. It has been too fuzzy to be implemented in a top down way and yet too rigid to enable bottom-up action. A more effective approach would be to separate these two sustainability governance approaches into complementary but distinct systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Successful business is increasingly about understanding the challenges and opportunities linked to society's transition towards sustainability and, e.g., being able to innovate, design and build business models that are functional in this context. However, current business model innovation and design generally fails to sufficiently embrace the sustainability dimension. Typically, the business case of sustainability is not understood profoundly enough; the planning horizon and system scope are insufficient; the competence to bring together people into systematic ventures towards sustainable business is too low. A unifying framework for sustainability analyses, planning, cross-disciplinary and cross-sector cooperation, and cohesive use of the myriad sustainability tools, methods and concepts has been developed: the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). Similarly, a generic approach to business model design has been put forward: the Business Model Canvas (BMC). In this paper we explore how the FSSD could inform business model innovation and design by combining it with the BMC and supplementary tools, methods and concepts such as creativity techniques, value network mapping, life-cycle assessment, and product-service systems. The results show that the FSSD-BMC combination can support business model innovation and design for strategic sustainable development, as well as strengthen each supplementary tool, method and concept in its own primary purpose. We apply the combined approach, for the purpose of initial testing and presentation, to a real case of business model evolution. Based on our findings we propose a new approach to business model innovation and design for strategic sustainable development. The new approach facilitates, e.g., business scalability and risk avoidance and clarifies the interplay between classical business model development and strategic sustainability thinking. The new approach highlights the opportunity for novel business model design for future sustainable success.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) powered by renewable energy hold promise for significantly decarbonizing land-based transport. However, the environmental impacts of BEVs remain a critical concern. This paper investigates the circular business model (CBM) of leasing batteries for BEVs and compares its economic and environmental impacts with the linear model of selling and buying batteries. A comprehensive approach combining a battery fleet model, net present value (NPV) analysis, and cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) is employed. By considering diverse driving profiles instead of the single “average” profile used in previous studies, the battery fleet model provides a more accurate representation of reality. The findings reveal that while leasing batteries can be as profitable as selling them, companies that lease may require higher revenues and tax contributions to obtain a comparable NPV. To generate additional income, companies may need to charge fees that do not always benefit customers. Notably, battery purchasing remains the most cost-effective option for users driving over 10,000 km/year. The LCA results indicate that the environmental benefits of leasing batteries over selling them are marginal. Leasing offers advantages such as user flexibility, and it encourages battery repair, repurposing, and recycling; however, there is insufficient evidence to support the cost-effectiveness of leasing or significant environmental improvements over traditional buying and selling models. The findings may be relevant for other business models targeting a substantial user base in the BEV domain, such as battery-as-a-service (BaaS) programs and battery swapping. © 2023 The Authors

Analysing product concepts with respect to social sustainability is a contemporary challenge for which there is little support available for product developers. Our aim was to build on previous work to support product developers in a case company with this challenge. We designed a first prototype of support for product developers to use a previously developed definition when analysing the extraction lifecycle activities associated with their product concepts. The prototype instructs users to model the location of the extraction activities and then use existing databases and indicators to analyse the social sustainability performance of each location. The databases and indicators were selected according to their relevance to scientific principles for social sustainability. We then performed initial evaluation of the support, through which we learnt that the approach may make it possible for product developers to analyse extraction activities, but the level of accuracy of analysis that is possible is not good enough for comparing the concepts in the case study decision. We discuss the implications of these challenges and suggest that it may be better to re-design our approach in order to provide learningful support for product developers or support for other decision-making in the company.

Sustainability criteria used for decision support in the product innovation process and aligned throughout the design process is one key element to efficiently introduce a sustainability perspective early in product development. The aim of this paper is to present an approach for identifying such sustainability criteria and to suggest a process for how these can be developed in any manufacturing company. The sustainability criteria are presented in a set of matrices, separating the criteria into product life-cycle phases and socio-ecological sustainability principles. In addition the paper presents a qualitative measurement scale for the criteria, called a sustainability compliance index that indicates to what degree a product or process concept performs in relation to a sustainable solution. The sustainability criteria were tested in different settings at a case company within the aerospace industry to give a first indication and evaluation of the ability to give guidance and support in bringing in a sustainability perspective when developing, evaluating and selecting different concepts in the early phases of product development.

In spite of the growing awareness and significance of accounting for sustainability aspects in product development, design decision support is still immature in this end compared to other decision support areas, such as product performance and manufacturability. This paper proposes a novel decision support method that combines qualitative sustainability assessment techniques with a quantitative analysis, without losing transparency and still covering a full sustainability perspective. The aim is to contribute to an understanding for how to enable value assessment of sustainability issues already in early product development situations. The method, named Sustainability Assessment and Value Evaluation, combines two qualitative sustainability assessment techniques with a quantitative Net Present Value analysis based on alternative future scenarios. A case study, related to the development of a new high-temperature aero-engine component, illustrates both how the sustainability assessment identifies hotspots and clarifies potential sustainability consequences for a new product technology, and how Net Present Value is used to assess alternative solution strategies based on the hotspot, to facilitate early stage decision-making in design. The paper argues that the method serves two main purposes: i) to make sustainability consequences more concrete and understandable during design concept selection activities, rather than to have an exact measurement, and ii) to simplify and prioritize, systematically asking what is important in the sustainability analysis, rather than to reduce the sustainability problem. The method allows undertaking the sustainability assessment in a more structured way than what happens today in preliminary design, through scenario building based on socio-ecological assessments, including back-casting to cover the longer time perspective. In addition, the Sustainability Assessment and Value Evaluation-method provided the design team of a means for displaying sustainability consequences on an equal basis with other decision support tool results.

Improving structural performance of products is often realized by introducing increasingly advanced and complex materials as well as material combinations. What material to use in products is decided in the early product development phases and has a decisive impact for manufacturing, maintenance and end-of-life. A particular challenge is that the decisions need to be made upfront, where information of the forthcoming product is limited. This paper presents an early product development method to assess the criticality of alloy materials from a resource availability- and sustainability perspective. The method distinguishes itself from previous studies that focus on element criticality on a country level. The method is used to characterize and analyze the criticality of alloys in a three-step process that aims to support product design teams selecting what material alloy to use in early phases of design. It provides a proactive and systematic approach related to critical materials to avoid potential future problems on a long-term basis. The method presented has been developed in an action research-based approach in an aerospace company where a product design team validated and evaluated the material criticality method. The generic nature of the method is likely to be applicable not only to aerospace companies but also to other industries using advanced alloys. An important finding from applying the method in the company case was the clear link between long term business impact and sustainability performance. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

This article aims to explore a new approach to assess company decision systems regarding sustainability-related communication and decision support between senior management and product development levels. The assessment approach was developed in theory and its applicability was directly tested in action research in two small and medium-sized companies and two large companies. The results were validated against experiences made by two management consultancies. Our study indicates that successful companies should: (i) integrate sustainability into business goals and plans, backed up by suitable (ii) internal incentives and disincentives and (iii) decision support tools. Our study also indicates that the new assessment approach can be used as a template to assess the current state of sustainability integration in company decision systems.

Urban sustainable development is today seen as one of the keys towards unlocking the quest for a sustainable world. One feature of urban sustainability is the increased interest in developing sustainable urban districts. For many of these developments, guiding sustainability documents are developed to frame future goals. However, few of these documents specify on which grounds they determine the sustainability of goals and they are largely developed as independent islands of local sustainability. This is unfortunate as cities and their districts are fully dependent on surrounding environments. Failing to include a holistic approach into the local planning increases the risk of sub-optimisation, future lock-ins and missed targets on a higher level. The aim of this study is to analyse whether the environmental and sustainability programme for Stockholm Royal Seaport, a new urban district in Stockholm, Sweden, can guide development of the district towards holistic ecological sustainability. By using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development a holistic template for an ecologically sustainable planet has been described, important sectors for the built environment have been identified and the environmental and sustainability programme for the district has been analysed. This study showed that the vision and operational goals put forward in the Stockholm Royal Seaport programme complies relatively well with the designed template. However, important deviations in all sectors but land use have been identified. These deviations arise in the translation process between theory and practice. The vision for the district and the implementation phase are not aligned due to too narrow a perspective of a sustainable urban district, lack of robust sustainability principles including use of such to identify key strategic questions. In addition to the lack of an all-embracing conceptual framework, there is also a lack of structures for cooperation between stakeholders and conflicts between local and regional agendas. Use of a unifying framework can describe desirable future scenarios where the local level does not contribute to violation of the universal sustainability principles and identify step-wise routes towards such scenarios. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

This paper evaluates the effects on profitability of biofuel production if biofuel producers would sell the waste heat from the production to a local district heating system. All analyses have been performed considering four different technology cases for biofuel production. Two technology cases include ethanol production which is followed by by-production of raw biogas. This biogas can be upgraded and sold as biofuel (the first technology case) or directly used for combined heat and power production (the second technology case). The third and the fourth technology cases are Fischer-Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether production plants based on biomass gasification. Two different district heating price levels and two different future energy market scenarios were considered. The sensitivity analyses of the discount rate were performed as well. In the case of energy market conditions, the profitability depends above all on the price ratio between biomass (used as the feedstock for biofuel production) and crude oil (used as the feedstock for fossil diesel and gasoline production). The reason for this is that the gate biofuel prices (the prices on which the biofuel would be sold) were calculated assuming that the final prices at the filling stations are the same as the prices of the replaced fossil fuel. The price ratios between biomass and district heating, and between biomass and electricity, also have an influence on the profitability, since higher district heating and electricity prices lead to higher revenues from the heat/electricity by-produced. Due to high biofuel (ethanol + biogas) efficiency, the ethanol production plant which produces upgraded biogas has the lowest biofuel production costs. Those costs would be lower than the biofuel gate prices even if the support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources were not included. If the raw biogas that is by-produced would instead be used directly for combined heat and power production, the revenues from the electricity and heat would increase, but at the same time the biofuel efficiency would be lower, which would lead to higher production costs. On the other hand, due to the fact that it has the highest heat efficiency compared to the other technologies, the ethanol production in this plant shows a high sensitivity to the district heating price level, and the economic benefit from introducing such a plant into a district heating system is most obvious. Assuming a low discount rate (6%), the introduction of such a plant into a district heating system would lead to between 28% and 52% (depending on the district heating price level and energy market scenario) lower biofuel production costs. Due to the lower revenues from the heat and electricity co-produced, and higher capital investments compared to the ethanol production plants, Fischer-Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether productions are shown to be profitable only if high support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included.

Biofuel production through polygeneration with heat as one of the by-products implies a possibility forcooperation between transport and district heating sectors by introducing large-scale biofuel production into district heating systems. The cooperation may have effects on both the biofuel production costs and the district heating production costs. This paper is the second part of the study that investigates those effects. The biofuel production costs evaluation, considering heat and electricity as by-products, was performed in the first part of the study. In this second part of the study, an evaluation of how such cooperation would influence the district heating production costs using Stockholm's district heating system as a case study was performed. The plants introduced in the district heating system were chosen depending on the future development of the transport sector. In order to perform sensitivity analyses of different energy market conditions, two energy market scenarios were applied. Despite the higher revenues from the sale of by-products, due to the capital intense investments required, the introduction of large-scale biofuel production into the district heating system does not guarantee economic benefits. Profitability is highly dependent on the types of biofuel production plants and energy market scenarios. The results show that large-scale biogas and ethanol production may lead to a significant reduction in the district heating production costs in both energy market scenarios, especially if support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. If the total biomass capacity of the biofuel production plants introduced into the district heating system is 900 MW, the district heating production costs would be negative and the whole public transport sector and more than 50% of the private cars in the region could be run on the ethanol and biogas produced. The profitability is shown to be lower if the raw biogas that is by-produced in the biofuel production plants is used for combined and power production instead of being sold as transportation fuel; however, this strategy may still result in profitability if the support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. Investments in Fischer-ropsch diesel and dimethyl ether production are competitive to the investments in combined and power production only if high support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included.

Marginalised societies face a wide range of deprivations and constraints at individual, institutional, economic, and technological levels. To satisfy unmet or underserved needs of poor people living in these societies, it is essential to address all the relevant constraints in the target context through the design of integrated solutions. Many studies have explored the design of integrated solutions for these societies using approaches and concepts such as holistic design for low-resource settings, Base of the Pyramid, product service systems, subsistence marketplaces, etc. We perform a systematic review of a broad range of literature on integrated design solutions for marginalised societies, gleaning ten guidelines to support design practice in this field. The derived guidelines cover different phases of the design process and life cycle stages of the solution. Each guideline is supported by findings of several studies. We have also included a detailed, illustrative example for each guideline. Additionally, the review allowed us to offer recommendations for how to use each of the ten guidelines. Finally, we discuss the guidelines relating them to constraints in marginalised societies and unfamiliarity of practitioners about these societies. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Increasing awareness in business and society regarding socio-ecological impacts related to society's use of materials is a driver of new materials management practices. The aim of this study is to gain insight into what considerations come into focus and what types of solutions are revealed when companies apply a strategic sustainability perspective to materials management. Through literature reviews and semi-structured interviews we found that the companies studied have assessed material choices and related management actions, not only regarding their potential to reduce a selection of current socio-ecological impacts, but also regarding their potential to link to future actions to move towards the full scope of socio-ecological sustainability. Through this approach, these companies have found several ways through which materials with characteristics that are commonly considered problematic can be managed sustainably by making strategic use of some of these “problematic” characteristics and other characteristics of the materials. For example, a material associated with problems at end of life, could be managed in closed loops facilitated by the persistence of the material. Based on the findings, we conclude that by not applying a strategic sustainability perspective to materials management, organizations risk phasing out materials perceived to be unsustainable which, managed differently, could be helpful for sustainable development.

The vast and growing array of concepts, methods and tools in the sustainability field imply a need for a structuring and coordinating framework, including a unifying and operational definition of sustainability. One attempt at such framework began over 25 years ago and is now widely known as the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. However, as with the larger sustainability field, the social dimension of this framework has been found to not be sufficiently science-based and operational and thus in need of further development. In this two-part series an attempt at a science-based, operational definition of social sustainability is presented. In part 1 a systems-based approach to the social system was presented, based on extensive literature studies as well as conceptual modelling sessions using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development as the guiding structure. The focus of that study was on the essential aspects of the social system that need to be sustained, namely trust, common meaning, diversity, capacity for learning and capacity for self-organization. The aim of this second paper is to identify and present overriding mechanisms by which these aspects of the social system can be degraded, thereby finding exclusion criteria for re-design for sustainability. Further literature studies, conceptual modelling sessions and initial testing of this prototype with partners in academia, business and NGOs were performed. Based on the understanding of the essential aspects of the social system and the identified overriding mechanisms of degradation of these, a hypothesis for a definition of social sustainability by basic principles is presented. The proposed principles are that in a socially sustainable society, people are not subject to structural obstacles to: (1) health, (2) influence, (3) competence, (4) impartiality and (5) meaning-making. Overall, the two papers aim to provide a hypothesis for a definition of social sustainability, which is general enough to be applied irrespective of spatial and temporal constraints, but concrete enough to guide decision-making and monitoring. It is also a further development of the social dimension of the FSSD, which practitioners and researchers have requested for some time and can act as a support towards better integration of social sustainability in many other fields, e.g., sustainable product innovation, sustainable supply chain management, sustainable transport system development, and others.

The vast and growing array of concepts, methods and tools in the sustainability field imply a need for a structuring and coordinating framework, including a unifying and operational definition of sustainability. One attempt at such framework began over 25 years ago and is now widely known as the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. However, as with the larger sustainability field, the social dimension of this framework has been found to not be sufficiently science-based and operational and thus in need of further development. In this two-part series an attempt at a science-based, operational definition of social sustainability is presented. In this paper (part one), a systems-based approach to the social system is presented, as a basis for presenting a zero-hypothesis of principles for social sustainability in part two. Extensive literature studies as well as conceptual modeling sessions were performed and the social system was examined from various angles – complex adaptive system studies, human needs theory and other social sciences, and insights from these fields were woven together. The whole work was structured and guided by the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. The focus of the study was on the essential aspects of the social system that need to be sustained (that cannot be systematically degraded) for it to be possible for people to meet their needs. These essential aspects were found to be trust, common meaning, diversity, capacity for learning and capacity for self-organization. Trust seems to be generally acknowledged to be the overriding aspect of a vital social system. A sense of common meaning is also stated by several authors as an important part of social capital and something that helps to keep a group or society together. Diversity is acknowledged as essential for resilience; in the human social system this can be interpreted as, e.g., diversity of personalities, ages, gender, skills. Capacity for learning and self-organization are also motivated from a resilience point of view by several authors. These results form a basis for the hypothesis for a definition of social sustainability presented in paper 2, which in turn is a step towards creating an enhanced support for strategic planning and innovation for sustainability.

There is a growing need to understand how existing concepts and tools for sustainability relate to each other and to a robust, trans-disciplinary systems perspective for sustainability. As a response, a group of scientists, including some of the authors, have developed a framework based on backcasting from sustainability principles over the last 20 years – the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), also known as The Natural Step Framework. The intent of this study is to scrutinize the existing framework as regards its social dimension. The study demonstrates dichotomies and lack of robustness and proposes a way forward to make the social dimension of the FSSD more cohesive as well as operational.

This article aims to develop and test a new approach for comparing sustainability effects (mainly approximated through CO₂ emissions) and the total cost of ownership of various business models (Regular Purchasing, Car Pooling, Car Leasing, and Taxiing) applied to private cars with different energy carriers (Biogas, Ethanol, Gasoline, Plug-in Hybrid, and Electric). The results indicate that, out of all of the vehicles, electric vehicles are the most competitive—from both an ecological and economic perspective. Moreover, of all of the business models, Car Pooling is the most competitive when driving short to medium distances, reducing CO₂ emissions by 20-40% compared with Regular Purchasing. Meanwhile, Car Leasing emits the same amount of CO₂ emissions as Regular Purchasing if both are driven the same number of kilometers per year. The results also indicate that, from a cost effectiveness perspective, people who travel less than 2000 km per year should primarily consider using Taxis or similar services, while Car Pooling is most cost effective for those who travel from 2000 to 8500 km. For those who travel between 8500 and 13500 km per year, Car Leasing is the most cost effective, and Regular Purchasing is the best option above 13500 km per year. If most car owners were to accept and adapt to this identified need for a market move towards Car Pooling with Electric Vehicles, necessary transportation could be ensured while significantly reducing the number of cars on the road, whether from Regular Purchasing or Car Leasing, as well as those that run on fossil fuel. This, in turn, would result in less fossil fuel use, fewer emissions, and decreased negative effects on human health.

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. It is the following combination of objectives that puts demand on a new process model adapted for cross-sector and cross-disciplinary cooperation: (i) a fossil-free transport system in Sweden by 2030 and, to avoid sub-optimizations in the transport sector, (ii) assuring that solutions that support (i) also serve other aspects of sustainability in the transport sector and, to avoid that sustainable solutions in the transport sector block sustainable solutions in other sectors, (iii) assuring cohesive creativity across sectors and groups of experts and stakeholders. The new process model was applied in an action-research mode for the exploration of electric vehicles within a fully sustainable transport system to test the functionality of the model in support of its development. To deliver on the above combination of objectives, a framework was needed with principles for sustainability that are universal for any sector as boundary conditions for redesign, and with guidelines for how any organization or sector can create economically feasible step- by-step transition plans. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is designed to serve such purposes and therefore is embedded into the new process model. The exploration of this new model also helped to identify four interdependent planning perspectives (‘Resource base’, ‘Spatial’, ‘Technical’ and ‘Governance’) that should be represented by the respective experts and stakeholders using the model. In general, the new process model proved helpful by giving diverse stakeholders with various competences and representing various planning perspectives a common, robust, and easy-to- understand goal and a way of working that was adequate for each of their contexts. Furthermore, the evolving process model likely is relevant and useful not only for transport planning and electric vehicles, but for any other societal sector as well and thus for sustainable community planning in general. 

The prisoners' dilemma is a game-theoretical construct about trust. It can be seen as a simple version of the 'tragedy of the commons', which is often used in the sustainability context as a metaphor for the tension between responsibility for common resources and the perceived self-benefit to individual organizations, regions or nations who neglect such responsibility in the short term. However, other game theory and developments in sustainability science imply that the prisoners' dilemma mind-set is delusive and misleading for both business and policy making. It helps obscure an even more important aspect of proactive leadership for sustainability: the potential self-benefit of understanding the dynamics of major system change better than one's 'competitors'. The UN 1972,1992; and 2012 summits on sustainability, as well as the many summits on climate change, have been valuable milestones for influencing societal leadership at all levels. However, due to the prisoners' dilemma mind-set, they have also indirectly helped reinforce the idea that sustainability only pays off if the costs of achieving it are shared by all. That, in turn, has encouraged decision makers to believe that 'our organization's, region's or nation's sustainability activity must rely on policy making changing the rules of the game for everybody'. This focus on policy making as the only or main facilitator of sustainability efforts delays the needed transition of global society. By considering game theory such as tit-for-tat and modern systems science for sustainability, this paper illuminates major shortcomings of the prisoners' dilemma in the context of sustainability, and attempts to provide a more fruitful mind-set that can be motivated both theoretically and empirically. It is argued that a large part of the self-benefit of proactivity for sustainability is direct, i.e. independent of other actors' actions for the common good. In addition, it is argued that the self-benefit to businesses can be further increased through voluntary collaboration with other businesses to promote the common good, as well as through collaboration between proactive businesses and policy makers. Currently, none of this is intelligently and operationally part of mainstream leadership and public discourse on sustainability. The clarifications provided in this paper can lead to a much needed shift in mind-set among many leaders, not least political leaders, many of which seem to be trapped in simplistic prisoners' dilemma thinking and who act accordingly. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human activities are now so pervasive and profound that they are altering the stability of the earth in ways that threaten the very life support system upon which humanity depends. The field of design has contributed to the creation of such complex socio-ecological problems, but it is also adapting as a source for solutions. Design Thinking (DT) was identified as a possible approach that could help create such solutions, and contribute to Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD). The purpose of the research was to examine potential contributors and hindrances of the DT process with regards to SSD, and create a prototype of an integrated process that could help achieve more strategic and sustainable outcomes. Using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) as a lens to examine and inform the above, combined with interviews, Action Research and expert feedback, an integrated process was created. It was indicated by participants of the Action Research and by experts that the proposed prototype could help reach strategic and sustainable outcomes, and that further refinement should be pursued. Consequently, a third and final prototype, suggesting a possible Sustainable Design Thinking (SDT) process, was developed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This research provides insights into how sustainability considerations in engineering product design can be addressed through early stages of requirement management processes. Five key elements for successful implementation of sustainable product development from a requirement management perspective are presented, demonstrating how organisational sustainability maturity can be linked to the design and structure of a company’s operational management system. Through a thematic analysis of fifteen interviews with representatives from seven Swedish product developing-and manufacturing companies, critical activities and roles, examples of methods and tools utilisation and implementation, together with challenges and opportunities were identified. This empirical data was used to develop, test and refine a model in which key characteristics of sustainable product design and engineering design were coupled, resulting in a profile model for management of sustainability in requirements. Product developing companies can use the profile model as guidance towards necessary actions that enhance organisational sustainability maturity. Motivated by a low uptake rate of sustainability design tools in industry, this study brings attention to organisational capabilities for successful implementation of sustainable product development. As a lack of traceability is a potential cause, strategic socioecological contextualisation of needs is suggested to improve the chain of decision making in engineering design projects. The guiding research question was ‘What are sustainability requirements and how are they identified and managed in design projects?’. The main contribution is a proposed conceptualised model that aims to support design teams to identify and manage sustainability in requirements for engineering design projects. Future studies will test and validate the model.

Product development and manufacturing continues to be a profound contributor to the socio-ecological problems and challenges we are facing in our world today. For products to contribute to sustainability requires not only that socio-ecological lifecycle impacts are considered in the initial stages of the product innovation process, but that they are maintained as integral product requirements. Although research offers a plethora of approaches, methods, and tools for sustainable product development, the implementation in industry remains low. The focus of this research is a less explored area of sustainable product development implementation, the management of needs identification and propagation of design requirements. The purpose is to: i) add to state of knowledge about current practices of sustainability integration into requirements, and ii) the academic discussion on implementation of sustainable design and product development. A self-assessment approach for sustainability integration into requirements is tested. The purpose of the approach is to support improvement of the requirements management process design, including activities and competencies, for engineering design. Four Swedish product development and manufacturing companies tested the approach, from which the results are used to evaluate usefulness, usability, and effect potential. The findings are discussed together with key characteristics for requirements and sustainability criteria, providing insights to ensure that socio-ecological considerations are both influencing the initial requirement specification, and maintained as decision parameters throughout the product development process.