From Eco-Design to Sustainable Product-Service Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The European Commission has long been promoting and adopting legislative proposals and a substantial funding package to facilitate the transition to sustainable products and processes.

The European Green Deal, the EU's flagship climate initiative, sets 2050 as the deadline for the EU to become climate neutral, and to do this it is estimated that Europe will need around 260 billion extra investments per year over the next ten years.

Among the environmental objectives that will be part of the European stimulus plan, there is the transition to a circular economy, focused on the reuse and recycling of energy and material resources.

For this reason, designers and engineers will be even more motivated to redesign their products and processes considering environmental performance together with other classical aspects, such as quality, safety, functionality, and ergonomics. This context requires use of the eco-design methodologies able to improve circular business models by means of product life cycle extension and effective management of closed-loop and end-of-life strategies (i.e., product reuse, product re-manufacturing, and material recycling).

Today there is a lack in the end-of-life design methodologies in early phases of the product concept, a lack of tools and techniques to systematize the matching of end-of-life products and the start of the second life application in the new circular product chains context.

The future requires a cultural change overcoming mere green washing activities and pushing companies to adopt new strategies and tools for eco-design and to rethink their business models.

Finally, European policies, now aimed only at defining which products and processes will be considered green (therefore beneficiaries of funding programs), could benefit from broader interventions aimed at establishing the effort that each company takes for environmental improvement, especially what has already been prepared for an effective management of its end of life.

Papers exploring novel eco-design tools and methodologies are welcome, especially if aiming to improve efficiency with the adoption of circular economy practices.

Contributions to the reduction of energy and mass resources during the entire life cycle of the product and in particular during the use phase and optimization of the disassembly phase are also useful.

We know that the world of patents is rich with clever solutions that could be disseminated as a knowledge base to better understand the state of the art and as a repository of exemplary cases that can inspire new sustainable intervention practices.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer review process with the goal of rapid and broad dissemination of research findings, developments, and applications.

Prof. Dr. Davide Russo
Prof. Dr. Daniele Landi
Guest Editors

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• eco-design methods and development of guidelines
• design for circular economy
• product use optimization
• end-of-life: reuse, remanufacturing and recycling management
• sustainability assessment of products and manufacturing processes
• design for disassembly
• sustainability in patent database
• second life application