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IMPLICATIONS OF EU INSTRUMENTS ON COMPANY CAPABILITIES TO DESIGN MORE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS–PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT AND DIGITAL PRODUCT PASSPORT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Josefin Lövdahl ,
Sophie I. Hallstedt  and
Jesko Schulte
Josefin Lövdahl*
Affiliation:
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden;
Sophie I. Hallstedt
Affiliation:
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden; Chalmers University of Technology
Jesko Schulte
Affiliation:
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden;
*
Lövdahl, Josefin, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, josefin.lovdahl@bth.se

Abstract

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In the EU, initiatives with concrete instruments for measuring and storing sustainability-related product data are now introduced in legislation. Based on literature review and semi-structured interviews, this study investigates two EU instruments, the Product Environmental Footprint method and Digital Product Passports, and their potential implications for company capabilities to design and select more sustainable solutions in a strategic way. The results show that these instruments can lead to increased transparency and traceability in the design and comparison of solutions, allowing for more effective collaboration across the value chain. By applying a strategic sustainability perspective, it was found that these EU instruments have major limitations as they lack a systems perspective, do not include a full socio-ecological sustainability perspective, and do not support strategic decision-making. This results in risks for suboptimization and the design of solutions that turn out to be costly dead-ends on the way towards a sustainable society. Research is therefore recommended to investigate how these instruments can facilitate a strategic development of sustainable solutions.

Keywords

EcodesignCircular economySustainabilitySustainable Product DevelopmentDigital Product Passport
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 2245 - 2254
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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