From Material to Socio-Technical Innovations: A Meta-Scenario Proposition for Footwear Sustainability

The current era of overconsumption reflects profound impacts on the three sustainability dimensions. Production-consumption systems must move towards a socio-technical level, using fewer natural resources and operating in a way that is ethical and just for people. The footwear industry is one of the most polluting industries of the planet, and despite all the efforts towards the use of durable and environmentally friendly materials, the quantitative information on the long-term implications of the most recently created materials, such as bio-fabricated leather or synthetic leather look-alike, is scarce. Given these facts, the sustainable strategies in the footwear sector cannot just be limited to the material level, this attitude might lead to a rebound effect, increasing the unsustainability of the system. The product life cycle and value chain must be seen with a larger holistic approach, including production, the conditions of the workers, the manufacturing processes, and the consumers, in order to move the sector towards a socio-technical level. With the application of the Design Science Research method, the study emphasizes the footwear industry and its approaches to sustainability. It is divided into 3 phases, it initially describes the concepts and design strategies of the Circular and Distributed Economy, related to value chain and product life cycle through a Systematic Literature Review; understands the value chain of a small and local based footwear company in Brasil, and proposes a value chain meta-scenario for the business, partner of this research.