Connecting Global Sustainability with Circular Product Design

Climate crisis, mass extinction, accumulating trash in all corners of the world, dwindling resources—humanity is driving planet Earth far beyond its safe limits. The circular economy has become popular among private and public actors as a solution to these multiple environmental crises. Circulating materials—so the promise—will make the economy independent of primary material extraction and avoid waste generation, including emissions. However, this promise may only lead to environmental sustainability, if the biophysical limits of our planet are respected. While this is a clear objective on a global scale, how can it be considered in the design of circular products and services? This chapter will introduce the “resource pressure” method, which aims to guide design decisions by connecting global sustainability criteria with resource effectiveness on a product level. First, Earth system boundaries are translated into resource budgets, i.e. the maximum annual production of materials and energy, which are environmentally sustainable. These resource budgets are then used as a reference for the resource consumption induced by the product or service, i.e. the “pressure” induced on limited resources. Circular strategies, such as optimizing lifetime, remanufacturing, recycling and cascading, can be evaluated case-by-case on their effect on resource consumption and the reduction in resource pressure. Targets for reduction of resource consumption can be derived and their achievement measured. The method assists designers and engineers in finding the most effective circular strategy towards respecting environmental boundaries.