Circular Design for a Transition to a Sustainable Circular Society: Defining a New Profession

Mainstream circular economy emphasises the closing of material loops through designing out waste and pollution as a core way to ensure green growth. Hitherto, accounts of circular design have focussed on the industrial design strategies that can reinforce product life extension and material recycling. However, far more is at stake than technical eco-design strategies for a sustainable circular economy and society transition that puts sufficiency at its core. Hence, some recent accounts of circular design propose a greater role for design in social innovation and policy-making towards a sustainable circular economy and society. However, these technical and more social roles for design, reflecting design in the circular economy and circular society discourses, tend to be separately discussed. In combination, these expert and diffuse approaches to the new landscapes of design point to a broader definition of circular design based on sustainable circular economy principles. In this chapter, we examine sustainable circular economy principles for a circular society and the scope for an expanded design influence on the circular society transition. We also propose definitions for an expanded R-strategy ladder for circular design consistent with sustainable circular society principles.