Design Collaboration for Sustainable Business

The need for sustainable solutions is undeniable and needed more than ever. The consequences of climate change create global challenges affecting everyone regardless of geographic location or nationality. The effects significantly impact the environment and social and economic levels. It has been estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impacts are defined in the design phase. Design offers ways to preserve value in product design and the entire service process. Design as a method provides solutions for circularity and sustainability with its problem-solving ability. This means that design also has a significant role in production and manufacturing. Design is a tool in the transition towards the circular economy. Nevertheless, there is still a big unused potential, and many methods and models have been piloted but not yet widely implemented. This is the specific area that the Design Collaboration for Sustainable Business project is focusing on.



The current use of natural resources and the impacts of overconsumption are environmentally unsustainable both in Europe and globally. The Earth´s ecological carrying capacity is being exceeded at an alarming level. Globally, the world's overshoot day was last year in August, meaning we would need almost two earths to produce the natural resources we use. These challenges transcend national borders and affect all regions of Europe. New models and policy instruments must be developed to respond to future needs and to utilize future opportunities in new business. The above issues and the EU's ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets (to be climate neutral by 2050), among other specific local, regional and national targets, mean that all partners involved in the DeCo project share common goals to develop sustainable and circular economy solutions. The partners believe in the methods of design as part of the solution to these complex challenges.



The project, led by LAB University of Applied Sciences, is carried out in transnational collaboration with ten organisations.

- Wallonie Design (Belgium)

- REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND OF CENTRAL MACEDONIA (RDFCM) (Greece)

- Special Account for Research Funds of InternationalHellenic University (Greece)

- Public Institution for the Development of the MedimurjeCounty REDEA (Croatia)

- Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre Ostrava (Czech Republic)

- The Finnish Society of Crafts and Design (Finland)

- The Regional Council of Päijät-Häme (Finland)

- Podkarpackie Innovation Centre (Poland)

- The Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation of Spain (Spain)
Project period
-
Project state
On-going
Project area
International
Project funding
Interreg Europe 2021-2027
LAB role
Lead partner
Unit
Institute of Design and Fine Arts
Project focus area
Intangible value creation
Objectives
The overall objective of DeCo is to improve local, regional and national development policies through exchange of experience and capacity building in circular and sustainable design, production and manufacturing. Sub-objectives of DeCo are to enable European regions to develop policies to promote the ability of SMEs and companies of all sizes to use design to achieve more sustainable and competitive business.-promote the design implementation and the design sector's development with a view to sustainable development. This should be reflected in future decision-makers considering the importance of design in building a more sustainable and circular Europe. Knowledge and skills on the potential of design to contribute to sustainable and circular business among partners and stakeholders. As a result, the design will be involved in the early stages of business development, with a better chance of influencing the emergence and development of sustainable business.
Outcomes
DeCo supports the transition towards a circular economy through design. The use of design to promote the circular economy has played a minor role in the past, and measures to support regional policy improvements in using design have not been significantly implemented. DeCo's objectives, measures and knowledge exchange are generating new knowledge of the benefits and means of design to support policy improvement. The previous IE projects have focused on helping cities circularity (CITISYSTEM), citizens´ involvement in circular economy (CECI) and boosting the implementation of emerging digital innovations to foster the growth of circular economy (CEI Boost). DeCo´s focus is on the special approach of design for circularity. This is the specific area that the DeCo project is focusing on. While the previous projects have supported the circular economy in various ways, design has not played a prominent role, and this area needs particular attention.
Sustainable Development Goals
Project managers

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