KEPA Sustainable design for manufacturing industry in Päijät-Häme

Intersectional objectives of sustainability and responsibility are emphasized in the Päijät-Häme smart specialization strategy and the Design Roadmap as well as the goal of getting more businesses to utilize design in their value creation. The main objective of this project is to foster the ability of regional SMEs to utilize design in order to attain more sustainable, responsible and competitive business. The main target group are the manufacturing companies in Päijät-Häme, whose green transformation and renewal abilities are developed especially by sustainable product design.



The role of LAB as a sustainable business developer for manufacturing businesses is strengthened in the project. A concrete, scalable and agile cooperation model is constructed, which will meet the regional RDI and product design needs, the cooperators being LAB, design professionals and regional businesses.



Product design and other design needs of the regional SMEs are mapped in the project and real-life product design pilots are implemented with the manufacturing businesses. The cooperation model is being tested and developed through these pilots. As a result there will be an overview, which includes a summary of the SME interviews, descriptions of the pilots and the design office simulation.