Collaborations in DfS implementation projects : enablers and challenges

The need for addressing sustainability impacts of products has been increasingly acknowledged in both academic discourse and industrial research alike. Design for sustainability has been one such response to the call for... [ view full abstract ]

The need for addressing sustainability impacts of products has been increasingly acknowledged in both academic discourse and industrial research alike. Design for sustainability has been one such response to the call for more sustainability in product development. 

DfS approaches by its very nature warrants a multidisciplinary approach in companies that cover both internal (between departments in the company) and external stakeholders (along the value chain and with other relevant external stakeholders) in a company. This increases the relevance of collaboration in DfS projects. Even though collaboration is a very mature field of study in organizational research and elsewhere. It has not been widely discussed in the context of DfS implementation in companies. 

This paper investigates the potential insights from relevant fields such as Environmental Management Systems (EMS) where collaboration has been studied in more detail. The insights from other relevant literature is then analysed in the light of empirical inputs from 16 case company interviews. The interviews aim at unlocking the different enablers and challenges collaboration practices face in DfS implementation. The concludes by presenting a framework on the different influencers, inhibitors and facilitators for collaboration practices in a DfS context.

Keywords: Design for sustainability (DfS), Eco-design, Interdepartmental collaboration, external collaboration, interviews, empirical studies