Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.8
3.9
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment: Repercussions on Eco-Design
sustainability-logo
Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment: Repercussions on Eco-Design

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2022) | Viewed by 4751

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Christian Spreafico

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management Engineering, University of Bergamo, 24044 Dalmine, Italy
Interests: sustainable design; eco-design; product innovation; TRIZ; FMEA
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

During the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), assessing the environmental impact assessment of a product or a design solution by considering the ecosystem services is far from obvious. In fact, despite the various contributions in the literature in recent years, we are still far from a reliable and shared standard of evaluation of Ecosystem Services. For this reason, those who carry out an eco-design activity cannot be aware of the improvements they have obtained on ecosystem services, or generate truly environmental conscious design solutions.

Through this Special Issue, we aim to collect criteria/methods/approaches/tools to quantitatively/quantitatively assess the impacts on the ecosystem services of a (eco)design solution. In particular, the following aspects may be investigated:

  • Assessing the environmental impacts of design solutions in a hypothetical scenario, where they are far from being realized into products with a defined life cycle, differently to standard life cycle assessment (LCA);
  • Assessing the repercussions on social sustainability of a design solutions: what social aspects and what measurement criteria?
  • Defining the reliable valuation perimeter of ecosystem services for different design solutions, in order to reduce the efforts during evaluation;
  • Comparing the environmental impacts of ecosystem services with social and economic impacts for a design solution.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Christian Spreafico
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecosystem services
  • environmental impact assessment
  • social sustainability
  • eco-design methods
  • sustainable product policy

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 2582 KiB  
Article
Shedding Light on the Brazilian Amazon Biotrade: A Study on Sustainable Development in Native Communities
by Marcelo Elias, Lara Bartocci Liboni, Luciana O. Cezarino, Flavio Pinheiro Martins, Márcio Lopes Pimenta, Per Hilletofth and Olli-Pekka Hilmola
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12826; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912826 - 8 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1579
Abstract
The Amazon is a biodiversity hotspot. Around 90% of its territory is inhabited by native communities, who spontaneously organize themselves into groups of extractivists and small producers, relying on biodiversity as their primary means of sustenance. This paper aims to discuss how the [...] Read more.
The Amazon is a biodiversity hotspot. Around 90% of its territory is inhabited by native communities, who spontaneously organize themselves into groups of extractivists and small producers, relying on biodiversity as their primary means of sustenance. This paper aims to discuss how the biotrade of Amazonian biodiversity goods affects native communities with respect to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Based on a sample of 178 native extractivists in four communities, we concluded that biotrade enabled native communities to market their products by adapting to existing conditions, considering the difficulties and the expectations of traditional residents, and contributed to the three dimensions of sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment: Repercussions on Eco-Design)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 2957 KiB  
Article
Using Product Design Strategies to Implement Circular Economy: Differences between Students and Professional Designers
by Christian Spreafico and Daniele Landi
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1122; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031122 - 19 Jan 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2835
Abstract
Different studies in the scientific literature have shown how the transition towards a circular economy (CE) can benefit from product design, although maintaining a rather broad and qualitative perspective of analysis. This study investigates and compares which product design strategies (from routinely design, [...] Read more.
Different studies in the scientific literature have shown how the transition towards a circular economy (CE) can benefit from product design, although maintaining a rather broad and qualitative perspective of analysis. This study investigates and compares which product design strategies (from routinely design, structural optimization, industrial design and systematic innovation) are most used by students and professional designers to implement different CE strategies (i.e., waste reduction, reuse, remanufacturing, recycling and biodegradability). Students’ data were collected from year projects and MSc degree theses based on real industrial case studies and carried out in two Italian engineering universities, while those of professional designers, were collected from selected scientific articles. Among the main outcomes emerged that the design strategies deriving from systematic innovation were preferred by students quite clearly. The design strategies referred to industrial design, e.g., user-centered design and timeless design were preferred by professional designers. The design strategies related to routine design, i.e., materials substitution, reducing resources and energy consumption, and structural optimization, were indistinctly used by both students and professional designers. The obtained results and their discussion can be useful during eco-design teaching to show the main gaps that students should fill in comparison with professional designers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment: Repercussions on Eco-Design)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop