The paper explores the evolution of Design for Sustainability (DfS). Following a quasi-chronological pattern, our exploration provides an overview of the DfS field, categorising the design approaches developed in the past decades under four innovation levels: Product, Product-Service System, Spatio-Social and Socio-Technical System. As a result, we propose an evolutionary framework and map the reviewed DfS approaches onto this framework. The proposed framework synthesizes the evolution of the DfS field, showing how it has progressively expanded from a technical and product-centric focus towards large scale system level changes in which sustainability is understood as a socio-technical challenge. The framework also shows how the various DfS approaches contribute to particular sustainability aspects and visualises linkages, overlaps and complementarities between these approaches.Peer reviewe

The pressure of human beings on the environment has profoundly modified natural systems, and today the planet is reaching its limits in the capacity of assimilating environmental effects caused by anthropic activities. In the last few decades the reaction of humankind to sustainability problems has produced a series of approaches that has gone from relying upon end-of-pipe solutions to cleaner production and product eco-design strategies. A promising way to begin to address these challenges is the Product-Service System (PSS) approach. A PSS is a value proposition oriented to provide satisfaction to customers/users through the delivery of an integrated system of products and services. If properly conceived, a PSS can offer an economic and competitive incentive for stakeholders involved to continuously foster improvements in sustainable resource management, thus delinking creation of equitable economic value from intensive material and energy use within ecologically sustainable boundaries.Peer reviewe

Access to modern energy services represents a great challenge for about 1.4 billion people living in low and middle-income contexts. This paper discusses the combination of Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) with Product-Service Systems (PSS) business models, an approach that is considered promising to deliver sustainable energy solutions in these contexts. This paper aims at filling the knowledge gap regarding the combination of these two models. In particular it puts forward a comprehensive classification able to encompass all the most important dimensions characterising PSS applied to DRE, and identifies 15 archetypal models of PSS applied to DRE. This new classification system and the related archetypal models have been tested and evaluated with companies and experts from Botswana and South Africa, showing their potential to be used as a strategic design tool to support innovation in this field

Product-service system (PSS) innovation is a promising approach to address sustainability challenges in the automotive industry. Starting form this assumption, this paper presents and discusses the potential contribution that policy measures can have in fostering the automotive sector in innovating on a PSS level. A set of policy instruments (general instruments and specific PSS-targeted ones) are presented and classified, underlining the effects they could produce at the company and environmental levels. In order to effectively support sustainable PSS diffusion in the automotive industry, the paper suggests the integration of general policy measures (such as internalisation of external costs, extended producer responsibility programmes and informative policies), with the PSS-targeted ones (such as Green Public Procurement focused on sustainable PSS, support of companies in acquiring information related to PSS, support of demonstrative pilot projects). In addition, the paper suggests the necessity to involve actively universities and research centres.