As awareness of the serious environmental impact of the furniture sector increases, design is increasingly recognized as a crucial lever for innovating towards sustainable furniture products. This acknowledgment was emphasized by the European Union in the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2020 and is further emphasized in the forthcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation in 2024. To address the environmental issues stemming from the life cycle of furniture products, which constitute the fundamental part of the furniture system, specific design knowledge and know-how are developed within this study. Although Life Cycle Design (LCD) is a systematic approach to reducing environmental impacts, its application within the furniture system remains limited. This paper adopts a design-based research approach with three research stages and employs various methods including a literature review, case study, workshops, interviews, questionnaires, and a focus group to develop furniture-specific LCD guidelines and a toolkit. As a result, this paper presents furniture-specific LCD guidelines (comprising 7 strategies, 21 sub-strategies, and 154 guidelines), 41 environmentally sustainable furniture case cards, and a toolkit (comprising 4 tools). These guidelines provide comprehensive principles for designers to address environmental impact throughout the furniture’s life cycle. The toolkit guides sustainable furniture LCD, promoting low environmental impact and high design efficiency. These outcomes address the existing gaps in knowledge and tools in this field.

Shandong, China’s largest agricultural province, generates a massive amount of agricultural waste each year, with corn stover being the predominant type. Although current agricultural waste management primarily involves sustainable practices carried out by professional companies, this study seeks to explore a simpler, more accessible method of handling stover waste. Guided by positivist theory and several experiments, a formula was developed, primarily composed of corn stover powder and natural substances such as glycerin. In this process, we designed and implemented four control experimental groups with water as the quantity used to investigate the influence of different material content in the formula. The resultant material was then subjected to property analyses, including tests on colouration, toughness, etc. Ultimately, the material was applied in a small-scale test as a raw material for an agricultural product packaging design. The study, rooted in sustainability, environmental protection, and the establishment of a local circular economy, fills the gap in current research of lacking design knowledge interventions.

Furniture is a crucial sector for sustainable development due to its high environmental impact and substantial potential for sustainable improvement. Despite many existing furniture Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), they often provide fragmented data, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impact across different furniture groups due to methodological disparities. This study employs LCA as the primary method to evaluate 25 furniture pieces across 8 groups. Using the Environmental Footprint method and the Ecoinvent 3.7 database within Simapro 9.1.1.1 software, it generates a comprehensive database with all 25 furniture pieces’ environmental performance data, including the environmental impacts of furniture with different characteristics within the same furniture group, the impacts of various life cycle stages for each piece, and the impacts of different materials/processes within each stage. The database highlights several trends: furniture groups with higher material weight generally exhibit greater environmental impact; the pre-production stage generally has the highest impact, followed by the production, distribution, end-of-life and use stage. For environmental data interpretation, the study provides valuable design priorities, suggestions, and opportunities for improving the environmental performance, supported by case studies. By uncovering common trends, this research informs and guide the pursuit of more sustainable furniture design and production practices.

It is widely acknowledged that the furniture industry has a significant environmental impact and is one of the vital sectors for improving sustainability. However, there is a lack of comprehensive, scientifically-based, furniture-specific knowledge and know-how, including a theoretical framework, approaches, methods and tools, to guide the furniture industry toward greater sustainability. A growing international scientific community is working to fill the gap. This PhD research is framed into this research area focusing on Life Cycle Design (LCD) and Sustainable Product-Service System Design (S.PSSD). The LeNS network¹, which includes nearly 150 design Universities distributed worldwide, is the primary scientific community for reference. The research aims to develop furniture-specific knowledge and know-how to support the Sustainable Furniture System Design (SFSD).

Insufficient income, inadequate healthcare resources, and insufficient chronic disease management awareness pose a fundamental obstacle to the sustained health maintenance of elderly individuals with chronic diseases in rural areas. In response to these challenges, this study adopted a research-through-design approach and introduced system design thinking by incorporating new stakeholders, experiential insights, and services. Initially, during the background research stage, a semi-structured interview was conducted to gain an understanding of the pains, needs, and potential opportunities of the target users. Subsequently, in the design model construction stage, desk research was carried out to refine and integrate the common components identified in various design models. In a focus group, these components were then incorporated into the development of a Sustainable Health Product-Service System Design Model tailored for rural elderly with chronic diseases after refining the pains, needs, and potential opportunities defined in the first stage. This design model encompassed elements including a background layer, a stakeholder layer, a funding layer, a product layer, a service layer, and an information layer. In the system design and design model validation stage, a design project aimed at health maintenance was launched within Liyang Town, with the design thinking method following a process of empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. Throughout the project, the established model guided the design process and facilitated the conceptualization and implementation of a Product-Service system. In conclusion, an investigation encompassing 15 elderly individuals was undertaken to analyze their income balance, health condition, health awareness, and their satisfaction with the health system. This analysis spanned the period both before and after their involvement in the project. The outcomes of this examination revealed notable enhancements across all three dimensions evaluated, highlighting the positive impact of the project on the elderly participants. Furthermore, the project’s social benefits were also comprehensively established.

Introduction: Traditional health management primarily focuses on treating existing diseases, while neglecting early intervention, prevention, and proactive health maintenance. In contrast, modern Personal Health Management (PHM) emphasizes on prevention alongside treatment. However, the effectiveness of PHM is constrained by several challenges, including limited awareness of proactive health management, the complexity of physiological data generated by smart wearables, and the high cost and scarcity of high-quality medical resources. Methods: To address these issues, this study explores the integration of smart wearables and digital twin technology in PHM. In the first phase, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with users to confirm current challenges and, with experts to explore promising opportunities in PHM. Drawing on the insights, the paper proposed assumptions regarding the synergistic potential of digital twin technology and smart wearables. In the second phase, the study developed the smart wearables empowered Healthy Digital Twin (HDT) generation model through the incorporation insights and experiences from multiple case studies. Results: The HDT model comprises four key layers: data monitoring, data aggregation, modeling and computation, and human-computer interaction. In the third phase, the study organized an expert workshop, leading to the development of a comprehensive Product-Service System for full-cycle PHM, based on the HDT model. This system encompasses three main components: a health visualization and early warning, a remote collaborative diagnosis and treatment, and an intelligent recommendation. Discussion: This system helps to enhance health awareness, optimize daily health management, improve the telemedicine process, and fully utilize the potential of digital healthcare.