Longer Lasting Products
The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, exp...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Abingdon :
Routledge,
2016.
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| Subjects: | |
| ISBN: | 9781315592930 9780566088087 |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (460 pages) |
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Table of contents
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| 245 | 0 | 0 | |a Longer Lasting Products |c edited by Tim Cooper. |
| 264 | 1 | |a Abingdon : |b Routledge, |c 2016. | |
| 264 | 2 | |a London : |b Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), |c 2023. | |
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| 520 | |a The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables - vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods - as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods. Consumption patterns across the industrialized world are widely considered to be unsustainable, not least because they demand an excessively fast throughput of materials and energy. It follows that sustainable development will only be possible if the throwaway culture is challenged and there is an overall increase in the life-span of products such as vehicles, appliances, furniture, clothing and footwear. This introductory chapter traces the origins of the debate on planned obsolescence and identifies a recent revival of interest in the lifespan of consumer products: their longevity. After providing a conceptual and theoretical overview, it reviews the many influences upon product life-spans, the case for (and against) longer lasting products, and possible implications of an increase in product longevity for industry and consumers. Although the intrinsic durability of products is the result of design and manufacturing decisions, product longevity is also influenced by consumer behaviour such as the discarding of functional items. Progress away from a throwaway culture thus requires change across society: in public policy, design and marketing strategies, consumer attitudes and behaviour, and socio-cultural norms. The end of a product's life offers a measure of its success and failure, an opportunity to assess the value derived from utilization during its useful life against the costs of manufacture and use and against environmental and social impacts. Though the life expectancy of some products, such as the humble forged stainless steel dining fork, may seem unlimited, the end of a product's useful life is an inevitable reality even if, in this case, distant. In cases involving fast-changing technologies, however, product obsolescence is often a major concern, particularly when the product costs and production volumes are high. This chapter explores this end-of-life state, commonly referred to under the umbrella of 'obsolescence', in order to understand its variations and implications, and to offer some means for more effective and sustainable product development. Landfills are packed with fully functional durable goods that slowly compact and surrender working order beneath a substantial volume of similar scrap, their downfall an inability to sustain a meaningful attachment with their owners. In this emotive sense, waste is a symptom of a failed subject/object relationship. Design has a central role in the creation of longer user:product relationships, but sustainable design methodologies have thus far attended almost exclusively to the somewhat superficial, bodily survival of manufactured objects, to after-effects rather than causes. There is little point designing physical durability into goods if consumers lack the desire to keep them. The scope and power of emotional experiences delivered via objects produced through the current system are incredibly limited. Commercially viable strategies are needed for emotionally durable objects which engage users on deeper, more profound, levels and over longer, more rewarding, periods of time. New, alternative genres of objects could increase the durability of relationships between users and products, people and things. This will demand novel and provocative models of sustainable design capable of developing emotionally durable objects and empowering consumers to transcend the superficial urgencies of conventional consumerism and to forge deep emotive connections with their possessions. What can we learn from product design and consumer behaviour that might enable products to defy obsolescence? This chapter considers a range of product attributes, consumer behaviours and societal factors that are associated with prolonged product life-spans. It presents a range of examples mostly drawn from the consumer electronics sector, which is of particular interest due to rapid obsolescence. The life-spans of many such products (notably personal computers and mobile phones) are getting shorter and a significant proportion of these products are still in functional order when discarded. The examples presented are often informal responses to impending obsolescence; they are not planned or anticipated by the designer or manufacturer. The chapter concludes by considering the need for new and collaborative approaches between designers and users in meeting the challenge of engaging with obsolescence effectively in a fast-moving technological sector such as consumer electronics. Understanding replacement behaviour is the key for exploring design solutions to achieve longer product life-spans. This chapter reports on an extensive literature review and subsequent qualitative and quantitative research intended to lead to a better understanding of replacement behaviour. The process of replacement decision making is described and a model of influencing factors presented. In general, even though people's motives for replacing products are very diverse, in essence what they want are well-functioning and up-to-date products that meet their changing needs. This requires a similar approach in design: the development of products that are dynamic and flexible. Design solutions are needed to postpone replacement, using strategies such as designing products for reliability and robustness, repair and maintenance, upgradeability, product attachment and variability. Design cases are presented that illustrate practical examples of the proposed strategies. A broad movement of 'slow activists' is beginning to contest the notion of continuous production and consumption and its inherent, unsustainable, economic growth. This movement is finding diverse expressions and, within it, design is finding a new voice, 'slow design'. This chapter examines the emerging canvas of slow design activities, especially those created and curated by slowLab, to explore how design can deliver improved well-being. It shows examples of slow design aimed at slowing the metabolisms inherent in product:user relationships in order to generate improved relationships and experiences for the user while helping to create positive social, environmental and economic change. It suggests that slow design and co-design (participatory design processes) offer fresh approaches for revitalizing our thinking about product life-spans and novel ways of designing, making and producing. These design approaches offer the design community a new, more active, voice that could encourage new visions of enterprise and improved human flourishing. Durability is a characteristic of certain goods in the industrial economy, which is focused on producing goods for sale. Producers operating in saturated markets, however, may regard durability as an undesirable quality, as it represents an obstacle to replacement sales. | ||
| 520 | |a In recessionary times they may even get support from governments who seek to overcome this problem by paying an allowance to owners of perfectly working old automobiles to scrap them and buy new ones. The result is an increase in resource throughput without an increase in wealth! Possible longevity is aborted. This chapter explores the potential for product durability and longevity as economic objectives in a 'functional service economy', which (by contrast with the traditional industrial economy) is focused on selling performance. In such an economy the supply side actors (i.e. producers) exploit the existing stock of goods in order to make more money with less resource input. As product ownership remains with these supply side actors, there is an economic incentive to prevent waste and loss. The consumer becomes a user; ownership is replaced by stewardship. The contribution which the law makes to the durability of goods, principally through the law of contract, is explored in this chapter. Until surprisingly recently it was not clear that durability was a characteristic that consumers could expect from goods. With the amendment of the law relating to the quality standards implied in contracts for the supply of goods, which occurred in 1994, it has become clear that this is so. However, such case law as there is on this reform does not suggest that it has made a dramatic difference. In any event, it is one thing to have legal rights but quite another to be able to enforce them. Problems of access to justice often make it difficult for consumers to do so and thus prevent the development and clarification of the law. Having discussed the role of contract law in relation to durability, the chapter also addresses the role of tort law and safety legislation. This chapter analyses the law on guarantees and repair work. It considers the extent to which the law in the United Kingdom provides that a consumer can request that faulty goods be repaired. Although recent legal changes have the effect of introducing repair as a consumer right, its availability is restricted. In many cases when goods are faulty, it seems more likely that a consumer will be given a replacement or a refund. Although consumers may be able to ask for a repair under a guarantee (which operates as an addition to their legal rights), there is no legal requirement to provide a guarantee, nor to include repair as one of the remedies offered. Generally, therefore, consumers seeking to have defective goods repaired may have to bear the financial cost of this out of their own pocket rather than being able to rely on a specific legal entitlement. Obtaining repair is made more difficult by the absence of any legal requirement on a retailer or manufacturer to stock spare parts and to make available appropriate servicing facilities. Attempts to reform the law in this area have not come to fruition. Overall, the law on repair work is not in a satisfactory state and improvements are needed. An examination of the approach in other jurisdictions suggests possible ways forward. The throwaway culture that is prevalent across much of the industrialized world requires attention and yet the kind of radical policy measures necessary to transform it have rarely been studied in depth, let alone introduced by governments. Until now it has evidently been politically expedient for governments to succumb to the electorate's apparent desire for more (and newer) consumer goods. As sustainable consumption rises up the political agenda, this chapter makes the case for public policy intervention to optimize product life-spans based on potential benefits to the economy, the environment and consumer satisfaction. A framework within which to assess specific measures to encourage longer lasting products is presented, structuring discussion around the stages at which policy might be most effective, the relative merits of using incentives or penalties, the different types of policy instruments and the option of generic, as distinct from product-specific, policies. Policies advocated by past and present critics of planned obsolescence are identified and a range of potential regulatory, market-based and voluntary measures to encourage longer lasting products are proposed. The challenge of moving towards more sustainable economies, and the provision of longer lasting solutions to our needs within them, is considerable. It will require many innovations in our technologies, our infrastructure and amongst the key actors within our systems of consumption and production. Although there will be many technical and practical barriers to overcome, perhaps the most difficult change that will be required is to change our minds, our patterns of thinking, about the way in which we produce and consume. Much of the 'software' that drives our systems of consumption and production resides in the management discipline of marketing. Marketing has been under pressure to change, to become more environmentally orientated, materially efficient and sustainable, for most of the last 20 years. In general, however, the conventional marketing paradigm has proven remarkably resilient. Instead of changing to create pathways to sustainability, it has largely endured and often acted as a barrier to change. This chapter explores how the quest to develop technologies and products that are more durable will depend on changing how we think both about marketing and within marketing, creating a new sustainable marketing paradigm. In order to select products with life-spans that are environmentally optimal and appropriate for their requirements, shoppers need to be adequately informed about the design life of their prospective purchases. This chapter assesses the quality of information about product life-spans currently available in retail environments, based on the findings of an exploratory research study. It draws upon data from observational visits to retail outlets and telephone interviews with trade associations and manufacturers. The fieldwork revealed few specific examples of life-span labelling but uncovered a variety of means by which consumers might predict the durability of products: life-span labels and other environmental claims, guarantees and warranties, quality marks, and labels concerning installation and care. A review of consumer access to information on the design life of products for 10 types of product was undertaken and an assessment made of the potential value of life-span labels. The study concluded that the quality of information on product life-spans currently accessible to consumers is inadequate and proposed an increase in life-span labelling. Marketing shapes consumption. This chapter considers some means by which the attribute of durability may be used in the marketing of consumer durables. As consumer societies have evolved, many products have less often been sold on the basis of their functional characteristics alone and more on the strength of an image, association or lifestyle preference. A shift towards longer lasting products would demand a reappraisal of this trend and require marketers to identify strategies by which to promote products on the basis of durability in ways that are attractive to consumers and add to brand strength. This chapter presents a range of marketing platforms through which the durability of products could be highlighted as a positive attribute and identifies some potential risks and opportunities in adopting such a strategy. Progress towards sustainable consumption requires a better understanding of the influence of consumer behaviour on product life-spans. Attempts to increase the life-span of household products through eco-design will be ineffectual if consumers are not making full use of the utility provided by them. The study of consumer influences on product longevity is, however, in its infancy. Disposal behaviour has received some attention in the context of waste management, but the impact on product life-spans of acquisition preferences and use-related behaviour has not been addressed systematically in academic research. This chapter presents key results from research on three categories of household product: everyday footwear, large household appliances and upholstered chairs. | ||
| 520 | |a The findings demonstrate that consumers exert considerable influence upon product life-spans and reveal substantial differences in behaviour between the three categories of product and across the different stages of consumption. A range of factors that affect consumer influences upon product life-spans are classified and used to construct a theoretical framework within which to explore these influences. This is used to identify the most significant barriers to optimizing product life-spans from a consumer perspective and propose possible solutions. In order to achieve a life-span for products that is optimum for sustainability, the ways in which consumers use products cannot be left to chance. Producers of electrical and electronic products, the focus of this chapter, can actively intervene to educate users, persuade them to behave in a particular way, monitor products and their usage, advise consumers on positive action and receive their feedback. Such intervention is termed 'life cycle management' and is part of overall producer responsibility. This chapter looks at the nature of life cycle management, including its technical, economic and social aspects, describes a research project which attempted to establish some relevant principles, and draws conclusions on its future. Results from these two project trials illustrate the potential value of product life cycle information, both for understanding user behaviour and aiding repair and design. Consumers' interaction with packaging in their processing of domestic waste has not been extensively examined by academics, designers or local authorities. Consequently there is little understanding of how ideas, actions and objects together result in the reuse of packaging, and when and where this happens. This chapter uses the findings from a research study to examine different ways in which consumers reuse packaging in their homes and draw out the principles behind these reuse practices. These principles are then tested in practice as the basis for packaging design that may facilitate extending the life of packaging and thus reduce domestic waste. Household furniture and appliances are classified as 'bulky waste' in the waste management sector. This chapter provides an overview of household bulky waste disposal and reuse activities in the UK and the contribution made by furniture and appliance reuse to extending product life-spans. Using analysis based on questionnaires, interviews with local authority officers and visits to reuse organizations, the different methods for discarding bulky household items are discussed and reuse levels estimated. The potential to increase the number of items diverted for reuse is assessed; in particular, the role of furniture and appliance reuse projects in the voluntary and community sector. These capture a substantial portion of items that would otherwise be sent to landfill and forward them to people in need. The chapter highlights the social dimension to reuse. Removing items from the waste stream helps tackle the problem of increasing waste generation and extending their life-spans slows the rate of virgin resource consumption. These environmental benefits are, however, widely regarded within the sector as secondary to the social benefits to volunteers employed by reuse organizations and low income households provided with basic household items. | ||
| 590 | |a Bloomsbury Visual Arts |c Design Studies | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Consumer behavior |x Environmental aspects | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Design. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Product life cycle | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Product obsolescence | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Cooper, Tim, |e editor. | |
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