The project was done as a master thesis project in the Innovation Through Business, Engineering and Design masters program in Linnaeus University in Växjö Sweden. It is a collaboration of Keiu Meesak (specialization design), Niklas Dahlberg (specialization business) and Betty Hartigan (specialization business). The research was done while consulting with IKEA of Sweden in the process.
The design research is investigating ways of promoting social change towards more sustainable practices around the consumption of decorative home textiles. Knowledge is built and a prototype developed by using transdisciplinary design theory and participatory design methods in a collaboration between the design and business disciplines.
Motivators for the work are the sustainability goals defined by the United Nations, specifically reducing waste through prevention and building awareness for sustainable lifestyles; and a combined interest of becoming more accessible to more people and interacting with them there where they are from the point of view of product or service design, as well as working towards sustainability goals of IKEA.
The context of home textiles has been chosen because textile waste is a growing problem and with the main emphasis being on issues relating to clothing items and fast fashion, problems with home textiles can be easily overlooked. The consumption of new home textiles is rising and there is a gap in knowledge when it comes to sustainable practices when purchasing and prolonging the items' lifespan.
In the centre of the project was the ambition to include users as participants in defining sustainable ambitions and methods. The aim was to understand the behaviours and meanings surrounding home fashion textiles and to reduce the amount of textile waste going to landfills through prevention and mindful consumption. The findings in the context of consumer behaviours around home textiles present an interesting cognitive dissonance concerning acquiring and disposal habits which illustrates the current mindsets and behaviours around decorative home textiles.
“Call to Care - A digital co-creation framework to create sustainability actions through mindfulness” is a toolkit for organisations who want to communicate, share and develop creative solutions for sustainable actions with their users. The aim is to provoke taking responsibility for the consequences of actions and choices on both sides.
References and picture credits:
1. UN Sustainability Initiative. (2020). Sustainable Consumption And Production. [online] United Nations Sustainable Development. Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/ [Accessed 16 March 2020].
2. IKEA® Key Values. (2016). Inter IKEA Systems B.V., p.5.
3. VIRT-EU. (2020a). Workshop. [online] Available at: https://www.virteuproject.eu/servicepackage/workshop/stakeholder-workshop-2/ [Accessed 27 March 2020].
4. De Koning, J., Puerari, E., Mulder, I., and Loorbach, D. (2018). Design-Enabled Participatory City Making. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), 1-9.
5. Metadesigners Network. (2020a). Tool-77-Designing-Miracles | Metadesigners Network 2020. [online] Available at: https://metadesigners.org/Tool-77-Designing-Miracles [Accessed 27 March 2020].
6. Metadesigners Network. (2020b). Radical-Optimism-Glossary | Metadesigners Network 2020. [online] Available at: https://metadesigners.org/Radical-Optimism-Glossary [Accessed 7 April 2020].
1.-2. Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
4. Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
