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Daniel Casey
ENGW3302
September 17, 2018

Circular Product Design Strategies: Idealistic, but Actionable

“Circular Product Design. A Multiple Loops Life Cycle Design Approach for the Circular Economy”

is the title of a sustainability-minded article published in September 2017 by Ana Mestre and Tim

Cooper for The Design Journal, an “International Journal for All Aspects of Design”. Projecting from the

non-technical world of design academia, this article attempts to provide savvy product designers a

toolkit, or “conceptual framework”, with which to craft product solutions that are consistent with ideals

of the ‘Circular Economy’. For some context, the idea of a ‘Circular Economy’ predates Mestre and

Cooper’s research, and ultimately serves as an academic platform for the entire article. It’s a multi-

dimensional, globally-scoped vision for a more sustainable future; and imagines an international

economy that eschews linear “make-use-dispose” resource flows for a more circular, “closed loop”

approach- one in which waste doesn’t exist, and resources can cycle through the market indefinitely. A

utopian vision, certainly, and a concept that seems to be largely absent from present political and design

discourse. Mestre and Cooper challenge this paradigm through their “Circular Product Design” article;

constructing a “conceptual framework” for the latter field, and recognizing recent progress in the

political arena through the following introduction:

“More than one year has passed since two historical moments – the Paris Agreement resulting

from COP21 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference), held in December 2015, and the

launch of the European Commission’s first Action Plan for the Circular Economy Package during

the same month. Both are indicative of a revival in international political compromise within the

vision of a systematic shift towards sustainable development.” 1(S1620)

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Obviously, the article’s proposed “conceptual framework” developed for the product design community

has far greater discursive content than this brief political contextualization; it is the focus of Mestre and

Cooper’s research, as well as this discourse analysis.

After contextualizing the articles central theme through insights into the Circular Economy’s

current position in political discourse, Mestre and Cooper go on to contextualize their upcoming

“conceptual framework” by providing an exhaustive list of existing development methodologies that

occupy the sustainable design space. These frameworks include “ecodesign”, “product longevity”,

“Cradle-to-Cradle” design, “industrial ecology”, “sustainable material selection”, “biomimicry”, and

finally, “slow the loop” and “close the loop” approaches.1(S1624) The underlying philosophies behind these

frameworks are beyond the scope of this document, but their presence and location in the larger article

serve to legitimatize the author’s own upcoming framework; and stake out its rightful discursive place at

the table. Among the eight frameworks named, only the latter two- “slow the loop” and “close the

loop”- are specifically intended to fulfill the ideals of a Circular Economy. This referential absence of

existing Circular Product Design strategies, either an accurate portrayal of the design landscape or

shrewd omission by the authors, ultimately creates a vacuum that the article itself seeks to fill. This is

expressed quite plainly at the opportunistic conclusion to the section:

“When analysing all of the above-mentioned concepts, there emerges a clear opportunity to

develop practical guiding strategies for designers and product developers; an integrative

approach to be applied simultaneously when approaching circularity in design. A multi-concept

framework with customised opportunities is thus proposed.”1(S1624)

This extended demonstration of the utility and necessity of the article’s content is important to

subsequent discourse, because it both legitimatizes and elevates the central “conceptual framework” at

the heart of the article- before it is even introduced to the reader. In this way, the authors successfully
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ensure that the reader will consider their proposed framework seriously, and hold it in the same esteem

as successful, previously established frameworks.

All of this introductory material would be useless without the presence of the actual circular

design framework, however. Mestre and Cooper follow up the introduction, political contextualization,

and bookmarking of their proposed framework with a detailed, holistic expression of its components

and features. Their Circular Product Design framework is separated into four different design strategies:

(I) design to slow the loops, (II) design to close the loops, (III) design for bio-inspired loops, and (IV)

design for bio-based loops.1(S1620) The first two strategies deal with “Design for a Technical Cycle”, which

is concerned with the flow of a product’s non-renewable material resources through a global ecosystem;

the latter two address “Design for a Biological Cycle”, which is concerned with the flow of a products

renewable resources and biological nutrients through the same ecosystem. This separation of the

Circular Product Design framework into technical and biological cycles makes sense from a product

design perspective, as nonrenewable and renewable resources are related to very distinct supply chains,

use cases, and design considerations. The two-tier classification also provides a compelling symmetry

and simplicity to the underlying framework, which increases the chances of a reader remembering and

adopting its content. Despite their high-level simplicity, though, the four component strategies of this

framework encompass dozens of detailed guidelines to achieve their execution. The following color-

coded figures 1 and 2 illustrate this immediate branching from abstract ideals (“slow the loop”) to

actionable design steps (“fewer consumables needed”). The color coding is consistent with other visuals

throughout the article; and acts to tie these visuals together. Like other publications in its field, this

article is heavily supported by visual, communicative infographics.

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Figure 1: life cycle design strategies for the Technical Cycle

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Figure 2: life cycle design strategies for the Biological Cycle

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After this framework is presented through written analysis and communicative infographics, the authors

attempt to further validate and legitimatize it through case studies of existing products they claim

employ their four circular design strategies. Pointing to four products; “Fairphone 2”, “Nike Considered

Boot”, “Mercedes Bionic Car”, and “C2C Coffee Cup”; the authors simultaneously attempt to prop up

their conceptual framework components on the authority of these products, and provide useful

examples that illustrate the type of design thinking they feel is appropriate for each component

strategy. Harkening back to the color-code system established in previous figures, the following

infographic is presented to supplement these case studies.

Figure 3: Four Circular Product Design Cases

This figure visually annexes four disjointed product concepts, to transform them into established

exemplars of Mestre & Cooper’s four proposed framework strategies. Once again, the use of color-

coding ties this infographic in with the article’s other visual tools; and reinforces the distinction between

the “slow the loop”, “close the loop”, “bio inspired loop”, and “bio based loop” framework strategies.

The entire article concludes with this climactic realization of Mestre and Cooper’s abstract framework in
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the real world of product design, and leaves readers with heightened appreciation of the credibility of

the “Multiple Loops Life Cycle” approach.

Through 16 pages of contextual background, design discourse, and cohesive visuals; authors Ana

Mestre and Tim Cooper build an effective case for their Circular Product Design conceptual framework.

Mestre and Cooper assert the necessity of such a framework by establishing a disciplinary void in need

of filling; demonstrate its utility by listing dozens of actionable considerations for product designers; and

further validate it through product case studies corresponding to each component of the framework.

These three careful steps serve to successfully establish the Circular Product Design Multiple Loops

framework as an accepted methodology within the design community, albeit with an uncontested

victory- it does not recognize the existence of other circular design frameworks that could directly

challenge it. Time will tell how effective this framework is at developing scalable product solutions that

adhere to the tenets of a Circular Economy, and whether or not it will remain relevant to design

discourse as new conceptual frameworks enter the fray.

Postscript

This text matches my hopeful expectations for the field of design. I’ve been troubled by the

environmental implications of being a product designer for some time, and have always hoped that

others who were similarly concerned were working on solutions that reconciled creative product

production and real sustainability. Unfortunately, as encouraging as academic texts such as this are,

common sense and experience suggest to me that it will be a long time before we approach anything

close to a “circular economy”. Every consumer product company I’ve worked with has produced

staggering amounts of waste as a hefty price for product development, with no real considerations for

environmental impacts or waste minimization. My basic understanding of finances suggests to me that

most businesses won’t adopt Circular Product Design unless there is a monetary incentive, but instead it
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seems to come with a monetary penalty. Financial incentives might follow from a political system that

encourages businesses to “go circular”; but such a political order (although slowly being synthesized)

feels distant. However, it is unproductive to assume that nothing can change. Instead, documents like

this are essential to convince us that things can change, that concrete steps can be taken to build a

better future. Thus, discourse within the design community about sustainable design is essential to

spearhead the larger, global, adoption of planet-friendly design practices like circular product design.
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References

1. Ana Mestre, Tim Cooper. 2017. Circular Product Design. A Multiple Loops Life Cycle Design

Approach for the Circular Economy. The Design Journal (20): S1620 – S1635