8th Greening of Industry Conference
Ways of Knowing Stream
Design orienting scenario
sustainable clothing care
and
system
innovation
for
Carlo Vezzoli
CIR.IS Politecnico di Milano
Dip. DI Tec
via Durando 38/A, 20158 Milan, Italy
tel. + 39 02 2399 5983 fax + 39 02 2399 5967
E-mail carlo.vezzoli@polimi.it
Preliminary results of the EU-funded research project to be presented within the
workshop "Leap-frogging to Sustainable Households" organized by Prof. Dr.
Philip J. Vergragt.
Abstract
This paper describes some of the preliminary results of the EU-funded research project, Strategies
towards the Sustainable Household (SusHouse), to be presented at the workshop "Leap-frogging
to Sustainable Households " organized by Prof. Dr. Philip J. Vergragt.
Three household functions are being studied in the SusHouse project: “Clothing Care”, “Shelter”
and “Shopping, Cooking & Eating”. This paper will focus on the Clothing Care function.
A short description of the SusHouse project (main aims and meaning of Design Orienting
Scenarios) is given is given as an introduction, followed by a definition of the Clothing Care
function (function definition, main unsustainabilities and fields of analysis). Subsequentely the
preliminary Clothing Care “Design Orienting Scenarios” are presented. Finally some consideration
are given to underline the importance of the so called concept of “system innovation” (the multiple
stakeholder co-design of solution) for sustainable clothing care household function fulfillment.
The SusHouse project
SusHouse is an EU-funded research project (1998-2000) concerned with developing and
evaluating strategies for transitions towards sustainable households. Three household functions
are being studied in the SusHouse project: “Clothing Care”, “Shelter” and “Shopping, Cooking &
Eating”. Every function is being studied in three European countries by research groups in five
different countries: the “Clothing Care” is being studied in Germany, Italy and The Netherlands; the
“Shelter” in Germany, Italy, and UK; the “Shopping, Cooking & Eating” in Hungary, The
Netherlands and the UK.
The basic hypotheses of the research are that a combination of technological, cultural and
structural changes are necessary to achieve the radicality requested by the environmental
sustainability target; and that to achieve such an innovation all the potential stakeholders
(industries, government, universities, and public interest groups) should be activated. In fact, the
SusHouse project is stakeholder-oriented and their (stakeholders) interactions with the research
team take place along the whole research (and specifically throughout a series of workshops).
The general aim of the research is to develop scenarios (or better still Design Orienting Scenario)
as well as methods to achieve and to assess them in environmental, socio-cultural and economical
terms. A Design Orienting Scenarios (DOS) is a project scenario specifically built to favor
sustainable stakeholder innovation; it is a synthetic proposition made of a general vision (a picture
of a possible configuration of the system in which socio-cultural and technological factors are
combined to produce in a synthetic form a possible state of being of the system) with some
articulated proposal (a defined mix of product and services) positioned in a global context (Manzini
E., Jegou F., 1999).
Preliminary Design Orienting Scenario have been developed for the three mentioned household
functions and are being evaluated for decreased environmental burden, economic feasibility and
acceptability to consumers.
Clothing Care function
Function definition
Clothing Care covers all those household’s activities carried out by the user of clothes and/or by
the clothing care services, at the beginning, during and at the end of the clothes’ using phase. In
other terms the acquisition (activities for purchasing or renting of clothes), the maintenance
(cleaning, drying, ironing, ordinary substitution of wear parts, storing, etc.), the up-grading, the
reparation, the reuse, and the collection/destinations of de-missed clothes (forwards to recycling,
combusting or landfilling).
This means that the boundaries of the system range from the acquisition, the maintenance and the
collection (the destination) of the de-missed clothes (see the figure below).
It is worthwhile underlining that the given definition of clothing care concerns, as pointed out, even
the product (cloth) life span.
INDIRECT SYSTEM BOUNDARIES
Production of fibers
Production of fabrics
Production of clothes
DIRECT SYSTEM BOUNDARIES
Acquisition of clothes
Maintenance
cleaning
drying
Use/wearing
Acquisition of
consumables
Production of
consumables
Acquisition of
durables
Production
of durables
ironing
storing
Reparation
Up-grading
Collection/destination of de-missed clothes and durables
Reuse
Remanufactoring
Recycling
combusting
landfill
Fig 1 Clothing Care functions system boundaries and main activities
Clothing Care main unsustainabilities
All those household activities have a recognized high environmental impact, due to the energy
consumption for cleaning and drying, the water consumption for cleaning, the emissions of various
consumables for caring, the energy consumption, the transportation and the solid waste due to
clothes’ purchasing.
The most unsustainable activities, among those mentioned as part of the clothing care, are
generally known to be those of washing and drying, followed by ironing. In those cases the
unsustainability is due to energy (from carbon content sources), water and detergent (or other
consumables) consumption. Other impact are caused by: water emissions in terms of quantity and
quality due to washing and quality of consumables for caring (e.g. euthropisating emission of
detergents); transportation in terms of energy consumption and air emissions due to purchasing or
transportation of clothes to sites for caring.
Finally, as mentioned before, it is relevant as well the indirect impact of clothes productions and
disposal (solid waste) ; this is proportionally linked to clothes frequency of substitution, which is
mainly due to cultural obsolescence, e.g. fashion.
Fields of analysis
The aim of the research is to investigate environmentally promising technical-cultural options and
various social-organizational ways to fulfil the function in order to prefigure promising scenario.
In technical and technological terms, a more sustainable clothing care scenario relate to the
development and the innovation of all those alternative options that may influence, more or less
directly, the environmental performances. In this perspective the activities to be considered
overcome the mere operations of clothing care. For example, the development of fibers and fabrics
that facilitate or reduce the use of materials and energy consumption for caring.
In social and cultural terms, a more sustainable clothing care scenario relates, more or less
directly, to all those environmental opportunities offered by the possible changes in consumer
behavior and socio-organizational patterns.
While analyzing user expectations for clothing care, it is also important to analyze the social
expectation for clothing. This is obvious as far as the latter influences the former, e.g. if we do not
use cloth, we do not need to take care of it. This means that both the alternatives for change in
clothing care and clothing itself may have an important outcome on the environmental
improvement of the caring activities. In other terms the analysis of environmentally interesting
social and cultural innovations has to be made both for clothing and clothing care.
Preliminary Design Orienting Scenarios for Clothing Care
Three creativity workshops have been organized in Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands involving
different groups of stakeholders having interest- both consolidated and potential- in the clothing
care value production chain: developers/producers of fibers and fabrics; developers/producers of
cloth; developers/producers of clothing care durable; developers/producers of clothing care
consumables; those who take care of clothing and connected services; service companies of
maintenance and reparation of the appliances and tools; entities responsible for disposal,
recycling, reusing of textiles; public administration and services; consumer groups; household
members.
During these workshops stakeholders came out and developed several technical, cultural and
organizational ideas (both proposals and strategies) aiming at various environmental goals.
On the basis of those results further developments have been made aiming at the elaboration of
Design Orienting Scenarios (see the previous definition; Manzini, Jegou 1999).
Five main DOSs have then been selected and further developed in each country (three to four
DOSs per country). These has been titled as follow:
 Soft Caring (being studied in Italy)
 My clothes my eternal friends (being studied in Germany and in The Netherlands)
 Clothing Care outsourcing (being studied in Germany, in Italy and in The Netherlands)
 Collective clothing care (being studied in Germany, in Italy and in The Netherlands)
 Easy clothing care (being studied in Italy).
Very briefly the essential characteristics of those scenarios are as follow.
In Soft Caring scenario (Maschi S., 1999) the time between two processes of traditional cleaning
with wet and dry processes refreshing clothes are prolonged. That is made trough alternative
softer, hence more environmental friendly washing techniques. These are performed little by little
every day, with new facilities concerning the structure of the house (tanks, walling of wardrobes,
water system…) and new appliances (climatised wardrobe, dirt detector…).
In My Clothes My Eternal Friends scenario (Bode M., 1999; Knot M., van der Wel A. M., 1999)
clothes are personally owned, but in a limited set of high quality made to measure garments.
Hence the clothes are used more intensively, and for a long time, leading towards a reduced
clothing production and consumption (prolonged product life cycle) and a potential environmentally
friendlier clothing.
In Clothing Care Outsourcing scenario (Bode M., 1999; Knot M., van der Wel A. M., 1999; Maschi
S., 1999) the outerwear is owned and exchange by professional organizations; only underwear and
clothing for special occasions are still privately owned. Furthermore, all the caring activities
(washing, cleaning, ironing, finishing, repair, modification, disposal) are as well provided by
external services. The potential environmental gain is due the use intensification of clothes and to
the efficient industrial clothing care systems (scale economies, and professional equipment and
personnel).
In Collective Clothing Care scenario (Bode M., 1999; Knot M., van der Wel A. M., 1999; Maschi S.,
1999) clothing care is a collective task integrated to work and other activities. Most of the clothing
care activities take place in neighborhood centers offering advanced technologies to wash, repair
and dispose them as well as possibility to exchange clothes. This leads to less clothing production
and consumption as well as to minimization of clothing care burden by centralized and efficient
clothing care appliances.
In Easy Clothing Care scenario (Maschi S., 1999) the caring is carried out within the household by
highly technological instruments and devices (e.g. smart household appliances with fuzzy logic
programs and increased number of performances) which support household members tasks,
optimizing the clothes duration and the efficiency of the caring activities.
The result is a series of DOSs each one composed by a written part and by sketches (Bode M.,
1999; Knot M., van der Wel A. M., 1999; Maschi S., 1999). The written part contain the vision, a
story-board, one or more proposals (concrete product and/ or service), and a synthesis of the
essential characteristics of the scenario (from the environmental, economical and the user
acceptance point of view). Obviously, same DOSs studied in different countries show some
differences.
These DOSs are now being assessed by each country in terms of environmental gains, consumer
acceptance, and economic feasibility. Complete results are not yet available, anyhow some
general consideration may by drawn out in relation to the most promising scenarios.
System innovation for sustainable clothing care fulfillment
In all the countries, the most promising DOSs and their features, show a common trait: the
innovation is a system innovation. This is a novel research field - named as well design of
convergence, or strategic design (Manzini E., 1998) - in fact, not necessarily linked to
sustainability. Anyhow the essence of system innovation is that it is not a specific part of the
system which is innovated, but the system as a whole (Vergragt P., 1998). This concept foster the
idea that a radical change could be reached by an innovation (a new solution, a new mix of
products and services) which emerges from a solution co-designed by different actors
(stakeholders), involved in the value production chain of a determined social demand of results.
In the case of the SusHouse research the requested radicality of the innovation is given by
sustainability target (factor 20) and the value production chain of a determined social demand of
results is a household function.
As mentioned above the preliminary results, of the clothing care function research teams (in
Germany, Italy and The Netherlands), clearly underline that a radical improvement in
environmental terms could be more efficiently reached (with a positive consumer acceptance and a
promising economical gains) when the innovative solution arises from new forms of partnership
along the clothing care value production chain; in other terms when a system innovation is
proposed, being a multiple stakeholder co-designed solution for the clothing care fulfillment (see
Bode M., 1999; Knot M., van der Wel A. M., 1999; Maschi S., 1999).
In fact, the SusHouse projects is being carried out in line with this concept, since fundamental part
of this research is the development of scenarios involving different stakeholders, as well as
methods to achieve and assess them.
Conclusion
Given that sustainable (household) scenarios require for radical change, this kind of innovation - as
the preliminary research results of the clothing care research teams show - have wider
opportunities to arise from a system level. In other terms when the solution is co-designed by
multiple stakeholders involved in the same value production chain; stakeholders that usually
separately design, produce and deliver their products. To conclude, when looking for sustainable
(household) scenarios, an important path to be followed is that of defining and fostering the
conditions (research, consensus, methods, tools, etc.) to favor new and untaught forms of
partnership for the co-design of solutions.
References
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