Creating national strategy for circular design through co-design: An Australian perspective

For years design has been touted as defining a significant portion of the environmental impacts of everyday products and systems. ‘Sustainability’ has been a lens often chosen to tackle related environmental issues that humanity faces; the Brundtland Report describes sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Design focused on reducing the environmental impacts of materials embedded within products necessitates an engagement in whole systems and aligns with the rise of global product stewardship arrangements, waste export bans, the right-to-repair movement, and the circular economy. This paper details a project commissioned by the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to research how such design can assist the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns. The results of this research delivered a range of cross-cutting levers, being overarching policies, regulation, financing, and education related programs applicable across a wide range of sectors, products and materials, to help drive circularity by design. Co-design was applied as the central methodological mode of the research (with industry, government, and not for profit organisations), the key contribution being practical guidance as to what global and local action could be taken with said levers to drive circular outcomes in relation to local design capabilities and world’s best practice.