Resources, Design and Behaviour

The research unit's overarching goal is to develop and scale implementation-ready circular product-service systems that can contribute to reducing absolute resource consumption, thereby establishing an 8-tonne society in line with the 1.5°C climate target. In keeping with the concept of transition design, the research unit targets the micro level and addresses changes in individual and social actions and interactions by designing products and entire product-service systems. The underlying premise is that these approaches ultimately contribute to transforming production-consumption systems at the societal level – and, thus, at the economic level. More specifically, the researchers pursue the following core objectives:

• Viewing resource security as a key goal: Developing approaches and strategies for resilient resource supply and security within the economic cycle, accounting for geopolitical risks, biodiversity and essential metal resources.
• Making a resource-efficient society possible: Embedding resource-efficient production methods and social practices in society, business and politics, while creating the necessary enabling conditions.
• Establishing sustainable lead markets with companies: Developing, prototyping and scaling sustainable, circular product-service systems as drivers.
• Providing evidence-based decision-making tools: Providing empirical input and detailed analysis at the micro level (e.g. lifestyles and product life cycles) as a reliable basis for business and political stakeholders.
• Empowering consumers as agents of transformation: Expanding consumers’ scope for action across diverse circumstances, safeguarding consumer protection and facilitating resource-efficient 1.5°C lifestyles in an 8-tonne society.
• Developing and designing realistic visions of the future: Developing transformation pathways and roadmaps for sustainable production and consumption, and quantifying contributions to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The research unit is committed to exploring core areas of consumption and demand, including housing, food, clothing, health and mobility – along with digitalisation as a cross-cutting topic. It deploys the following approaches:

Starting from the micro level, the unit’s researchers focus on holistic assessment of resources and structures in product-service systems. They evaluate material flows by means of life cycle assessments, dynamic models and systematic analyses.

This work adopts a forward-looking focus in order to generate future-proof insights. In addition, researchers analyse the criticality and security of raw materials, the resilience of global supply chains and cross-sectoral interactions in relation to material demand, with the aim of identifying conflicting objectives at an early stage.

Following the “Design for Circularity and Sustainability” approach, the researchers develop innovative product-service systems, incorporating technological and social innovations, and prototyping them in living labs. This is supplemented by design principles such as anti-dissipative design, which strives to minimise irreversible material losses, and ensuring that products are modular, repairable and recyclable by design. Interfaces between users, products and physical and digital infrastructure are examined in this process. The outcomes are political recommendations, including revisions to the EU Ecodesign Directive.

Applying concepts and methods from behavioural sciences, the researchers examine how people behave, especially in their role as consumers. The research considers not only observable behaviour, but also the attitudes, perceptions, emotions and decision-making processes that shape it. Building on approaches from fields including behavioural economics, psychology and sociology, researchers implement both qualitative and quantitative research methods – including explicit, implicit and experimental methods – to develop and test prototypes for product-service systems and interventions together with users. Researchers take account of the diversity of individual preferences, needs, scope for action and dissonance, analysing the interactions between individual behaviour and structural framework conditions with the aim of developing evidence-based approaches for the transformation of lifestyles and consumption practices.

The research unit works closely with other divisions and their units at the Wuppertal Institute. Within the Sustainable Production and Consumption Division, it is aligned with the Business, Finance and Training Research Unit, which examines the business strategies and measures, impact-oriented financing and future-focused skills of wide-ranging stakeholders. It also maintains links with the Innovation Labs Research Unit, which explores social innovations in urban real-world labs along with commercial innovations in living labs. In addition, it collaborates closely with the Circular Society Research Unit in the Circular Economy Division, working at the interface of consumption and individuals’ transition to circular lifestyles.