Service and digitalisation in the spotlight

The EcoDesign Circle 4.0 project gathered design centres, design practitioners, research institutions and public authorities from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia and Sweden to apply methods and approaches to the development of circular business solutions in design. The main focus was on developing a service-minded approach and integrating digital technologies in circular business models. The project collected inspiring stories and business cases from different sectors to showcase concrete solutions. Thus, in clothing the partners introduced a digital platform as a service for material suppliers, sorters, recyclers and other users. While in electronics, the partner organisations created a platform for repair solutions for electrical devices. Find out more here.

Training empowers to work sustainably

Besides, the project organised four transnational and two national train-the-trainers workshops for design agencies, service designers, innovation centers, SMEs and other experts from the design and sustainability fields. The focus of the training was on the development of a service approach, how to work sustainably and how to integrate digital technologies in processes. As regards the digital dimension in service offers development, the trainers referred to the emerging digital infrastructure such as web-based platforms, applications, internet of things, blockchain technologies, industry 4.0.

Besides, the focus of the trainings was adapted to the trainees´ needs. While design SMEs learned about the ecological aspects of design, the invited sustainability experts got a chance to better understand designers´ working methods. In addition, the training addressed even public authorities. It aimed to raise their awareness about the circular economy and how ecodesign can contribute to the transition from linear to a circular economy. A better understanding of ecodesign can trigger new funding schemes and resources for ecodesign start-ups.

Transnational outreach matters

The material developed by the preceding project, specifically on audit-sprint approach for SMEs, was further transferred to such geographical areas as Germany and Russia. In Russia, the audit-sprint tool was applied in the wood processing industry and supported the ongoing national transformation to circular economy. In Germany, mutual learning was implemented through transnational pilots. A variety of stakeholders learnt - by observing or doing - how others applied a certain ecodesign approach and then adapted it to their own context in the next pilot. As an example, the team worked on a transnational pilot for a German enterprise in the shared mobility context with an Estonian-German trainer tandem.

Besides, the project transferred best practices through sharing posts via social media, blogs and storytelling. As regards the storytelling, it comprised 36 interview-based cases as well as 8 success stories of the German Ecodesign Award.