Professor Lisa Ellram: “Product design is key to creating a sustainable economy”

The circular economy is based on eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials and regenerating nature, which means putting everything back or leaving it better than before. The role of product design is crucial when it comes to circular economy. According to professor Ellram, design determines 80-90% of a product’s/service’s environmental impact over its lifecycle.

“You have product designers who designs new products. When they choose the raw materials to the product, that determines the technology needed to make it. That in turn determines where you can produce and distribute it”, says Ellram. “How durable will it be? Is it going to be reusable? Can you recycle part of it? Design is really key here”, she continues, “and still they are not learning this in design schools”.

Why do we need a circular economy?

The use of resources has tripled since 1970 and could double again by 2050 if we continue like this. We have to create a circular economy where the product design minimises waste and pollution, products and materials are recycled, and nature is regenerated.

According to Ellram we should focus on the sectors that use most resources and where the potential for circularity is high. Those include electronics and ICT, batteries and vehicles, packaging and plastics.

“Apple has announced they will use only recycled cobalt in their products. That is good both for the environment but also good because of the poor working conditions and side effects when producing cobalt”, Ellram states.

Many of the challenges we face today are paradoxes – we want cobalt because it is needed in many environmentally friendly products. But mining cobalt can pollute water, air and soil. It seems that we cannot do well on all accounts without some trade-offs or compromises.

At Hanken professor Ellram has held a PhD course on circular economy. She is also working on a project with Hanken researchers Gyöngyi Kovács and Anna Aminoff regarding circular economy and packaging. Professor Ellram is now doing a systematic literature review on circular economy packaging: Environmental versus Business perspectives.

Professor Lisa Ellram held a talk on circular economy at a breakfast seminar at Hanken School of Economics on 18 April 2023.

Text & photo: Marlene Günsberg