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International Conference on Research into Design

ICoRD 2017: Research into Design for Communities, Volume 2 pp 409–420Cite as

Connotations of Ecodesign: A Commentary on the State of Discourse

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Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 66))

Abstract

Design, as a process of realizing a planned change, operates on specifications from the normative requirements and constraints emanating from the context of realizing the solution. The concept of ecodesign deals with principles that ensure a desirable state of the environment by appropriate design of products or solutions. There is a growing body of literature on ecodesign. However, perusal of the publications on the operational aspects of ecodesign points to a lack of rigour in qualifying ecodesign. This prompted the authors of this work to study the state of the discourse on ecodesign from the perspective of connotations of the term among engineering designers. The observations based on the scrutiny of the definitions of the term ecodesign from papers published in the years 2016 and 2015 in the Journal of Cleaner Production point to an undesirable situation of conveniently adapting interpretations of ecodesign to suit the design constraints sans justification and validation.

The original version of the chapter was revised: Belated corrections in the Table 1 have been updated. The erratum to the chapter is available at 10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_90

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Ramani Krishnaswamy & Kumari Moothedath Chandran

Authors
  1. Ramani Krishnaswamy
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  2. Kumari Moothedath Chandran
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Correspondence to Ramani Krishnaswamy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore, India

    Amaresh Chakrabarti

  2. Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Debkumar Chakrabarti

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Krishnaswamy, R., Chandran, K.M. (2017). Connotations of Ecodesign: A Commentary on the State of Discourse. In: Chakrabarti, A., Chakrabarti, D. (eds) Research into Design for Communities, Volume 2. ICoRD 2017. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 66. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_35

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3520-3

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