Presenting the SCL model: adding value to business strategy through UCD principles

This paper presents the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit, which was developed to help businesses examine their potential for enabling sustainable consumption whilst identifying areas of opportunity to improve their business model and value proposition. The paper begins by establishing the contribution of business towards sustainable consumption and sets out user-centred design (UCD) principles as a valuable approach to leverage sustainable consumption. The relationship between UCD principles and sustainable consumption in a business context was studied through qualitative research. The findings of in-depth interviews with experts, a focus group and a document analysis led to the construction of a theoretical framework, which was used to develop the SCL Model and its toolkit. The paper then evaluates the potential for the SCL model and toolkit to leverage more sustainable consumption through a comparison made between four workshops within multinational companies in two different contexts: Mexico and the UK. The paper also presents a discussion of some implications of applying the SCL Model, as well as some corporate culture implications. The paper concludes by drawing out the opportunities represented by integrating UCD principles as an enabler for sustainable consumption.