Investigating product driven sustainable use

The effects of insatiable consumption have long been recognised. Educational and technological interventions have been ineffectual in creating sustained long term change in the majority of consumer’s behaviour. Policy-makers, government and NGO’s attempts to infiltrate and change consumer behaviour are for the most part reliant on their relative success in persuading the mass majority to adopt a different lifestyle. This seems to be a step too far for most consumers who it seems cannot be convinced to willingly prioritise the wider global community’s concerns over their individual desires. This research will argue that product manufacturers are in a position to change user behaviour through innovative product design. The overall aim of this research is to identify a methodology for designing products that are instinctively used in a sustainable way. A fundamental aspect of this aim is to fill the gap in existing research by identifying ‘sustainable’ and ‘unsustainable’ user behaviours. This paper reports on one of the pilot studies conducted in partial fulfilment of this aim.