Ecodesign for more sustainable consumption

On average, every person is allowed to consume around one ton of CO2 per year in order to not further promote climate change. About 38% of the daily CO2 footprint per person is caused by consumer goods, e.g. clothing or electronic devices. In Austria, the value of 2019 was nine tons of CO2 per person. Current statistics on the topic of sustainability by product group show that sustainability is only considered when buying groceries. Only a few people pay attention to sustainability in electrical appliances, clothing, cosmetics, furniture or toys. The biggest problem is that many products are difficult or impossible to repair and therefore often have to be disposed of at an early stage. The aim of the work was to find out how the population can be encouraged to consume more sustainably and how a selected product can be made more sustainable. In the first part of the work, the topic of product design, and especially eco-design, was explained in detail through intensive literature research. In order to establish the connection between consumers and sustainability, a quantitative survey was created and carried out. This was followed by Empiric II with the development of a service concept. At the end of the work, it was shown how consumers feel about sustainability, to what extent they are committed to it and what role repairing plays in it. The literature research underlined the need for increased sustainability awareness and the problem of environmentally harmful production and shortened lifecycles. In the empirical parts of the work, it was clarified what the consumption and repair behavior in Austria looks like in order to determine where to start in order to convince the population to consume more sustainably on the one hand and to make the market offer more sustainable on the other. REINSET was created on this basis. This revenue-sharing model makes the repair process easier for consumers and offers them a bonus for their repairs in order to create an additional incentive and encourage repair behavior in Austria even more. However, since sustainable consumption and subsequent repairs can only be carried out if the products have to be designed accordingly, MOTOBOT is launching a sustainable eScooter on the market as an example of a corporate partner of REINSET. This eScooter is particularly characterized by its modular design and its sustainable production cycle. It is made almost entirely from recycled materials, contains no welded or glued components and can therefore be easily repaired. At the end of its service life, it is disassembled into its individual parts, which are used as best as possible for the production of a new e-scooter.