Cooper - Longer Lasting Products

Longer Lasting Products

Alternatives to the Throwaway Society

Edited by
TIM COOPER

GOWER

Tim Cooper 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Tim Cooper has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.

Published by
Gower Publishing Limited
Wey Court East
Union Road
Farnham
Surrey, GU9 7PT
England

Ashgate Publishing Company
Suite 420
101 Cherry Street
Burlington,
VT 05401-4405
USA

www.gowerpublishing.com

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Longer lasting products : alternatives to the throwaway

society.

1. Product life cycle. 2. New products. 3. Quality of

products. 4. Sustainable design. 5. Consumers--Attitudes.

I. Cooper, Tim.

658.5'752-dc22

ISBN: 978-0-566-08808-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4094-1043-0 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4094-5887-6 (ebk-ePUB)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Longer lasting products : alternatives to the throwaway society / [edited] by Tim Cooper.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-566-08808-7 (hbk.) 1. Product life cycle. 2. Product obsolescence. 3. Consumer behavior--Environmental aspects. I. Cooper, Tim, 1957

HF5415.155.L66 2010

658.5'6--dc22

2010010155

The cover photograph is of Paul Bonominis design for the RSAs Weeeman Project and the image has been used with his kind permission. The robotic figure is made of scrap electrical and electronic equipment that weighs 3.3 tonnes, the average amount that each person in the UK throws away during his or her lifetime.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

MPG Books Group, UK

Tim Cooper

Brian Burns

Jonathan Chapman

Miles Park

Nicole van Nes

Alastair Fuad-Luke

Walter Stahel

Cowan Ervine

Christian Twigg-Flesner

Tim Cooper

Ken Peattie

Tim Cooper and Kirsty Christer

Dorothy Mackenzie, Tim Cooper and Kenisha Garnett

Sin Evans and Tim Cooper

Matthew Simon

Janet Shipton and Tom Fisher

Anthony Curran

Brian Burns is Associate Professor at the School of Industrial Design, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada. (email: brian_burns_eng@carleton.ca).

Jonathan Chapman is Principal Lecturer in the Centre for Research and Development Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 0JY (email: j.a.chapman@brighton. ac.uk).

Kirsty Christer is Research Associate in the Art and Design Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB (email: k.a.christer@shu.ac.uk).

Anthony Curran is a member of the Waste Management Research Group within the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ (email: tcu@soton.ac.uk).

Tim Cooper is Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU (email: t.h.cooper@ntu.ac.uk).

Cowan Ervine is Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN (email: w.c.h.ervine@dundee.ac.uk).

Sin Evans is a former Researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Consumption, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB (email: dixonsindunedin@hotmail.com).

Tom Fisher is Professor of Art and Design, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU (email: tom.fisher@ntu. ac.uk).

Alastair-Fuad-Luke is a Sustainable Design Facilitator, consultant, educator, writer and activist. He founded and constructed SLow in 20032005, was a member of the Board of SlowLab 20052009, and continues with his activities in the slow (design) movement (email: info@fuad-luke.com).

Kenisha Garnett is a former Researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Consumption, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB (email: kenisha62gy@yahoo.com).

Dorothy Mackenzie is Chairman of Dragon Rouge, 1 Craven Hill, London W2 3EN (email: dorothy.mackenzie@dragonrouge.co.uk).

Miles Park is Program Director of Industrial Design at the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia (email: milesp@unsw.edu.au).

Ken Peattie is Professor of Marketing and Strategy and Director, BRASS Research Centre, Cardiff University, 55 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT (email: Peattie@cf.ac.uk).

Janet shipton is Divisional Design and Development Director at Chesapeake Branded Packaging, Hollingwood Lane, Lidget Green, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 2RQ (email: Janetmbarnes@ntlworld.com).

Matthew Simon is Principal Lecturer, Department of Engineering and Mathematics, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB (email: m.simon@shu.ac.uk).

Walter R. Stahel is Founder-Director, The Product-Life Institute, 7 chemin des Vignettes, Geneva, CH-1231 Conches, Switzerland; also Visiting Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey (email walter.stahel@gmail.com).

Christian Twigg-Flesner is Professor of Commercial Law and Convenor, Trade and Commercial Law Centre, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX (email: c.twigg-flesner@hull.ac.uk).

Nicole van Nes is a Researcher at SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, PO Box 1090, 2260 BB Leidschendam, The Netherlands; she was previously at Erasmus University of Rotterdam and Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (email: Nicole@van-Nes.com or Nicole.van.Nes@SWOV.nl).

This book would not have been possible without enthusiasm, interest and support from the growing community of members of the Network on Product Life-Spans. The creation of the Network was made possible through a series of events held from 20042008 and I am grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for providing the financial support that enabled it to take place and to Peter Marshall and Kenisha Garnett, in particular, for their assistance in organising the events. I would like to express appreciation to all of the speakers and participants and, looking further back, to colleagues in the Eternally Yours network in the Netherlands, sadly no longer active, whose events in 1996 and 2003 were truly inspirational.

I am grateful to all of the contributors not only for providing material for this book but for their patience during the process of editing, their gracious acceptance of my attempts to shape the book into a coherent and consistent whole, and their willingness to offer comments on other chapters. On behalf of all of them I would like to express appreciation to other specialists who provided comments on draft chapters, notably Alice Baverstock, Tracy Bhamra, Marilyn Carrigan, Rose Cooper, Mark Godson, Jennifer Hamilton, Craig Hirst, Caroline Lee-Smith, Poppy Maltby and Ben Shaw.