Episode 5 Katie Beverley – Ecodesign

Episode 5: Katie Beverley of Ecodesign Centre, PDR In today’s episode, I’m talking to ecodesign and systems thinking expert, Katie Beverley, who describes herself as a ‘critical friend’ of the circular economy.  Katie is Senior Research Officer with Ecodesign Centre, PDR, at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales.  We dig into Ecodesign principles to explore the differences, and how Ecodesign could add value to circular solutions.  Katie explains the benefits of user-centred and systems-thinking approaches. You can read a summary of the podcast, and find the links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention, later in this page.   About Katie Katie is a Senior Research Officer with Ecodesign Centre, PDR, Cardiff Metropolitan University.  Ecodesign Centre works with academic partners and the public and private sector, to embed ecodesign, circular economy and sustainable thinking into products and services. Katie hopes her work goes some way towards offsetting the environmental impacts of the weekends she spends watching endurance motor racing – although she is learning to live with the guilt, whilst keeping a watching brief on ultra-low emission powertrains. Podcast sections [00:00] Katie and Catherine first met at Transitions 2 the University of Huddersfield in 2018.  Katie tells us about her background, and how having originally trained as a chemist, she joined the Ecodesign Centre at PDR.  This was after  Post-Doctorate roles at The University of Leeds, then The University of Huddersfield. Katie’s deepening interest in sustainability led to questions about what a 21st Century design course should include, realising that sustainability was a critical, yet missing element. Ecodesign [04:24] We explore Ecodesign and the circular economy, and how they compare.  Katie explains that Ecodesign takes a lifecycle approach.  Each stage of the lifecycle has a different set of activities to focus on, and Ecodesign looks at where the biggest impacts might be, and how they could be reduced in the design phase. For example, in selecting materials: which materials should you choose?  Could you minimise them, could you select lighter weight materials?  For production: where could you produce, how will you distribute?  What about the ‘use’ phase: what impacts are there, and what improvements could you make? A ‘critical friend’ of the circular economy [06:47] Katie feels the circular economy still has “teething problems”, and she challenges the “almost optional” nature of looking at lifecycle impacts common to most circular economy approaches.  She feels there is often too much emphasis on improving end of life options. She suggests thinking about the lifecycle of your product or service, and thinking about whether there are other ways to improve sustainability and create value, instead of redesigning the product. We discuss the example of microfibers – recycled polyester might be more circular, but do we know whether this risks allowing more microfiber shedding during use and washing – or is it on a par with virgin polyester? [09:31] We agree that the circular economy is much more than recycling, but that there isn’t a broad understanding of what the circular economy is, and what it could be with a systems-thinking, full lifecycle approach. Designing for the circular economy [11:13] We discuss how to apply the Ecodesign approach for a circular economy, with the essential need to consider the business or product as part of an open, global system.