Current manufacturing and consumption practices, which favor short product lifespans and a take-make-dispose approach, significantly increase the environmental burden. This is especially true for products that include Information and Communication Technology components, such as connected products, due to the fast and constant upgrades.

Connected products with short lifespans contribute to increased e-waste and greater use of valuable and limited raw materials. This may be symptomatic of the ecosystem we have created, suggesting that the solution lies in systemic and collaborative efforts to transform our approach.

This constructivist qualitative study explores current challenges and necessary future directions based on industry experts’ experiences. Focusing on connected sound products as an exemplary product category, empirical data is derived from designers, product managers, engineers, and sustainability experts. These experts work in 12 audio companies located in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the USA, and the UK, as well as in an audioindustry-oriented NGO and an incubation hub.

Empirical data is collected through semistructured interviews with 24 participants and five co-investigation workshops including 13 participants.

A tangible token kit and workshop materials were developed and designed to facilitate empirical data collection using the research-through-design method.

Conclusions

The following conclusions are drawn:

1. Product life extension is a multifaceted issue central to sustainable production and consumption, involving coordinated efforts across products, services, companies and their internal structures, business models, manufacturing ecosystems, customer-related aspects, and regulatory issues
2. Currently, companies utilize productoriented approaches such as modularity, durability, repairability, craft production, local production, and material selection. However, they face limitations related to products, companies, and ecosystems, including a lack of knowledge transfer, ever-changing technology, safety concerns, legal constraints, hardware sourcing issues, and vision mismatches between manufacturers and companies.
3. Industry experts are often at a loss on how to implement further strategies to address these issues, and there is a need to build the capacity to meet these requirements. Co-investigation workshops have shown that industry experts identify collaborative pathways to improve the implementation of product life extension.
4. Designers can significantly contribute to product life extension by acting as catalysts through innovative product design and user interaction strategies if they can be further empowered as decision-makers within companies. Designers can be further supported in enhancing their strategic skills, collaboration abilities, creating tools for collaborative thinking, and having experimental spaces to explore materials, diverse ways of designing.

This thesis serves as a call to action, urging companies to invest in their transition towards sustainability while calling on policymakers to support distributed and alternative local manufacturing and foster local design and manufacturing capabilities.