This book explores how design decisions, from societal and policy-level interventions to business models and product-level choices, can reduce material intensity and support a transition to a regenerative future. The challenge of the twenty-first century is not simply how to consume more sustainably, but how to meet human needs while reducing pressure on global ecosystems. Designing Circularity addresses this challenge by reframing circularity as a systems problem: how to achieve the same, or better, outcomes for society with less material and energy throughput.
At the centre of the book is a triple-layered systemic design framework for coordinating circular initiatives across socio-technical and policy systems, organisational business and service models, and products and assets. Drawing on research, practitioner insights, and real-world examples, the book shows how governments, businesses, not-for-profit organisations, and designers can work across these layers to reshape the conditions that influence production, consumption, and resource use.
Through the lens of material intensity, Designing Circularity challenges readers to consider not only how products are made, but how systems are organised to meet human needs. It examines how effectively economies and sectors meet those needs in relation to the materials and energy they use, and how shared forms of provision can reduce dependence on materially intensive patterns of individual consumption. Written for researchers, practitioners, designers, industry leaders, and policymakers, the book offers a practical pathway for applying systems stewardship to create collective abundance within ecological limits.
The Introduction and Chapters 1 and 3 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.