Evaluating the sustainability of Vietnamese products: The potential of 'designed in Vietnam' for Vietnamese vs. Dutch markets

Shauna Jin*, Arnost Eduard Scheepens

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Future Living Studio (FLS) is a temporary design studio concept that aims to explore and embed sustainable design approaches in the Vietnamese product design context. Each studio brings together local and visiting designers to develop collections of environmentally sustainable products with participating local companies. These products act as reference products and inspiration for demonstrating the potential of sustainable design in Vietnam. From 2011 to 2013, three studios were deployed in Vietnam where nine local designers, nine visiting designers, and 9+ local production companies took part. The aim of this paper is to assess how sustainable the products developed in three editions of FLS are, by analysing their environmental impacts and their competitive value on domestic versus Western European export markets. The increasingly popular eco-costs/value ratio (EVR) model is used to give a portrayal of the environmental and economic sustainability of the products developed, based on a 'willingness to pay' (WtP) assessment that supplements the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)70-110
Number of pages41
JournalInternational Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bamboo furniture design
  • Competitive value through sustainable innovation
  • Cross-cultural collaboration and learning
  • Design for sustainability methodology
  • Designed in Vietnam
  • Eco-cost/value ratio
  • Emerging Vietnamese domestic market
  • EVR assessment
  • Future Living Studio
  • LCA
  • Strategic design approach
  • Temporary studio
  • Vietnamese designers
  • Western European export markets
  • Willingness to pay survey

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