Grön Design

GREEN DESIGN (Circular and sustainable production investments) contributes to the pacing up the industry's transition to climate-neutral factories by thinking green when designing and purchasing production equipment. The environmental map from Green Kaizen is part of the approach, including a green toolbox with circular design principles, guidelines and technical requirements. The methodology will be developed and piloted in investment projects at partners AstraZeneca, Scania, and Volvo CE, companies have heavy investment portfolios, tough sustainability goals and factories for upscaling. The equipment supplier Elektroautomatik and researchers from KTH, MDU and RISE are also partners in the project.

Swedish industrial sectors have an expanding investment outlook in the coming years, for instance, manufacturing industry invests about 33 billion/year in the north. New innovative approaches are needed to avoid permanent unsustainable technology solutions, designed according to the linear take-make-waste model. The design phase governs subsequent phases and it is costly to change in the production phase. Right thinking from the start should extend the service life with built-in material and resource efficiency for sustainable transition.

GREEN DESIGN intends to contribute to: (1) reduced resource use and CO2 footprint from production; (2) solutions that extend the life of the equipment; (3) increase durability of operations; (4) move from CAPEX to OPEX with equipment leasing; (5) learning from industry to the public sector; (6) business benefits for Swedish equipment suppliers to strengthen their global competitiveness. Results are disseminated via the consortium and the sustainable production ecosystem, and policy influence via the Delegation for Circular Economy. 

Project start

september 2022

Project duration

3 years

Funding

Funder Vinnova

Total project funding 4 999 846 kronor of which KTH’s share: 3227432 kronor.

Coordinator