Sustainable design concepts and their definitions: an inductive content-analysis-based literature review

Abstract

PurposeThis research aims to explore various definitions of sustainability and sustainable design and determine the researcher's understanding of sustainable design concepts. In the past decades under the three elements of sustainability, between 1975 and 2021. This study is to conceptually construct sustainable design. It enhances and widens previous research to comprehend sustainable design. To this aim, a systematic review of the relevant collection of literature on sustainability and sustainable design will be conducted, guided by two questions: What is sustainable design? Do the sustainable design definitions involve economic, social and environmental elements? Since the concept of sustainability is to balance environmental, economic and social elements in product and service design.Design/methodology/approachThe author conducts an inductive content analysis of concepts and definitions mentioned or discussed in several journals, a total of 573 articles were published, with a clear definition of sustainable design included in the review process. In the analysis, 56 definitions have been used.FindingsIn the analysis, 56 definitions for environments, environmental design, environmental innovations, social design, eco-efficiency, eco-design, ecological product, environmentally friendly product and the concept of sustainable design have been used. The most often used definition, according to the research analysis, is sustainable design. This research found sustainable design definitions might be unclear and the concepts could be misunderstood. Thus, the goal of this research was to provide an effective system for sustainable design definitions, with adequate flexibility to create obvious differences to encourage further research in this field to develop comprehensive definitions for essential concepts, the different definitions of sustainable design show a lack of understanding of the real meaning of the concepts. As a result, these inconsistencies are likely to restrict future research and the adaptation of sustainable design concepts in the industry.Originality/valueThe development of sustainable design concepts and definitions, as used by many authors and organizations, is aided by the availability of numerous information sources. As a result, lots of new terms have emerged in the sustainability field, or old ones have been developed, but definitions and conceptual meanings haven't received sufficient analysis. Because the meanings of certain phrases are poor, identical or just differ slightly, the variety of definitions generates significant misunderstanding regarding their usage.