MICS Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile is an extended partnership between universities, research centres and companies, financed by MUR thanks to funds provided by the European Union under the NextGenerationEU programme.

Dividing its research into eight thematic areas (spokes), the MICS is committed to circular, self-sufficient, self-regenerative, safe and sustainable Made in Italy design and production.

The Department of Design and its researchers work within the framework of Spoke 2 - 'Eco-design strategies: from materials to product-service systems (PSS)', which aims to develop and test a portfolio of eco-design strategies for PSS that support all their design phases.

Spoke 2 projects involving professors and researchers from the Department:

• 2.01 Circular Sofa Platform
• 2.02 NEMO – Design 4 Yacht Flexible Customization
  
• 2.10 ECO-Design Circular Knowledge. ECODeCK
• 2.12 ACTAS – Advancing Contract Furniture through Design-Driven Servitization Strategies towards sustainable transition: activating, testing and adopting

ECODeCK. ECO-Design Circular Knowledge

ECODeCK is one of the 12 projects developed by Spoke 2 and aims to develop eco-design strategies by collecting, analysing and testing design approaches, methods and tools for circular and sustainable transition.

The project focuses on the two key sectors of the MICS, fashion/textile and furniture, with the aim of developing a global and shared vision of design strategies to promote a sustainable and circular future of Made in Italy. The project also aims to test capacity-building initiatives and pilots to address the different levels of sustainable transformation, through specific skills and targeted development strategies.

ECODeCK is a transversal initiative within Spoke 2, whose projects share the objective of developing new knowledge on approaches, methods and tools. By researching and archiving already existing materials on eco-design and circularity, it will support the development of the other 11 projects; at the same time, ECODeCK will benefit from the other researches by collecting and cataloguing their results, thus creating a circular system of implementation and development of knowledge.

To achieve these goals, ECODeCK comprises four main strategic actions:

• Mapping the state of the art on sustainable and circular transformation;
  
• Developing a global and shared vision by aligning the results of all Spoke 2 projects;
• Designing a capacity-building model and toolkits that meet the different needs of possible stakeholders;
• Testing through pilots with companies in the fashion, textile and furniture sectors.

Outcomes expected by the end of the first year:

• A repository containing resources based on existing literature study and a contextual analysis of approaches, methods and tools concerning eco-design strategies;
  
• A selection of case studies and best practices of processes, products and systems, materials and tools on the selected research topic, collected through site visits, collaborative focus groups, workshops;
• An overview framing the research trajectories and strategic objectives of Spoke 2, identifying and visualising a manifesto and value proposition;
• A series of publications to disseminate the results of the research phase.

Outputs expected by the end of the second year:

• A capacity building model for eco-design strategies to support the development and improvement of stakeholder processes and resources;
• A set of capacity building tools to be used as core resources for the development of eco-design competences, aimed at organisations in the manufacturing sector, but also at higher education institutions;
• A mapping of scenarios for the implementation of capacity building actions based on the pilots and the use of the ECODeCK repository, models and tools;
• Publications, scientific articles and a monograph to disseminate the results.