SUSTAIN

Accelerating Sustainable Product Development in the Aerospace industry

2024-2028, Funded by Vinnova

Sustainability integration in product development activities is essential to accelerate the sustainability transition, in industries where products have a significant impact on planet and society.

The aviation sector is particularly unique with long product development processes, tough safety regulations and complex stakeholder landscape. The industry is exponentially growing, and passenger air travel does not currently fit into the vision of a sustainable society and planet.

Research has developed methods and tools to support the integration of sustainability in product development, but few are implemented in the industry or not used to their full potential. Further research is needed to understand how to effectively implement these supports, which are relevant in the aerospace context and how to use them to drive sustainable decision-making.

Aims

1

Integrate sustainability in novel technology development to identify and address sustainability challenges before these technologies areestablished

2

Create decision support to promote, measure, and visualize thelifecycle sustainability- and value performance to stakeholders, tosupport the aerospace industry to incorporate new business modelsin line with a circular economy

3

Increase the capability to enhance the sustainability performance asthe technology matures and empower development teams toanticipate, evaluate and enhance the sustainability performance oftheir solutions

Léonard, P. L. Y., Hallstedt, S. I., Nylander, J. W. Isaksson, O. (2024). Design Aspects of Importance in a Sustainability Transition, Proceedings of NordDesign 2024. https://doi.org/10.35199/NORDDESIGN2024.12

Léonard, P. L. Y., Hallstedt, S. I., Isaksson, O., Kipouros, T., & Mallalieu, A. (2025). Key elements to navigate sustainable product development in aerospace. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 2191–2200. https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2025.10233

Project team