Keywords

1 Introduction

As reported in the so-called ‘Brundtland Report’, adopted at the UN General Assembly in 1987, the concept Sustainable Development is described as ‘a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ [1]. Sustainability therefore is not an approach, it is a societal multi-dimensional long-term goal; in the idea of Sustainable Development, both environmental protection and socio-technical innovations are equally fundamental to mitigate the anthropic impacts on ecosystems at the micro- and macro-scale.

While the original idea of Sustainable Development has not changed over years, the new market demands due to both the demographic growths, the democratization of technologies and the rising of new fast-emerging economies, generated a radical evolution in the approach of the sustainability-related issues. This aspect has been crucially evident in the industrial production and, consequently, in Design discipline, which is intrinsically chosen to meet both end-users’ needs (marker demand) and entrepreneurial competitiveness (market offer). As a part of an integrated process involving products’ generation, development and distribution, Design discipline contributed in the evolution of the concept of Sustainability: from the design eco-friendly products (environmental approach) [2], to the design of context-based forms of wellbeing (networked approach) [3, 4] and, in last years, to the design of socio-technical systems for social innovation (systemic business approach) [5].

Years of researches and design experimentations have demonstrated that Sustainability in Design is now related to the design of sustainable forms of wellbeing, which are able to generate new forms of consumption [6]. This means that to create sustainable solutions, a significant attention must be paid on the socio-technical impacts of people’s behaviors.

In the recent Industry 4.0’s model, 3D Printing is an umbrella term used to describe all processes in which material is joined or solidified under computer control to create three-dimensional objects [7]. While 3D Printing was born for industrial and commercial-oriented applications, in recent years the democratization of services and the low prices in the purchasing of 3D printers generated a large number of informal and non-industrial applications (i.e. makers movement, Fab Labs, etc.). In doing so, people acquired a new awareness on their capability to produce customized products; consequently, new generation of services have been developed to support this socio-technical expansion [8] and waste reduction [9, 10].

Even though new informal 3D printing applications and productions can, in some way, be intended as new distributed socio-technical sustainable forms of low-tech production, the risk to produce unsustainable impacts on the ecosystems is still high. The main problem linked to this issue is that sustainable-oriented advances on 3D Printing technologies concern, mainly, the development of non-connected solutions – vertical approach, monodisciplinary research – for instance: eco-efficient materials (i.e. recycled biomaterials) [11], spontaneous forms of services for production (i.e. print-to-delivery services, cloud manufacturing) [12], economically efficient services (i.e. 3D Printing for education) [13], architectural solutions for housing emergency [14] and low-tech applications (i.e. DIY 3D printers) [15]. Thus, there is a discrepancy between what can be done and what is currently done in terms of Sustainable Development. A systemic approach is therefore needed to connect all existing forms of sustainable-oriented advances with the need of balancing the economic, environmental and social production of goods – horizontal approach, multidisciplinary research.

As the need of sustainable solutions is a prerogative for current society, it is believed that an expansion of current technology-centered 3D Printing approach toward multidisciplinary perspectives can expand its intrinsic potential toward new generation sustainable scenarios. Following the societal transition process toward the Sustainability, 3D Printing can become a part of new production processes and ways of thinking able to produce radical, distributed and large-scale innovations. In this perspective, this work is based on the hypothesis that current advances in Design for Sustainability theories (i.e. PSS (Product-Service Systems) [5] and SLOC Scenarios (Small-Local-Open-Connected) [6]) can improve the quality of existing 3D Printing-related services, generating new opportunities and research challenges.

2 Aims

According to current advances in 3D Printing and Design for Sustainability of the research framework before described, this paper aims to identify new and promising open research topics to be taken into account in the near future, to rethink their impacts, to suggest potential combinations and to imagine new roles and future sustainable applications for 3D Printing. Specifically, this paper aims to:

  • Produce evidences linking 3D Printing technologies and sustainable design-oriented theories, from the design point of view.

  • Demonstrate the positive impacts of Design for Sustainability’s theories in the advancement of 3D Printing technologies toward new generation of services and new forms of productions – Sustainable 3D Printing scenarios.

  • List a number of promising design opportunities and research perspectives for Sustainable 3D Printing, obtained form a cross-fertilization process and usable for next interdisciplinary studies and applications.

3 Methodology

To meet the research’s aims, the methodology phase focused the attention on the literature review of both 3D Printing emerging sustainable-oriented theories and cutting edge Design for Sustainability models. Relevant data obtained from both reviews have been used later to develop a cross-fertilization design-oriented scenario for Sustainable 3D Printing, where insights have been combined and further developed.

3.1 3D Printing’s Literature Review

Sustainability-oriented 3D Printing advances follow a vertical approach (i.e. monodisciplinary research), which are the result of a ‘traditional’ industrial technology-push culture – see: [16, 17]. In fact, current state of the art of researches and industrial developments are mainly focusedFootnote 1 on:

  • Circular Economy’s scenarios – i.e. recycling, low energy grids, etc. – [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18].

  • Technological improvements of production processes [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19].

  • Development of printable (bio)materials [11,12,13, 20,21,22,23].

  • Low-cost and open-sources 3D Printing technologies services [13].

  • New technological components – i.e. simplification of semifinished elements – including construction industry [24, 25].

  • Innovation in engineering and engineering-related domains [25, 26].

  • Interdisciplinary applications – i.e. Inclusive Design – [27].

As shown, the main aspect related to the sustainability is linked to the environmental protection, which concerns the low-cost reduction of processes (affordability), the mitigation of the impacts on ecosystems and the compatibility of materials. Very limited applications and considerations on the economic and social aspects of Sustainable Development – ‘three-legged stool’ model [1] – demonstrates that environmental aspects are very easy to be taken into account and, consequently, integrated approaches considering all aspects of Sustainable Development are not always possible, or rather, are not affordable in terms of industrial production and returns of investments.

A holistic view of 3D Printing is then needed to evolve the simplistic eco-characteristics of productions, toward integrated approaches that consider all products’ life cycle elements, including: material supply, design of solutions (i.e. solutions that meet both ecological aspects and socio-economic customers’ needs), processes simplification, respect of workers, etc. A strategic design approach could help this transition toward sustainable printable solutions connecting, always, all domains of Sustainable Development: economics, environmental and social aspects.

3.2 Design for Sustainability’s Literature Review

The review of Design for Sustainability’s literature helps to understand main sustainable-oriented design approaches for creating promising sustainable solutions (i.e. mix of strategies, tools, services and products). These studies have been developed both by researchers and by research communities (i.e. [28]). While the industrial products’ environmental impact is still a relevant factor for Design (i.e. cleaner production and technologies, waste minimisation, recycling approaches, eco-design, etc.), it is today not considered as sufficient to pursue the sustainable characterization of solutions; systemic approaches are more and more often preferred and considered as effective. Accordingly, the review will be mainly focused on the analysis of the three approaches that are considered as most promising for current Design Research:

  • Design for Small-Local-Open-Connected Scenarios of wellbeing (SLOC).

  • Design of Product-Service Systems (PSS).

  • System Design for Sustainability (SDS).

As stated by Ezio Manzini [29], the only sustainable way to get out of the current worldwide financial and ecological crisis is to promote new economic models, new production systems and new ideas of wellbeing. SLOC Scenario (Small-Local-Open-Connected) is a sustainable-oriented design model developed by Manzini [29,30,31] where emerging global phenomena are intersected with three main innovations:

  • The green revolution (and the environmentally friendly systems it makes available).

  • The spread of networks (and the distributed, open, peer-to-peer organizations it generates).

  • The diffusion of creativity (and the original answers to daily problems that a variety of social actors are conceiving and implementing).

SLOC Scenario is useful because it directs toward sustainable solutions indicating, in particular, that such solutions necessarily refer to the local (and the community to which this local mainly refers) and to the small (and the possibilities in terms of relationships, participation, and democracy that the human scale makes possible). At the same time, it promotes the solutions’ implementation using the framework of the global network society in which the local and the small are both open and connected. For example, using networks, stakeholders can operate both on small-scale, in a very effective way, and on complex and large-scale, acting as a transition actors towards a knowledge-based and sustainable idea of society.

On the other hand, Product-Service System (PSS) concept aims to minimise environmental impacts of both production and consumption. PSS is defined as ‘a marketable set of products and services capable of jointly fulfilling a user’s need’ [32]; in this scenario the product/service ratio can vary, either in terms of function fulfilment or economic value’ [33]. According to Mont [33], PSS consists of a combination of eco-designed products, reinforced by designed services at different stages of a product’s life cycle, and comprising different concepts of the product use, closely involving final consumers and actors in the chain and beyond.

According to this idea, there is a significant evolution in the business models – a mitigation of environmental impacts and a high customers’ satisfaction [34] – and benefits are produced both for customers and for producers. For consumers, PSS evolves the meaning of purchasing: from buying products to buying services and systems of solutions that minimise the environmental impacts of consumers’ needs. For producers, PSS imposes a higher control on full life cycle process (i.e. co-design [35] and closed loop systems).

As discussed by Mont [34] and Ceschin [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35], there are different benefits to developing a PSS for manufacturing companies. For example PSS is able:

  • To increase the product’s value (i.e. financial schemes, renovations, upgrades).

  • To base a growth strategy on innovation in a mature industry.

  • To improve relationships with consumers (i.e. new flows of information about consumers’ preferences).

  • To improve the total value for customers because of increased servicing and service components extend its function.

  • To anticipate the implications of future take-back legislation.

In addition, the literature suggests some relevant approaches and trends towards the development of PSS, such as:

  • The sale of the use of the product instead of the product itself.

  • The change to a ‘leasing society’.

  • The substitution of goods by means of service machines.

  • A repair-society instead of a throwaway society.

Finally, as described by Carlo Vezzoli [36], System Design for Sustainability (SDS) is ‘a design approach for eco-efficiency, equity and social cohesion of systems of products and services, which are able to respond to specific customers’ needs planning the interaction of stakeholders and the value’s production system’. Starting from the will to satisfy end-users’ needs, the SDS’s aim is to obtain a product-service that is sustainable from the environmental, social and economic point of view. SDS can be developed using the specific ‘Method for System Design Sustainability’ (MSDS) [36] and its key elements are:

  • Customer satisfaction (satisfaction unit), intended as a ‘reference’.

  • Interaction between stakeholders as a ‘subject’;

  • The Sustainability as a ‘goal’.

3.3 Cross-Fertilization Scenario

The development of Design Opportunities (DO) and promising Research Perspectives for Sustainable 3D Printing (S3DP) – see 4 – has been done using a cross-fertilization innovation-oriented process [37] aimed to produce both vertical and, mostly, meaningful horizontal innovations. As a part of a design-driven innovation process (i.e. [16]), cross-fertilization has been used as a ‘sustainable-oriented scenarios generator’.

As shown in the formula below (1), the new Design Opportunities (DO) are the result of a qualitative analysis developed combining main elements of 3D Printing technologies (3DP) and relevant approaches of Design for Sustainability Research (DfS).

$$ {\text{DO}}_{{({\text{S3DP}})}} = \, 3{\text{DP}}\, \cap \,{\text{DfS}} . $$
(1)

4 Results

Design Opportunities and Research Perspectives here described show promising strategic design-oriented scenarios where the idea of Sustainable 3D Printing, as here proposed, can play a significant role in the creation, promotion and participative implementation of eco-friendly production processes, aware ways of consumption and new business-oriented behaviours. In particular, the results here presented are conceived to involve, where possible, all product-service’s value chain.

Both Design Opportunities and Research Perspectives are intended as favourable if related to scenario-based sustainable conditions (i.e. there must be the stakeholders’ will to act in a sustainable-oriented way, existing – or will to start – of green business models, etc.). Thus, information shown both in Design Opportunities and in Research Perspectives can be applied both to industrial and to non-industrial sectors.

4.1 Design Opportunities

Four main Design Opportunities (DO(S3DP)) presented in Table 1 combine Design for Sustainability research approaches (DfS) with sustainable-oriented 3D Printing technological advances (3DP). These describe a number of new topics and scenarios for promising applications concerning Sustainable 3D Printing (if conditions of Sustainable Development have been reached using competitive business models).

Table 1. Design opportunities for sustainable 3D printing: Early research framework.
Full size table

4.2 Research Perspectives

Research Perspectives shown in Table 2 combine sustainable scenarios – i.e. scenarios where the idea of Sustainable Development generates social innovations, wellbeing-oriented economic models, and new forms of production systems – and relevant opportunities for Sustainable 3D Printing. The idea is to show some promising research topics and strategic views usable by designersFootnote 2 and researchers to the advancement of current state of the art in the industrial and non-industrial research.

Table 2. Research perspectives for sustainable 3D printing: Early open research insights for industrial and non-industrial future applications.
Full size table

5 Conclusions

The early research results here presented and synthetically described, have shown that the concept of Sustainable 3D Printing can, potentially, produces remarkable innovations and impacts both in industry and in informal scenarios (i.e. GLocal small productions, SMBs, etc.), if correctly understood and implemented using smart technologies, aware business models, context-based resources – both tangible and intangible – and collective intelligences; this, in fact, is perfectly in line with well-known Design for Sustainability approaches – i.e. [3,4,5, 34, 36, 42]. As the need of sustainable solutions is still high in current society, the evolution of 3D Printing’s paradigms toward network-based, hybrid and SLOC-oriented scenarios can surely meet the Design Research in the field of Design for Sustainability with the applicative potentials of 3D Printing technologies.

In particular, this study showed both Design Opportunities and Research Perspectives for the new idea of Sustainable 3D Printing, which are part of a more wide scenario where, in last years, some interesting studies are proposing original views and specific applications for Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science, etc.

The Design Opportunities presented in 4.1 introduce a number of new topics and scenarios for promising applications concerning Sustainable 3D Printing – if conditions of Sustainable Development have been reached using competitive business models – linking current 3D Printing advances with traditional and novel Design for Sustainability research approaches, with the idea that a holistic approach can be used, and warmly recommended, to tackle the various issues of Sustainable Development, beyond the monodisciplinary approach.

The Research Perspectives presented in 4.2 combine sustainable scenarios – i.e. scenarios where the idea of Sustainable Development generates social innovations, wellbeing-oriented economic models, and new forms of production systems – and relevant opportunities for Sustainable 3D Printing. As a result, this research result developed promising holistic research topics and strategic views for the advancement of current state of the art in the industrial and non-industrial research.

Finally, this study can be considered relevant for both the research domain of 3D Printing and for the research domain of Design for Sustainability due to it systematizes the relevant advances of both domains, proposing a their convergence toward the development of a common ground for mutual experimentations.