Inaugural lecture - Oskar Rexfelt IMS

Oskar Rexfelt’s main research interest lies in understanding and shaping how design can support more sustainable forms of consumption. His work explores how everyday user behaviour, product design, and societal systems interact, and how these relationships can be reconfigured to enable circular and resource-efficient ways of living. Within this field, he has focused on user-centred design for sustainable consumption - examining how design can help households reduce the environmental impact of their consumption by for instance buying services, keeping products in use for longer, share resources, and reduce waste.

Title of the lecture: Design for Sustainable Consumption

Abstract: 
Household consumption is a major contributor to global environmental impact. The products we buy, use, and discard shape much of society’s material and energy use, yet most design and policy efforts still focus on improving products rather than changing consumption itself.

In the transition towards a less recourse demanding economy, the R-strategies - such as reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, and recycle - are often presented as guiding principles for keeping resources in circulation. However, they are usually described from an industrial or policy perspective, while their implications for everyday life remain less explored.

This lecture examines what these strategies mean from a household perspective. How do they align or conflict with people’s habits, motivations, and living conditions? And what kinds of products, services, and infrastructures are needed to make them work in real homes? The lecture explores how design can help households adopt alternative ways of consuming that reduce environmental impact while supporting and enriching everyday life.