Sophie Isaksson Hallstedt inaugural lecture

Professor Sophie I. Hallstedt previously worked at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) where she first initiated the research area Sustainable Product Development. The purpose of her research is to increase the product design teams’ capabilities to make strategic choices and contribute to a more proactive company regarding sustainability issues and make business advantages out of that.

Several methods and approaches has come out from her research which for example, enhance the ability to measure:

i) maturity level of sustainability implementation;

ii) sustainability impact of different solutions, and then;

iii) quantify and visualize the progress of sustainability implementation.

Sophie has also initiated and developed courses and Master's programs at BTH, has had the role of program manager and head of department at BTH.

Sophie will be a part of the Systems Engineering Design research group where she will work in a Genie project on developing research in sustainable product development at Chalmers. In addition, she will prepare an initiative with the automotive industry for product development methods and working methods to meet the EU's ambition with the Green Deal, as well as drive several project applications in the spring in collaboration with BTH.

Title of the lecture: Sustainable Product Development – accelerating society's sustainability transformation

Abstract:
Product development companies play a key role in society's transition to sustainability. At the same time, sustainability is also increasingly important for the company's competitiveness, for example due to changing customer preferences and increased emission costs. Companies need to strategically consider both ecological and social aspects alongside economic aspects in the development process of new products and services.
The lecture will summarize insights from research conducted within two decades in the field of Sustainable Product Development. Examples from real industrial cases that have contributed to increased capabilities in manufacturing companies, to develop value-created sustainable life-cycle solutions will be presented. The research builds on a foundation for Sustainable Product Development and discusses what characteristics a decision-support method or approach should have to give guidance towards more sustainable solutions to avoid sub-optimizations, and not result in companies run into blind alleys. In addition, eight identified key factors to successfully integrate and implement a strategic sustainability perspective in the early stages of product development are discussed, in relation to the future necessary changes needed for a sustainability transition of product development companies.
The lecture will also present specific research results with focus on how to define a Sustainability Design Space with leading sustainability criteria to be used in anticipating the sustainability direction in early design. The lecture is rounded off with an outlook towards some future research themes, such as the need to define, measure and manage sustainability information and data in the product development to meet the upcoming EU legislation.