Sustainability and adapted product eco-design in Small Island Developing States of the South Pacific: Teachings of the first case studies in Fiji

Damien Evrard (1) , Daniel Wood (2) , Fabrice Mathieux (1)

1 G-SCOP_CPP - Conception Produit Process
2 USP - University of the South Pacific

The paper starts with situating sustainability in the context of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the South Pacific. They are extremely vulnerable to current development trends and severe/acute environmental problems exist such as the impact of climate change and the poor management of solid waste for example. Additionally, these countries are also characterised by a limited human and technical capacity for dealing with such acute problems. Despite the fact that environmental problems should indeed be urgently technically dealt with the use of end of the pipe measures this paper maintains that the best option is to reduce the reliance on waste collection and recovery through the development of adapted pollution prevention measures, in particular through product eco-design. Solid waste management problems caused by imported as well as locally produced products are described and discussed. It is then proposed that ecodesign, which has been promoted in developed countries since the mid-nineties, should be adapted to the developing countries context, especially in SIDS. This paper reports results of a project that aims at initiating ecodesign projects in the local industry of SIDS. In order to steer project, a trained international volunteer has been based at the University of the South Pacific and has worked with local professionals to define an adapted methodology and to animate specific projects. The original approach is based on an adaptation of the D4S (Design for Sustainability) methodology published in 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme. The current sectors that have been approached are textile and cosmetics. The results of the first case study in a textile company as well as the preliminary results of a similar on-going study with a cosmetic company are presented and analysed. Conclusions on SIDS-sound eco-design are derived and the need for institutional and economical incentives such as eco-labels.

Mots clés: Small Island Developing States (SIDS); product ecodesign; Design for Sustainability methodology; solid waste management; ecolabels

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]; Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]; Génie mécanique [physics.class-ph]

Damien Evrard, Daniel Wood, Fabrice Mathieux. Sustainability and adapted product eco-design in Small Island Developing States of the South Pacific: Teachings of the first case studies in Fiji. 11th Pacific Science Inter-congress in conjunction with the 2nd Symposium on French Research in the Pacific, Mar 2009, Papeete, French Polynesia. ⟨hal-00367300⟩