Browsing by Author "Russell, Jennifer D."

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Barriers, enablers and market governance: A review of the policy landscape for repair of consumer electronics in the EU and the U.S.
    Svensson-Hoglund, Sahra; Richter, Jessika Luth; Maitre-Ekern, Eleonore; Russell, Jennifer D.; Pihlajarinne, Taina; Dalhammar, Carl (2021-03-15)
    Many strategies have been proposed to support the transition to a Circular Economy (CE). In most cases, circular design and product life-extension practices specify repair as an essential element. In both the EU and the U.S., policymakers are attempting to increase the amount of repairs made, through the introduction of recent EU Ecodesign regulation changes and proposed US Right to Repair legislation. This review explores the current policy landscape for repair services by first outlining legal and market barriers to stakeholder participation in repair activities, and which stakeholders are affected. The review reveals a wide range of fundamental obstacles to both supply and demand of repair, including Intellectual Property, Consumer, Contract, Tax and Chemical laws, along with issues of design, consumer perceptions and markets. Subsequently, the current and proposed policy solutions to address barriers and increase repair activities are reviewed. A comparative assessment of the EU and the U.S. is followed by a discussion on the current repair market governance structure, which is found to be primarily centralized (i.e. repair services concentrated with manufacturers), with possible implications for upscaling repair. New policy proposals challenge this governance. Introducing the concept of a Repair Society Framework as a market transformation tool, we comprehensively discuss the current state of repair and provide an outlook for research and policy in this area. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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    Circular business models in high value manufacturing: Five industry cases to bridge theory and practice
    Okorie, Okechukwu; Charnley, Fiona; Russell, Jennifer D.; Tiwari, Ashutosh; Moreno, Mariale (2021-01-12)
    The transition to a circular economy (CE) requires companies to evaluate their resource flows, supply chains, and business models and to question the ways in which value is created. In the high value manufacturing (HVM) sector, this evaluation is critical, as HVM enables value in nonconventional forms, beyond profit, including unique production processes, brand recognition, rapid delivery times, and highly customized services. We investigate the role of value, cost, and other factors of influence in the selection of a circular business model (CBM) for HVM. Explored through five case studies using a qualitative evaluation of circularity, we then contribute to the emerging field of CBMs by modifying the CBM canvas that can capture the nontraditional value, traditional value, cost, and other influencing factors enabled via CBM adoption in HVM. Finally, the important role of digital technologies for incentivizing and enabling CBM adoption, is clarified.
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    Investigation of the Effect of Pallet Top-Deck Stiffness on Corrugated Box Compression Strength as a Function of Multiple Unit Load Design Variables
    Kim, Saewhan; Horvath, Laszlo; Russell, Jennifer D.; Park, Jonghun (MDPI, 2021-11-03)
    Unit loads consisting of a pallet, packages, and a product securement system are the dominant way of shipping products across the United States. The most common packaging types used in unit loads are corrugated boxes. Due to the great stresses created during unit load stacking, accurately predicting the compression strength of corrugated boxes is critical to preventing unit load failure. Although many variables affect the compression strength of corrugated boxes, recently, it was found that changing the pallet’s top deck stiffness can significantly affect compression strength. However, there is still a lack of understanding of how these different factors influence this phenomenon. This study investigated the effect of pallet’s top-deck stiffness on corrugated box compression strength as a function of initial top deck thickness, pallet wood species, box size, and board grade. The amount of increase in top deck thickness needed to lower the board grade of corrugated boxes by one level from the initial unit load scenario was determined using PDS™. The benefits of increasing top deck thickness diminish as the initial top deck thickness increases due to less severe pallet deflection from the start. The benefits were more pronounced as higher board grade boxes were initially used, and as smaller-sized boxes were used due to the heavier weights of these unit loads. Therefore, supposing that a company uses lower stiffness pallets or heavy corrugated boxes for their unit loads, this study suggests that they will find more opportunities to optimize their unit loads by increasing their pallet’s top deck thickness.
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    Investigation of the Environmental Effect of Unit Load Design Optimization Using Physical Interaction Between Pallets and Corrugated Boxes
    Kim, Saewhan (Virginia Tech, 2022-08-12)
    Packaging sustainability has become one of the most notable issues of this era. Many researchers have endeavored to characterize or compare the environmental burdens of a single level of packaging, such as primary, secondary, or tertiary packaging. However, goods are often handled, stored, and transported through the supply chain system in unit load form consisting of pallets, corrugated boxes, and load stabilizers. Hence, it is important to holistically understand the environmental impact of not only individual packaging levels, but also the unit load form. We can use the interactions between the unit load components to reduce the environmental burdens generated in the supply chain system. Past studies discovered that pallet top deck thickness has a huge effect on corrugated box compression strength. Using this knowledge, researchers were able to optimize the cost of unit loads by increasing pallet top deck thickness and reducing the board grade of corrugated boxes. This study (1) further discovered how different unit load design factors, such as initial top deck thickness, pallet wood species, box size, and board grade, affect the performance of the previously proposed unit load design optimization method, and (2) we investigated if the unit load optimization method could also enhance unit load sustainability. The study's first phase identified that the benefits of increasing top deck thickness were more pronounced as the initial top deck thickness decreased, higher board grade boxes were initially utilized, and smaller-sized boxes were used. The second phase of this study showed that increasing top deck thickness and reducing the board grade of corrugated boxes could offset environmental impacts by as much as 23%. Environmental benefits were mostly achieved by reducing the amount of relatively more-processed materials in the corrugated boards. This phase also provided preliminary unit load conditions as guidance for unit load professionals to estimate the possibility of optimizing their unit load design in an environmentally beneficial way.
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    Local Reuse of Furniture Enabled by User-to-User Online Platforms
    Umashankar, Viverjita (Virginia Tech, 2022-06-23)
    Discarded furniture constitutes a significant share of bulky waste directed to landfills and incinerators each year in the USA. This has implications for resource consumption, social equity, and other sustainability concerns. Reuse of furniture provides a strategy for waste prevention and enables product life extension and offset of new consumption as part of a circular economy (CE). Using online platforms (e.g., Facebook, Craigslist), users can connect directly to acquire and/or discard used furniture items that would otherwise be disposed. Much of the existing literature focuses on an individual's motivations for disposing/acquiring used products, and not on the mechanics and/or practice of reuse. This study explores reuse practices, perspectives, and individual engagement in the local reuse of furniture through user-to-user (U2U) online platforms using two data sources and methodologies. To understand the characteristics of used furniture available for local reuse via U2U online platforms, web-scraping was conducted on Craigslist posts over a four-month period to collect data regarding furniture type, condition, and location. In parallel, individuals were invited to complete a questionnaire regarding their use of U2U online platforms for acquiring/disposing of used furniture, perceived convenience of using online platforms, and the extent to which reuse transactions were 'local'. This study found that the product type, perceived convenience, and access to information played key roles in the local reuse of furniture. This study has important implications for sustainable consumption systems in a local circular economy.
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    Making Sustainability a Core Competency: Consumer Response to Sustainable Innovative Products
    Hull, Clyde Eiríkur; Russell, Jennifer D.; Kukar-Kinney, Monika (MDPI, 2022-09-17)
    Research suggests that sustainability may not be sufficient to yield a competitive advantage. Building on the resource-based view, this research evaluates three questions: (1) Can using sustainability as a differentiator lead to consumers choosing sustainable products? (2) Does product sustainability appeal more to environmentally concerned consumers? (3) Does product sustainability appeal more when paired with innovation? To test the hypotheses, an online survey of 344 US respondents was conducted. Consumers were given a hypothetical budget for an office chair and asked to choose between two products at a time. Hypotheses were tested with frequency and Chi-square tests and logistic regression. Findings indicate that the innovative product was preferred over the undifferentiated one, but the sustainable product was preferred over both innovative and undifferentiated products. The sustainability–innovativeness bundle was not preferred over the sustainable product. Environmental concern increased preference for the sustainable product over the innovative product, but not over the undifferentiated one. These findings suggest that sustainability is a stronger differentiator than innovation, but that bundling both features does not further enhance product choice. Attitude toward the environment may not predict behavior. Instead, preference for the sustainable product may originate in variety-seeking behavior, with sustainability seen as an innovation.
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    A Matter of Timing: System Requirements for Repair and Their Temporal Dimensions
    Russell, Jennifer D.; Svensson, Sahra; Richter, Jessika; Milios, Leonidas; Dalhammar, Carl (2022-03)
    Research into repair within the circular economy (CE) typically focuses on technical aspects of design, policy, and markets, and often assumes simplified conditions for the user/owner and the product-system to explain the barriers to scaling repair activities. However, factors occurring at pre-use stages of the product’s life cycle can significantly influence whether, and to what extent, repair is viable or possible, i.e., warranty duration, after-sale service provision, and access to necessities. The passing of time can directly and indirectly affect the ability, difficulty, and thus, the likelihood of repair activities being performed at each stage of the product’s life-cycle. Drawing from the literature and applying inductive systems-thinking tools, we propose a framework for considering the “System of Repairability”. We delineate how the passing of time (temporal dimensions) affects one's ‘ability to repair’, as a product progresses through different life-cycle phases (i.e., breakdown vs. repair vs. disposal), and the point(s) at which the repair is considered or attempted (i.e., year of usage). By integrating life cycle and temporal (time-based) dimensions into a broad System of Repairability framework, we clarify relevant interconnections, iterations, sequences, and timing of decision-points, stakeholders, and necessary conditions to facilitate an outcome of successful repair at the individual level, and thus intervention strategies for scaling repair within CE. We discuss how a policy mix that can address the life cycle of products and the repair system more holistically. We conclude with a future outlook on how temporal dimensions can inform policy strategies and future research.
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    A Process Approach to Product Repair from the Perspective of the Individual
    Svensson-Hoglund, Sahra; Russell, Jennifer D.; Richter, Jessika Luth (Springer, 2022-11-28)
    Product repair plays an important role in the realisation of a circular economy (CE) and sustainable consumption, yet little is known about what repair entails for individual product owners or users, particularly in a realised CE. This paper proposes a comprehensive approach by conceptualising repair as a multi-stage, cyclical process, shaped by previous experiences and, in turn, impacting future repairs. Moreover, we acknowledge and consider that the repair experience is determined by both internal (to the individual) and external (environmental) factors, which overlap in the individual’s interpretation of the process, primarily as perceived cost vs. benefits. Using a literature review, the role of the individual and key factors influencing the repair experience are discerned and organised according to their relevance within the process. This comprehensive perspective of the repair experience of individuals generated a wide range of insights, including the existence of general vs. specific factors and the prevalence of themes in the repair process. Implications for the upscaling of repair and future research are suggested.
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    Sustainable and Secure Transport: Achieving Environmental Impact Reductions by Optimizing Pallet-Package Strength Interactions during Transport
    Kim, Saewhan; Horvath, Laszlo; Russell, Jennifer D.; Park, Jonghun (MDPI, 2023-08-22)
    Increasing quantities of products are being transported across widely distributed supply networks; the sustainability of the packaging used to transport these goods, or unit loads, presents an area of potential concern. The most common type of unit load in the U.S. is wooden pallets supporting various configurations of stacked corrugated boxes. Research into unit load cost optimization revealed that increasing the stiffness of a pallet’s top deck can significantly affect the strength of the assembled, stacked corrugated boxes and provides opportunities to reduce the board grade required for accompanying corrugated boxes. However, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the environmental implications of this type of unit load optimization method. To address this, we conducted a life cycle analysis (LCA) to investigate the environmental implications of optimizing a unit load using this method. The environmental impacts of paired (pallet and box) unit load design scenarios (n = 108) were investigated using varied wood species, pallet top deck thicknesses, corrugated boxes sizes, corrugated flutes, and board grades. Initial and optimized unit load scenarios ensured that the unit loads offered equivalent performance. LCA results indicate that optimizing the unit load can reduce environmental impacts by up to 23%, with benefits accruing across most impact categories primarily due to the reduction in corrugated material used. Ozone depletion, the exception, was mainly affected by the increase in the amount of required pallet materials. This study provides minimum required conditions as preliminary guidance for determining the usefulness of unit load specific analysis, and a sensitivity analysis confirmed these values remain unchanged even with different transportation distances. Through the unit load optimization method, this study demonstrates that an effective way to reduce the overall environmental impact and cost of transported unit loads involves increasing the stiffness of the top decks and reducing the corrugated board grade.