Barriers and Opportunities for Integrating Sustainable Product Design into Ankara Small and Medium-Sized Furniture Enterprises

The XXIXTH International Conference Research for Furniture Industry, Ankara, Turkey, 19 - 20 September 2019, pp.581-596, (Full Text)

Sustainable Product Design (SPD) has become a major field of study

in design since 1990’s. In spite of the fact that literature and

terminology is mostly stated on case studies carried out with largescale

enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a

greater share in employment and manufacturing which are also crucial

for social aspects of sustainability. Furniture enterprises in Ankara are

selected for this study due to the impact of product design in the

market as well as the greater share of employed and consulting

designers in the sector. The study aims to identify understanding of

furniture SMEs in Ankara regarding sustainability. In the study,

attitudes of SMEs and design consultants are explored and compared.

As a result, furniture SMEs are interested in economic outcomes of the

sustainable product design rather than social and environmental

aspects and a gap exists in communication due to the terminology of

the field.