EcoDesign Accelerating Social Transformation: Volume II

This book is the second volume of the books highlight cutting-edge EcoDesign research, covering product and service design, smart manufacturing, and social perspectives in EcoDesign. Featuring selected papers presented at EcoDesign2025: The 14th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, it also includes diverse, interdisciplinary approaches to foster EcoDesign research and activities. In the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it addresses the need for the manufacturing industry to design innovations for social transformation, taking into account technological developments, legislation, and consumer lifestyles. Further, the book discusses the concept of circular economy, which originated in Europe and aims to increase resource efficiency by shifting away from the linear economy.

This Volume II contains topics related to Life Cycle Evaluation, Sustainability Indices, Digital Technologies for Sustainability, Sustainable Social Infrastructure, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Finance and Investment for Sustainability, and Policy, Legislation and Social Activities. The readers of this volume can catch up the latest achievement about these research fields.

Dr. Tomomi Nonaka specializes in production systems engineering and service engineering. She obtained a Ph.D in Systems Engineering at Keio University, Japan. She graduated from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, and entered the Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University as a first-year student, completing the master's and doctoral programs. After serving as a specially appointed assistant professor at the Graduate School of Systems Informatics, Kobe University, an assistant professor at the Department of Management Systems Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University, and an associate professor at the College of Gastronomy Management, Ritsumeikan University, she became a professor at the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University. In recent years, she has been engaged in research on sustainable business and social system design.   Dr. Yuji Mizuno is a Senior Researcher of Carbon Neutral Technology Center, The Institute of Applied Energy, Japan. He completed doctoral program at Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University in 2013. He joined Osaka University and studied environment-oriented product design and future scenario design from 2013 to 2015. He joined The Institute of Applied Energy in 2015 and has been working on analysis of hydrogen energy systems. From June 2021 to July 2023, he had been seconded to the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.   Dr. Shunsuke Kashiwakura is an Associate Research Professor of Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University. He completed doctoral program at Graduate School of Environmental Science, Tohoku University in 2010. He was formerly an Assistant Professsor of Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University from 2010 to 2020. He then moved to Ritsumeikan University for the position of lecturer from 2020 to 2023. Now he's got his present position since 2024. His research interests include Materials Circulation, Recycle System, and Sensor-Based Rapid Sorting.   Dr. Shinichi Fukushige is a Professor at the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University. After obtaining his doctor’s degree in precision machinery engineering from The University of Tokyo in 2006, he began work at Osaka University as an Assistant Professor. Since 2014, he served as an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University before moving to Waseda University in 2020. His current research interests include product life cycle design and management, simulation of circular economy, environmentally conscious product and service design, and circular business design.   Dr. Chiharu Tokoro is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, and a Professor in the School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. She received her PhD in 2003 from the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, and was an Assistant Professor in 2004, a lecturer in 2007, and an Associate Professor in 2009, before assuming her current position. She has been a professor at Waseda University since 2015 and at the University of Tokyo since 2021 under the Joint Appointment System. She also became an outside director of the JX Advanced Metals Corporation in 2021 and Tekscend Photomask Corp in 2023. Dean of the School of Creative Science and Engineering, and the Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering at Waseda University in September 2024. She is engaged in research on separation technologies for circular economy based on life cycle thinking, especially for recycling, environmental remediation and powder processing.   Dr. Yusuke Kishita is an Associate Professor at The University of Tokyo since 2021. Prior to taking the current position, he worked at Osaka University as Postdoc and Assistant Professor (2011-2014), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) as Research Scientist in 2015, and The University of Tokyo as Lecturer (2016-2020). He served as Guest Researcher at Technische Universität Braunschweig (August-November 2019) and Visiting Academic Fellow at University of Cambridge (December 2019-February 2020). He holds MSc and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Osaka University. He has been appointed as one of The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researchers in 2017.