Longer Lasting Products

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The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables - vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods - as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods.

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Tim Cooper is Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University. After graduating from the University of Bath, he worked as an economist in the construction industry for over a decade before undertaking research at the New Economics Foundation, where he developed his interest in the life-span of consumer durables. He was awarded a PhD from Sheffield Hallam University, where he worked from 1995 until 2010 and established the Centre for Sustainable Consumption. Dr Cooper's current research interests are multidisciplinary, embracing design, consumer behaviour, public policy and environmental ethics. He has participated in several European research projects and in 2004 was awarded funding by the EPSRC to establish the Research Network on Product Life Spans, which he continues to manage. He has advised the Research Council of Norway, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and the Belgium Federal Science Policy Office, and was Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Committee for its enquiry 'Reducing the Environmental Impact of Consumer Products'.