Abstract
In recent years the concept of sustainability has gained increased importance as the planet's living systems have declined and many of its vital resources depleted. Corporate organisations are required now to address the "triple bottom line" by demonstrating the value of their products and services to the business alongside social and environmental values. In particular, design and manufacturing practices are changing to reflect this paradigm shift. Sustainability has become a design objective rather than a constraint, which has the potential to enhance the value of the product to the business, customer and community in general, without compromising product's performance. In order to meet the new challenges and make sustainability a reality in emerging and future products, organisations need to develop and/or adopt new design approaches and tools. This paper discusses the issues and implications of sustainable design of sporting goods. As sporting goods represent one of the most widespread product groups in the world today, they also pose potentially the highest impact to the environment. How does the sporting goods industry cope with the challenge of sustainability, and how can this industry sector develop environmentally sustainable products that will still provide the performance consumers want?
