Abstract
The study reviews the attitudes of Japanese industrial designers who are working towards a particular approach to eco-innovation. In this paper, we first provide an overview of the existing major studies related to eco-innovation concepts. We then move on to describe the principles of eco-innovation concepts and look at how ecodesign can be implemented into the process of environmental product development. To answer this question, a questionnaire was formulated and distributed to industrial designers employed in small-/medium- and large-sized Japanese companies. The results from the questionnaire show that, from the industrial designers' perspective, the main driver for eco-innovation is a company's focus on the technological approach (including innovative products and processes that reduce environmental impacts). This approach did not result in a radical design concept or a new design concept-development; its implementation was characterized by a short-term strategy. We also learned the following: the majority of these companies have not implemented training and education in ecodesign for either strategic and operational industrial designers; industrial designers do not consider the Environmental Management System (EMS) to be an important topic, and industrial designers did not show a strong interest at any strategic level in their responses. However, the industrial designers were optimistic about the relationship between the local community and the environmental activities conducted by the companies, with half of them affirming that their companies have promoted environmental activities within their local community.
