carmela cucuzzella

PhD candidate
(Université de Montral)
carmela.cucuzzella@umontreal.ca

Expertise :

• Sustainable design within a perspective of the precautionary principle

Start: September 2007
Director: Pierre De Coninck
Co-director:

Research project:

Social Life Cycle Analysis as a Decision Making Tool for the Conception of Products and Services in a Perspective of Sustainable Design

Project summary:

Eco-design is an approach where the designer seeks to reduce environmental impacts of the product or service; Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is the privileged decision support tool. Sustainable design, an approach that considers economic and social impacts over and above environmental impacts, currently has no tools to support decisions. Eco-design is based on eco-efficiency, a preventive approach. Sustainable design is more appropriately adapted to the precautionary principle. However, the precautionary principle has largely been ignored in decision support tools as it is not evident how it can be operationalized. This is because it is based on fundamental uncertainties and therefore inherently rests on an ethical framework. Consequently, there are currently no tools that address situations of fundamental uncertainties and consider global and long-term social impacts. Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), an emerging field of research to integrate social impacts to LCA, is largely based on the production of the product, a preventive approach. This research suggests that to move towards sustainability, eco-designers and decision makers must adopt decision processes that are not only preventive, but also precautionary. The logic of sufficiency uses a precautionary approach. So the need arises to develop a decision support tool to address social impacts based on LCA that can complement the existing approach of prevention/efficiency using a precautionary/sufficiency approach in a perspective of sustainable design. The main reason is that at the worldwide level, evidence shows that environmental gains from technical improvements in product efficiency (a preventive approach) have historically been outweighed by an overall increase in consumption (rebound effects).

Publications/presentations:

Articles: Cucuzzella, C., De Coninck P. (2006). « Implementing the Precautionary Principle through Stakeholder Engagement for Product and Service Development », Les ateliers de l’éthique, edition printemps, CREUM, Université de Montréal, volume 2, number 1, pp. 95-107.

Conferences: De Coninck, P., Cucuzzella, C. (2008). «Towards Sustainable Lifestyles: A Participatory Approach in a Context of Uncertainty», International Conference on Sustainable Production and Consumption: From Corporate Governance to Citizen-Consumers, Laval, Québec, 18-20 September), accepted.

Cucuzzella, C., De Coninck, P. (2007). «A Contribution of the Precautionary Principle for the Elaboration of New Social Indicators in a Context of Sustainable Design», Cycle 2007 Conference, Montréal, Québec, 22-23 October.

De Coninck, P., Cucuzzella, C. (2007). «A Sustainable Development Perspective of Life Cycle Analysis: a Participative Approach in a Context of Uncertainty», Governance and LCA 2007 Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 27-28 September.

Cucuzzella, C., De Coninck, P. (2007). «The Contribution of the Precautionary Principle for Decision Making in Situations of Uncertainty for Product and Service Development», Society and Materials 2007 Conference (SAM1), Seville, Spain, 6-7 March.

Cucuzzella, C., De Coninck, P. (2007). «Towards Sustainable Product and Service Development: a Contribution of the Precautionary Principle», CREUM/CFE University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 19-20 January.

Posters: Cucuzzella, C *., De Coninck, P. (2007). «Implementing the Precautionary Principle through Stakeholder Engagement for Product and Service Development», LCM (Life Cycle Management) 2007 Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, 27-29 August.

Cucuzzella, C., De Coninck. P. (2007). «Integrating the Precautionary Principle in Product Development within the Context of Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyles», SETAC-Europe 2007 Conference, à Porto, Portugal, 20-25 May, Poster Spotlight.

Conference Proceedings: Cucuzzella, C *., De Coninck, P. (2007). «Implementing the Precautionary Principle through Stakeholder Engagement for Product and Service Development», Conference Proceedings for LCM (Life Cycle Management) 2007, Zurich, Switzerland, 27-29 August.

Cucuzzella, C.*, De Coninck, P. (2007). «The Contribution of the Precautionary Principle for Decision Making in Situations of Uncertainty for Product and Service Development», Conference Proceedings for Society and Materials 2007 (SAM1), Seville, Spain, 6-7 March

Career path:

Ph.D. – Aménagement, Université de Montréal

M. App. Sc. – Aménagement, option «Design et complexité», Université de Montréal - Bourse de CREUM (Centre de Recherche en Éthique de l’Université de Montréal)

B.F.A. - Baccalauréat en beaux-arts – Design Art, Concordia University

B.Comp.Sc. - Baccalauréat en science informatique, Concordia University