**Preface to "Design and Sustainability"**

Design plays an important role in addressing the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by societies around the world. Appropriately designed solutions contribute towards health, well-being, inclusivity and the sustainable development of life for people living in rural, urban and remote areas. Designing sustainable solutions is thus necessary to support the social and human development of individuals and societies around the world, and to contribute towards achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These solutions can manifest in many different forms, including as products, services and product service systems (PSSs). The process of designing these solutions profoundly affects their technological, functional, aesthetic, ergonomic and many other attributes, having a significant impact on their environmental, social and economic qualities.

This Special Issue, entitled "Design and Sustainability", aims to foster discussion on the design and development of products, services and PSSs that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. It is crucial to consider various facets of design and sustainability in a broad range of sectors and countries, while also paying attention to the often overlooked 'softer' dimension of social sustainability.

The Special Issue comprises 14 articles and covers a broad range of topics in the field of design and sustainability. The studies focus on various sectors and countries. The articles report studies on sustainability considerations in teaware design, social innovation and sustainability in the case of bamboo craft, design methods to deal with sustainability issues in poultry sector, and affective interaction in the case of public transport systems. In addition to these articles, the Special Issue includes studies that investigate the role of codesign in developing sustainable products, services, and systems. These studies examine the development and evaluation of codesign toolkits to support the design of energy innovations, explore the ways in which service design and collaborative processes can promote sustainable services in cities, and determine how participatory storytelling can invoke empathy for nonhuman stakeholders. A further group of articles examines design activities in informal metalworking microenterprises and sustainability issues in SMEs involved in the design and manufacturing of furniture. The collection also includes studies on strategies for visual communication design in order to support and maintain connections between products and consumers, cradle-to-cradle principles in the conceptual design phase, design of tasks to facilitate distance learning in emergency situations such as pandemics, and impact of local context on community-based design projects.

In conclusion, the Special Issue is as a call for action for all relevant stakeholders involved in designing sustainable products, services and systems in a variety of sectors and countries. It is hoped that it will inspire companies, NGOs, governments, and any other stakeholders to embrace sustainable design practices. We expect that this Special Issue will serve as an important resource for all stakeholders interested in improving design practices for the creation of sustainable solutions.

> **Santosh Jagtap and Lucia Corsini** *Editors*
