Measures to improve the sustainability of buildings are a priority in EU policies. This requires the appropriate choice of building materials and products that are used indoor, and design plays a major role in this context, since it is at the design stage that the sustainability profile of products is mostly determined.

Therefore, the aim of SInnDesign is to develop training materials and tools for design for sustainability (DfS) of furniture, textiles for the habitat and building materials, leading to innovative and competitive solutions. It is a ToI of other projects, primarily InEDIC – Innovation and Ecodesign in the Ceramic Industry (www.inedic.net) and the ECODESIGN PILOT, a practical software tool for identifying and implementing Ecodesign measures into products (www.ecodesign.at/pilot). In SInnDesign the results of these projects are transferred to new sectors and countries and there is an extra focus on important topics for companies in the context of a globalised economy: social criteria in design and innovation.

The consortium includes organizations from Portugal, Austria, Denmark and Spain, with recognized experience in international projects in the area of sustainability and innovation in the target sectors. Besides the Applicant Organization, the Management Coordinator and the Core Partners, responsible for the contents development and the coordination of national activities, there are also Associated Partners (AP), with specific roles in the project: some will be dedicated to support the test and validation of SInnDesign in companies and and other AP will support the integration of the results in national VET systems.

The main outcomes will be state-of-the art training materials and tools: the SInnDesign Manual on DfS and Innovation, the Tools, the Resources Centre and the Catalogue of Good Practices. These results will be available for the training of professionals involved in product development from the three sectors and also as vocational training units (or parts thereof) in the national qualification catalogues of the participating countries. For this purpose, there is a specific workpackage on the integration of SInnDesign outputs in partner countries’ VET systems, resulting on the definition of National and Sectoral Training Strategies, a Manual for Teachers and Trainers and a Guideline for the integration of DfS in VET. All the development work will be based on an initial review of training needs and opportunities in this field.

Besides the partners in the consortium, which cover a wide range of players on the habitat cluster and VET systems (incl. policy makers), national networks will be established, involving businesses, VET institutions, design centres and technological institutes, for consultation and project dissemination.

The project is expected to have a significant positive impact in lifelong learning in the partner countries and in EU, promoting employability and new skills for a green(er) European economy.