title: The role of anthropometry in designing for sustainability.
abstract: An understanding of human factors and ergonomics facilitates the design of artefacts, tasks and environments that fulfil their users' physical and cognitive requirements. Research in these fields furthers the goal of efficiently accommodating the desired percentage of user populations through enhanced awareness and modelling of human variability. Design for sustainability (DfS) allows for these concepts to be leveraged in the broader context of designing to minimise negative impacts on the environment. This paper focuses on anthropometry and proposes three ways in which its consideration is relevant to DfS: reducing raw material consumption, increasing usage lifetimes and ethical human resource considerations. This is demonstrated through the application of anthropometry synthesis, virtual fitting, and sizing and adjustability allocation methods in the design of an industrial workstation seat for use in five distinct global populations. This work highlights the importance of and opportunities for using ergonomic design principles in DfS efforts.
  This research demonstrates the relevance of some anthropometry-based ergonomics concepts to the field of design for sustainability. A global design case study leverages human variability considerations in furthering three sustainable design goals: reducing raw material consumption, increasing usage lifetimes and incorporating ethical human resource considerations in design.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA. gzn103@psu.edu
authors.forename: Gopal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nadadur
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Parkinson
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D007374:Interior Design and Furnishings