Durable goods are products “that may be used repeatedly or continuously over a period of more than a year”. LASTING addresses three high impact categories of durables, household appliances, furniture, and clothing and textiles. Research by Diana Ivanova at NTNU found that for the Norwegian household consumption, these products combined constitute 29% of material footprint, 27% of the carbon footprint, 14% of the water footprint and 12% of the land footprint. The consumption of these products has increased significantly. Just in the past 20 years, the import of electric products has increased by 89 %, of furniture by 119 %, and of clothing by 37 %, according to Statistics Norway.

Extending the service life of products may reduce material use and impacts from resource extraction. Lifetime extension is core to resource efficiency and considered important in EU’s circular economy action plan. LASTING investigates the role of policies and regulations, production and design, and consumer practices for lifetime extension.

NTNU Industrial Ecology will assess the environmental impacts of household consumption of textiles, furniture and appliances, and the relationship between lifetime and life cycle impacts of these durables.