Guidelines for integrating transparency for sustainability into the design evaluation of digital services that enable a circular economy

Transparency is one of the key concepts to enable sustainable development, implying a more ethical communication in relation to the social, environmental, and economic dimensions at all levels of organizations. Communication is a fundamental part of digital services, where transparency can enable value creation for sustainability through digital interactions. Particularly in the emergent context of digital services for circular economy, transparency can help to stand for its strategies and to expose the flows of resources to be seen and interacted with. The authors explored how to support the integration of transparency for sustainability on Service Design evaluation activities, in the context of digital services as enablers of a circular economy. With such intent, the study was conducted based on Design Science Research method, organized in three phases. The first phase helped to understand the research problem from a broader perspective through a literature review, an assessment of transparency on existing digital solutions, and workshops with the potential users of the intended Guidelines. The second phase was characterized by fieldwork activities with three progressive cycles of Workshops based on Action Design Research for proposing, developing, and evaluating the intended Guidelines in a collaborative and critical way with digital services from different sectors in the context of a circular economy. The third phase addressed the cross-analysis and learnings. This paper provides a set of Guidelines to support a design evaluation of transparency for sustainability at the early stages of the Service Design process, including Guidelines for the systematization of activities, scope and key elements of analysis. Transparency for sustainability can be approached as a quality criterion when articulating service offerings. A structured design approach can encourage service organizations to have a more active attitude towards transparency and sustainability.