A Scoping Review of Ontologies Relevant to Design Strategies in Response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Since the initiation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, academia and industry have been taking action to seek how to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via research, practice, and community engagement. Due to the UN SDGs comprising comprehensive domain-centric ontologies for reaching a consensus on their achievement, so far there has been a literature gap on how and what product design strategies can help achieve which of the SDGs. Inspired by the implication of creating a better world with design, this study conducted a scoping review to synthesize existing design strategies toward the implementation of the SDGs. More than 110 design strategies/methods were collected and synthesized as evidence to map onto the ontological domains of the SDGs. The results indicate that Goals 8, 9, 11, and 12 can be correspondingly addressed by the current body of design strategies, whereas a gap exists in the design strategies to address Goals 15, 16, and 17. Most of the corresponding strategies can be workable to Goals 3, 4, 6, and 7 to a certain extent and, in a broad sense, are in line with the contextual implications of Goals 1, 2, 5, 10, 13, and 14. This study provides a useful starting point for researchers to explore how design has been contributing to the sustainability goals. It also contributes to existing knowledge of the design discipline by providing methodological guidance for researchers and practitioners to conduct further research and practice on the UN SDGs.