Ingrid de Pauw is an expert in circular and sustainable product development. At the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, she coordinates and teaches courses about sustainable and circular product design. At IDEAL&CO she is active in product design & research to advance the transition to a circular economy. She explores and develops methods and tools for circular design solutions, including the assessment of circularity.

Ingrid de Pauw studied Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (DUT) specialising in environmental product development. She has over 25 years of experience in sustainable product design and design-research projects, with a specialisation in design for the circular economy, biomimicry and cradle to cradle. In 2004, she co-founded design bureau IDEAL&CO in which she is currently partner. In 2015, she obtained a PhD degree from the DUT, for her research on Nature-Inspired Design. In this project, she investigated how and why strategies such as Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle can help designers to develop sustainable products. She has participated in various research projects for the advancement of circular and sustainable product design, including ResCoM (Resource Conservative Manufacturing) and RePlanIT (on circular IT). 

Education

• 2010 – 2015
  Delft University of Technology
  Doctorate Degree, thesis: ‘Nature-Inspired Design – Strategies for Sustainable Product Development’
• 1988 – 1994
  Delft University of Technology
  MSc. Industrial Design Engineering (cum laude)

Experience

• November 2019 - present
  Leiden University 
  External member Board of Examiners - Department of Industrial Ecology (CML-IE)
• August 2015 – present
  Delft University of Technology
  Part-time lecturer in Sustainable & Circular Product Development
• October 2004 – present
  Partner IDEAL&CO, Amsterdam - Sustainable & Circular product design
  Strategic development, Concept design, Product development, Acquisition, Project management
• January 2010 – 2015
  Delft University of Technology
  PhD ‘Nature-Inspired Design Strategies for Product Development’.
  Researcher in Nature-Inspired Design project
• July 2001 – October 2004
  Partner KIEM sustainable innovations - Consult on sustainable innovations
  Design engineering, Acquisition, Project management, Eco-analysis
• January 1995 – July 2001
  Industrieel Ontwerpbureau de Pauw
  Consult and design
• December 1994 – April 1995
  Wageningen Agricultural University, Dept. of Household and Consumer Studies
  Research on innovative techniques to dewater textile products

Lectures and coaches students in Design for the Circular Economy, Sustainable Design Engineering, Design approaches for sustainability, Value sensitive design, Circular product design assessment.

Design for the circular economy, circular product design assessment, assessing sustainability in product design, nature inspired design, sustainable design.