The Sustainable Product Design and Innovation major at Keene State College is a pre-professional four-year program offering a cross-disciplinary curriculum to give the student a solid foundation in the artistic, scientific, and technical aspects of product design and the social and scientific aspects of sustainability concerns. Product Design involves the synthesis of consumer needs and production capabilities in the creation of new products and their affiliated services. The integrated sustainability issues link the multitude of human factors, environmental and resource depletion concerns to the decision making process. The curriculum draws from five disciplines, art, management, mathematics, safety and industrial/product design to build the student’s capacity in design theory and practice, material sciences, production processes, digital technology, and the quantitative and qualitative issues of sustainability and business practices.

The Sustainable Product Design and Innovation major is designed to provide students with a hands-on project based learning curriculum focusing on real world applications grounded in a liberal arts foundation. The emphasis on innovation complimented with business management encourages creative problem solving and entrepreneurship providing students with the tools to adapt and evolve their career paths to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. Integrated sustainability values prepare students for engagement in the product realization arena in the “lean” and “green” global production economy. Graduates are prepared to pursue graduate study or transition directly into careers in product design/engineering, technology/evaluation, planning, supply, production, quality control, technical services, marketing, and sales or other related professions.