Many companies decide which services, products, and technologies to include in their product portfolio using evaluation criteria, which often consider cost, quality, risk, revenue, time, and market position. Incorporating sustainability in the portfolio evaluation criteria could ensure the development of sustainable solutions from the early stages of the product development process, where there is more room for innovation. The aim of this paper is to understand how sustainability can be integrated in the company portfolio development. Semi‐structured interviews were performed with experts in the field and representatives from multinational manufacturing companies with operations in Sweden. Main findings from this study include a proposed definition of a sustainability product portfolio concept and suggested portfolio evaluation criteria from an industry perspective. Future research will develop a method to guide manufacturing companies in sustainability integration and implementation in product portfolios.

Society’s transition towards sustainability comes with radical change, which entails significant threats and opportunities for product development and manufacturing companies, for example related to new legislation, shifting customer preferences, and increasing raw material prices. Smart risk management therefore plays a key role for successfully maneuvering society’s sustainability transition. However, from a company perspective, it remains challenging to connect the macro-level societal change with tangible risks for the business on the micro level. Based on interviews with academic and industrial experts, this study identified 21 key aspects for sustainability risk management. Drawing on these results and research from the areas of transition design, strategic sustainable development, and sustainability risk management, a conceptual approach for strategic risk management within the sustainability transition is presented. It builds on layered, double-flow scenario modelling in which backcasting from a vision, framed by basic principles for sustainability, is combined with forecasting from the present. The implications of such scenarios, i.e., risks, can then be identified and managed. By doing so on different scales, connections between macro- and micro-level change can be established. Thereby, product development companies shall be supported in making sustainability an intrinsic part of decision-making across the strategic, tactical, and operational levels to increase competitiveness while contributing to the transition towards a sustainable society.

There are high expectations of additive manufacturing (AM) as a technology to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce material waste. This study aims to clarify the sustainability advantages and challenges of AM technologies used in industry by testing and applying a strategic sustainability life cycle assessment in the early development stage. The result showed possibilities from using the tool and some areas of certain interest regarding improvement potentials of the AM technologies, i.e. value chain management, concept design, optimized material usage, and social sustainability.

Companies need to strategically develop their portfolio and find the balance between being proactive and passive in relation to sustainability. In this study, a strategic perspective based on backcasting from overarching socio-ecological sustainability principles was used as a lens to understand how companies might adapt their product portfolios to avoid threats and exploit opportunities on increasingly sustainabilitydriven markets. The study shows that sustainability performance, market success, and time are key areas to be considered in the product portfolio process to ensure short-term profitability and long-term competitiveness. A novel method was developed and tested in one academic group and two companies to explore how such a strategic sustainability perspective can support the product portfolio process in practice. The results indicate that the strategic layered double-flow scenario method, including different time horizons, was supportive in identifying opportunities and avoid risks in the sustainable development process at the company.

Salmonellosis is a foodborne disease caused by Salmonella spp. Although cell culture is the gold standard for its identification, validated molecular methods are becoming an alternative, because of their rapidity, selectivity, and specificity. A simplex and duplex droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR)-based method for the identification and quantification of Salmonella using ttr, invA, hilA, spaQ, and siiA gene sequences was validated. The method has high specificity, working interval between 8 and 8,000 cp/µL in ddPCR reaction, a limit of detection of 0.5 copies/µL, and precision ranging between 5 and 10% measured as a repeatability standard deviation. The relative standard measurement uncertainty was between 2 and 12%. This tool will improve food safety in national consumption products and will increase the competitiveness in agricultural product trade.