Many efforts have been made to increase the use of ecodesign in product design projects. Still, ecodesign methods are not applied as often as wanted from sustainability perspectives. New methods and procedures are often considered a risk by the individuals that are meant to use and implement the new methods.  Organisational complexity, lack of cooperation, lack of tools, lack of internal communication and lack of management commitment are documented barriers to the use of ecodesign and explain some of the reasons why ecodesign is not used as widely as expected. The perception of the employees and the behavioural barriers they perceive are less studied and there is a need to correlate the perception of the individual to the identified barriers.

This study aimed to identify what factors that inhibited the ecodesign behaviour of the employees by applying the theory of planned behaviour.  Nine persons involved in the design process from two companies were included in the study. Q-methodology combined with semi-structured interviews was applied. The statements in the Q-sort were constructed from the theory of planned behaviour so that intention, personal norm, attitude, habits, subjective norm and perceived control each had a set of statements.

The results showed that the participants were positive in their attitude towards ecodesign. They also had strong personal norms and showed intention to use ecodesign in their work. On the lower side, former habits were not a strong driving force; neither was subjective norm or perceived control. The results indicate that the employees were positive and intended to use ecodesign while they did not find the management commitment and current ecodesign tools and procedures sufficient.

Four discourses were identified; those who were positive towards ecodesign but not inclined to change their current behaviour, those who felt pressure from others to perform ecodesign, those who wanted to take small steps by starting to change internal procedures before talking to the customer and finally those who did not believe there was any chance of success with ecodesign.