Product-service systems
Designs a set of products and services that together meet a need through formulas such as renting, sharing or paying per use, instead of selling an object to each person.
What problem it addresses
If a company earns by selling more objects, short-lived products suit it. If it charges for the need met, products that last and are used more suit it.
Principles
The need, not the object
Start from what the person wants to achieve, for example getting around, not from the product being sold.
From product to result
The options range from adding services to a product you buy to paying only for the result, with renting or sharing in between.
Make sure it really saves
Changing the model isn't enough; check that fewer materials and less energy are used.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Start with products that are used little, like a tool, a car or a party dress, and that could serve more people.
Avoid
Assuming that renting or sharing always pollutes less.
Don’t fall for it
Design the service too: delivery, maintenance and return have to be easy, or people go back to buying.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1999
Mark Goedkoop, Cees van Halen, Harry te Riele and Peter Rommens
In a report for the Dutch government they defined a product-service system as a set of products and services sold to jointly meet a need of whoever uses it.
- 2004
Arnold Tukker
Distinguished eight types, from a service that comes with a product you own to paying for a result, and concluded that most bring little environmental benefit; paying for the result is the most promising.
Sources
Original sources
- Goedkoop, M. J., van Halen, C. J. G., te Riele, H. R. M., & Rommens, P. J. M. (1999). Product service systems: Ecological and economic basics. Informe para los ministerios de Medio Ambiente (VROM) y de Asuntos Económicos (EZ) de los Países Bajos. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Storrm C.S., & PRé Consultants. View source: Goedkoop, M. J., van Halen, C. J. G., te Riele, H. R. M., & Rommens, P. J. M. (1999)
- Tukker, A. (2004). Eight types of product–service system: Eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet. Business Strategy and the Environment, 13(4), 246–260. View source: Tukker, A. (2004)
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