Product-Service Systems Development for Sustainability. A New Understanding

This chapter introduces the concept of Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS). S.PSS is an offer model providing an integrated mix of products and services that are together able to fulfil a particular customer/user demand (to deliver a “unit of satisfaction”), based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders of the value production system (satisfaction system), where the ownership of the product/s and/or the life cycle services costs/responsibilities remain with the provider/s, so that the same provider/s continuously seek/s environmentally and/or socio-ethically beneficial new solutions, with economic benefits. Next it discusses the potentional environmental, socio-ethical and economical benefits of S.PSS.

Designing S.PSS and DE: New Horizons for Design

Assuming S.PSS applied to DE is an opportunity for a locally based sustainability for all, as introduced in this volume, we envision a new role for designers: Designing Sustainable Product-Service Systems applied to Distributed Economies, or shortly System Design for Sustainability for All (SD4SA).

S.PSS and DE in Practice

Contemporary challenges related to sustainability are shared across the globe. Their materializations, prioritizations and emphases, however, vary from one region to another. This chapter shares the experiences from LeNSin project seminars and pilot courses and discusses the potential of design education as a transdisciplinary matchmaker between various actors and networks.

Integrating S.PSS and DE

The combination of Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) and Distributed Economies (DE) has been considered as a promising mode of developing sustainability through regional resilience and by empowering a shift to a more localized economic model. This chapter examines case studies from around the world that use combinations of S.PSS and DE to varying degrees and in different industry sectors to analyse the opportunities that it presents. The chapter then goes on to provide a framework for categorizing various models of S.PSS and DE combinations and ends with an analysis of the barriers to implement such models.

Distributed Economies

This chapter presents Distributed Economies (DE) as a promising model for locally-based sustainability. DE consist of small-scale value-adding units (e.g. manufacturing, energy generation, food production, water management, software development, knowledge generation) where there is a shift in the control of core activities towards the user/client.