Unintended Circularity?—Assessing a Product-Service System for its Potential Contribution to a Circular Economy

Abstract

Product-service systems (PSSs) are seen as valuable facilitators of a circular economy (CE) on a business level. However, that PSSs contribute to a CE is not a given and is determined by the chosen PSS business model and strategy applied throughout the entire lifecycle. Thus, in order to support companies in implementing circular business models such as PSSs, an increasing number of frameworks and methods have been proposed in prior research. This article hypothesizes that many industrial companies are expanding to become PSS providers with neither such support nor a strong sustainability focus. There is a gap in the literature regarding the potential contribution of such PSSs to a CE. Thus, the research reported aims to provide initial insight regarding whether unintended circularity, i.e., an unintended contribution to a CE, may occur when becoming a PSS provider. Applying and adapting an existing framework for the assessment of PSSs’ potential contribution to a CE, the use-oriented PSS of an industrial company was assessed in-depth. Results regarding the relative resource reduction and the prospect of achieving absolute resource decoupling are reported and discussed. While relative improvements over product sales are identified, e.g., resulting from end-of-life efforts on reuse and remanufacturing, opportunities for additional enhancement are found, e.g., in adjustments of the PSS design process. Concerning absolute resource decoupling, a fundamental challenge lies in the use-oriented PSS’s dependency on an increasing number of physical components as the company’s business expands. This article advances the discussion on PSSs’ potential contributions to a CE with an in-depth empirical study. For practitioners, the results reported expand on important aspects of efficient and effective PSS provision throughout the lifecycle.

Research Series Review for Transdisciplinarity Assessment—Validation with Sustainable Consumption and Production Research

“…Second, research of PSS in the last decade or so encountered barriers in the SCP and TD contexts; although substantial works such as an inter-disciplinary research work addressing engineering design and marketing to derive insights and recommendations to facilitate industry take advantage of PSSs [25] were performed, a critique is found from the standpoint of pursuing environmental contributions against research published after 2006 [24]-PSS research mainly uses case study research and simply seems to confirm the findings of the pre-2006 literature [24]. Concerning PSS implementation, despite some research progress to shed light on this issue, diffusion of PSSs in our societies is thus far limited [26] (see recent findings on these issues, e.g., [27,28]).…”

Comparing Consumers’ Product Care in Access and Ownership Models

“…Roy (2000) distinguished between AB-PSS that maximises product utilisation during products' lifetimes and AB-PSS that extend products' lifetimes. The sustainability potential of AB-PSS has been intensely discussed and researched (e.g., Roy, 2000;Tukker, 2004;Cook, 2004;Matschewsky, 2019). Agrawal et al (2012) argued that leasing of durable products, such as washing machines, only contributes to sustainability if product durability is improved compared to ownership.…”

Sustainable Product-Service Systems and Circular Economies

“…In this discussion, the main objective is to highlight the importance of generating industrial and external conditions to allow those companies to develop a sustainable PSS even before internal capabilities are considered. Despite the fact that the relationship between PSSs and circular economies has already been addressed [6,13], the focus has been on understanding how sustainable PSSs can contribute to producing circularity [14]. The focus here, however, is actually the opposite-how the elements already developed to deploy circular economies can help companies to understand and develop the business environment and competencies they require to design and develop a sustainable PSS.…”