Abstract

Ecological service concepts are discussed as a promising approach to satisfy customer needs in a more environmentally sound way. In industry, there is a growing need to open up new business areas through product- and use-oriented services and to create value-added potential beyond manufacturing and sales. The focus is not on product sales, but on the provision of services that make products more efficient and more intensively usable. Here, for the first time, the development and implementation of ecological service concepts in corporate practice are empirically investigated. With regard to warranty, repair, upgrading, remarketing, leasing and renting, a broad spectrum of hitherto hardly tapped economic and ecological potentials is shown. Well-founded case studies provide a variety of possible approaches for an ecological service orientation around the product up to the sale of benefits.

Authors

Fields of research

Resources, economies and resilience