Considered innovative and radical due to the way they disrupt consumerist lifestyles, ‘sustainable product service systems’ (s.PSS) can reduce the negative environmental impacts from wasteful consumption. An inventory of existing s.PSS solutions in Oceania was carried out to help inspire entrepreneurs and innovators to champion alternative ways of needs fulfilment and to offer added value to customers with less ecological damage. The search encompassed cases of collaborative consumption lifestyles, redistribution markets, distributed production, and the circular economy. Over 140 innovative cases were found. Analysis showed that the majority of cases found were use-oriented PSS, such as product sharing, renting, leasing or pooling, and there were hardly any innovative cases of product- and result-oriented PSS. While many of the PSS cases in the study demonstrated environmental improvement through minimized resources and waste, others in fact were more material and energy intensive and therefore negated the sustainability advantage.

Authors: Mariano Ramirez