Environmental potential of reusing, renting, and sharing consumer products: Systematic analysis approach

Abstract

Abstract Consumer products are increasingly offered through renting and sharing, which are emerging as alternative business models to purchasing. These business models have the potential to environmentally benefit society through fulfilling consumer demands using fewer artifacts. Past studies performed qualitative and quantitative analysis on the extent of the benefits, but they are predominantly paired comparative studies of a traditional model with one or two alternative models. Rather than a paired comparative study, a one-to-many comparative study would be more appropriate to reveal the condition that makes a provision system more environmentally advantageous among available opportunities. To systematically compare the environmental impact of diverse provision models of consumer durables, a typology was developed based on three environmentally decisive features of business models: value capture mechanism, product provider, and the combination of associated services. When the operating business models of automobiles and books were examined using the typology, 15 and 11 models were identified, respectively. The greenhouse gas emission analysis identified decisive factors in the environmental impact of provision models among all available business options. This study presents the typology that can position current business practices, quantitatively analyze their performance, and generate alternatives for environmentally-driven business expansion.