Abstract

Extending the lifetime of passive products, i.e., products that do not consume materials or energy during the use phase, by implementing product-service systems (PSS) has a potential to reduce the environmental impact while being an attractive and straightforward measure for companies to implement. This research assesses the viability of introducing PSS for passive products, by documenting five real product cases of prolonging the lifetime through repair or refurbishment and by quantifying, through life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC), the change in environmental and economic outcome. The environmental impact (measured as global warming potential over the life cycle) was reduced for all cases because extraction and production dominated the impact. This reduction was 45–72% for most cases and mainly influenced by the number of reuses and the relative environmental burden of the components whose lifetime was prolonged. The costs for the company (measured as LCC from the manufacturer’s perspective) decreased too by 8–37%. The main reason that costs reduced less than the environmental impact is that some costs have no equivalent in LCA, e.g., administration and labor costs for services. The decreases in both LCA and LCC results, as well as the willingness of the companies to implement the changes, demonstrate that this measure can be financially attractive for companies to implement and effectively contribute to a circular economy.

Highlights

  • The unsustainable use of resources, driven by population growth and industrial and economic expansion, could triple by the year 2050, compared to the levels at the turn of the 21st century [1]

  • Three reasons for the difference in the reduction of the LCC was performed from a manufacturer’s perspective (LCCman) and life cycle assessment (LCA) can be discerned from these results; namely, (i) distribution costs, (ii) costs and environmental impacts of the dominant phase, and (iii) costs not related to production

  • Starting with the overall system, LCCman decreased by 12%, whereas the global warming potential (GWP) decreased by only 1%

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Summary

Introduction

The unsustainable use of resources, driven by population growth and industrial and economic expansion, could triple by the year 2050, compared to the levels at the turn of the 21st century [1]. Resources are restored or regenerated, energy is renewable, and waste and toxic chemicals are reduced through the design of materials, products, systems, and business models [2,3]. This is an umbrella concept that encompasses a variety of strategies, and one of the key strategies is to extend, or prolong, the lifetime (i.e., usable life) of products or their components [4,5]. This is in line with the conclusions from a number of studies concerning passive durable products, which found environmental improvements when extending product lifetime (e.g., [24,29,30,31,32,33])

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