Abstract
PurposeA wide number of research efforts have been carried out over the last decades to assess and improve system sustainability. Different methods and tools are increasingly implemented in product systems; nevertheless its application to services and other systems, in which products and services are combined, is rather limited. In this work, an approach to improve the sustainability of systems composed of products and services (P + S systems) is proposed and implemented in two case studies.MethodsThe sustainability improvement of P + S systems is addressed integrating different methods and approaches. The flows between system approach is used to identify links between all systems involved. The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) method is applied to simultaneously evaluate environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability with a life cycle perspective. In addition, sustainable design principles are taken into account to propose effective improvement strategies. The systematic development of four phases is required to carry out the integration of these approaches: (i) identification of links between involved systems; (ii) sustainability assessment of the P + S system; (iii) application of sustainability strategies; and (iv) sustainability results comparison.Results and discussionTwo different P + S systems are analysed. First, sustainability improvements in the service provided by a clothing boutique are proposed, taking into account that the store where the service is developed and the clothes acquired by the service provider are product systems involved in the service operation. Next, the sustainability of an itinerary exhibition is investigated. Products required for the exhibition space layout as well as the service used to transport all materials between different locations are taken into account. In each case, sustainability indicators obtained in both initial and alternative systems are compared, and variations detected due to strategies applied are analysed.ConclusionsSustainability of P + S systems is evaluated using a set of quantitative indicators, the relative incidence of each system is determined and more sustainable alternatives are projected. Thus, this research supposes an advance towards the sustainable design of complex systems composed of products and services, since effects due to the interconnection between systems are studied and criteria to carry out sustainability-oriented decision making are provided.
Highlights
Initiatives to adopt more sustainable approaches have been evolving over the last decades
The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology (Kloepffer 2008; Finkbeiner et al 2010) combines three techniques to effectively assess the sustainability of a system: the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-life cycle assessment (LCA)) to examine environmental issues, the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to evaluate economic aspects and the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to get social impacts
Sustainability study is addressed taking into account that service provision in the clothing boutique is identified as foreground system (FS) and the store, in which the service is operated and the clothes acquired by the service provider are product systems involved in the service development
Summary
Initiatives to adopt more sustainable approaches have been evolving over the last decades. (Gagnon et al 2012) propose the use of the Integrated Sustainable Engineering Design Process (ISEDP) to address the design process of more sustainable systems This practical approach, supported by life cycle assessment methods, is introduced by (Santolaya et al 2019) to project more sustainable products. Methods to assess sustainability of systems taking into account the life cycle perspective and conventional models of product design and development have been examined. Methodologies such as eco-design, Environmental Design of Industrial Products (EDIP), D4S or ISEDP, applied to obtain more sustainable products and services, have been reviewed. The detailed explanation of the approach applied and results obtained in two different case studies are shown
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