European policy approaches to promote servicizing

Summary, in English

Servicizing is a business model that holds the potential to support a shift towards more sustainable production and consumption by selling to the consumer the product's function, rather than the material product itself. This can offer direct environmental benefits by reducing the material and energy intensity of market transactions. Servicizing based business offers are starting emerging on the market, but public policy support could accelerate this process. This article is a review of the state of the art in the field and of relevant policy initiatives addressing servicizing conducted for that project. It aims to explore where and how public policy supports or steers markets toward servicizing solutions. The article examines the development of the servicizing concept and identifies where and when policy support for servicizing is merited. It also reviews several existing policy instruments to support servicizing on European, national and local (municipal) levels. Policy initiatives include R&D support, energy efficiency obligation schemes, chemicals, waste and transportation policies. The conclusions focus on the possibilities and limits of public policy support and promotion of servicizing.

• Author: Andrius Plepys; Eva Heiskanen; Oksana Mont
• Department/s: The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
• Publishing year: 2015
• Language: English
• Pages: 117-123
• Publication/Series: Journal of Cleaner Production
• Volume: 97
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.04.029
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Topic: Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
• Keywords: Servicizing policy; Servicizing; Product-service systems
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0959-6526