Eco-Service Development

In recent years there has been growing interest in the possibilities of eco-services. Ecologically oriented leasing, renting, pooling and sharing, where the emphasis is placed on the sale of a product's use rather than on the product itself, offer great possibilities for innovation and environmental impact reduction. At the same time, there are opportunities to create new commercial enterprises, produce added value to production and distribution functions, and therefore create jobs.
Up until now, however, there has been little research about the state of the art in eco-services, how new services can be developed, what the attitudes of consumers are to services rather than products and what the consequences of such a structural adjustment would be for firms. Eco-service Development addresses this lack of research, first by providing a comprehensive inventory and analysis of current eco-services in four European countries: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain. It then systematically explores the options open to market participants, the potential for environmental impact reduction, potential barriers to eco-services (such as consumer and producer resistance) and, finally, with what political and legal instruments ecologically oriented services can best be promoted. The book analyses eight consumer sectors - washing, cleaning, cooking, entertainment, gardening, do-it-yourself, mobility and leisure time - from the point of view of both supply and demand and highlights the optimisation potential and development perspectives for commercial new use eco-service concepts.
This book is the most comprehensive analysis yet published of how eco-services are being implemented and how they could best be encouraged and contains valuable lessons for policy-makers, interested businesses and all those in the academic community searching for ways to dematerialise the economy.

Siegfried Behrendt is co-ordinator of the 'Ecologic Economic Research' programme at the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), Berlin.