Sustainable Consumer Services

* Highlights a booming sector: the supply of sustainable consumer services for household markets (such as delivery of organic food, mobile laundry services or car pooling) * Shows how businesses, housing organizations, NGOs and public providers can develop and evaluate sustainable consumer service business models and offer sustainable services profitably * Provides invaluable market data covering 200 innovative sustainable services from Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Finland, and extensive customer survey results Sustainable consumer services for household markets--i.e. services that are offered to a consumer at the premises such as home delivery of organic food, appliance leasing, mobile laundry services, or car pool schemes--are viewed by many as the way forward in reducing material consumption while turning a profit. Yet until now there has been little information to guide the development of such business models and practices and to develop ways to make service-based consumption models more attractive to consumers than object ownership-based models. This book sheds light on the missing links of sustainable household service competitiveness by providing best practice examples and surveys of consumer behavior to show how such services can be provided cost-effectively and garner tremendous benefits for consumers and service providers, be they public, private or non-profit, as well as the environment.