The Design of Sustainable Product-Service Systems to Foster Circular Economy for All

The role of design for sustainability to promote a Circular Economy (CE) is increasingly recognized as a key leverage. The CE Action Plan adopted by the European Union in 2020 reports that “up to 80% of products’ environmental impacts are determined at the design phase” (European Commission, Circular economy action plan: for a cleaner and more competitive Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2779/05068, 2020). The same CE Action Plan recognizes also as a key strategy “incentivizing product-as-a-service or other models where producers keep the ownership of the product or the responsibility for its performance throughout its lifecycle”. Indeed, this shift in the offer model has been defined and studied as the Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS) since the end of the 1990 (Cooper and Evans, Products to services. Friends of the Earth, London, 2000; Brezet et al., The design of eco-efficient services: method, tools and review of the case study based «designing eco-efficient services» project. Industrieel Ontwerpen, 2001; UNEP, Product-service systems and sustainability: Opportunities for sustainable solutions. UNEP. https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/handle/20.500.11822/8123, 2002; Manzini and Vezzoli, Product Serv Syst Sustain Consump 11(8):851–857. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-6526(02)00153-1, 2003; Mont, Ecol Econ 50(1):135–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.03.030, 2004; Tukker, Bus Strateg Environ 13(4):246–260. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.414, 2004; Baines et al., Proc Inst Mech Eng Part B J Eng Manuf 221(10):1543–1552. https://doi.org/10.1243/09544054JEM858, 2007; Charter and Tischner, Sustainable solutions: developing products and services for the future. Routledge, 2017). In this framework, the chapter aims at contributing on how the most updated knowledge on design for sustainability – focusing on S.PSS and their potential win-win benefits – could foster the transition towards a Circular Economy. Moreover, it investigates how recent understanding and research outcomes about S.PSS could position them as promising models to extend the access to good and services even to low-income contexts, so forth enhancing even social inclusion. Within this understanding, a new promising role of design in developing S.PSS capable of fostering a sustainable CE for all is hypothesized. The covered topics follow the learnings of the LeNSin international research project funded by the EU Erasmus+ Programme, gathering 36 partner Universities from Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, India, China, and in Europe UK, Finland, The Netherlands, and Italy. The project aimed at developing curricula on Design for Sustainability focused on S.PSS applied to Distributed Economies (DE). The project's preliminary phase, undertaken by all the involved countries, started with desk research, a case studies analysis and context-specific need analysis, as well as their sustainability benefits and barriers and the role of design in their development. This phase was used to instruct and conduct five country seminars (Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) with expert stakeholders. The acquired knowledge was shared among all partners and was the basis to build a first round of 5 pilot courses in partner universities in the five extra-UE countries. In each course companies/organizations were involved verifying both the knowledge-base and the design tools that far developed, by designing sustainable solutions for them. With the knowledge acquired and shared, a second round of 5 pilot courses was organized in the same countries, through different universities/cities. A key outcome is a set of learning resources on S.PSS&DE design for all: the ten full courses (videos and slides of all lectures), case studies, system design tools and innovative projects. These are available in open access on the LeNS platform (www.lens-international.org). On the basis of project outcomes, further desk research has been conducted on the existing literature about the main principles, strategies, and business models related to Circular Economy. Moreover, the analysis of the LeNS international repository (www.lens-international.org) of more than a hundred case studies has been conducted to identify S.PSS cases operating also on a CE level. With these premises, the chapter makes a step further, investigating the relationship between the abovementioned learnings on S.PSS and the core principles of CE, going beyond the mere association of two concepts: it outlines an updated theoretical framework on why and how S.PSS win-win benefits and design approach can foster the development of circular business models. In particular, why and under which circumstances applying an S.PSS approach to CE makes the economic interest of the producer/provider in designing and developing products & services for extending the technical cycles of materials and product through use intensification, product durability, maintainability/repairability, reusability, enabling remanufacturing and high-quality recycling, as well as extending biological cycles enhancing material biodegradability and resources renewability. Furthermore, the chapter outlines why an S.PSS is a promising approach to design and offer products & services to foster a CE accessible and preservable over time in low-income contexts, to both final users and entrepreneurs. In particular, why and under which circumstances applying an S.PSS approach to CE is promising to cut both the initial investment costs and the running cost of maintenance, repair, etc. Finally, in relation to CE principles and practices, an overview of the applicability of the Method for System Design for Sustainability (MSDS) method and its tools supporting the S.PSS design process is given. The MSDS method has been developed and refined within a series of projects funded by the European Union and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) since 2002. International public funded project contributing to the development and refinement of actual MSDS method with its set of support tools: MEPSS: MEthodology for Product Service System development (EU funded V FP project, 2002–2005). Design for Sustainability (D4S): A Step-By-Step Approach (UNEP funded, 2005–2009) LeNS: Learning Network on Sustainability (EU funded Asia-Link project, 2008–2010). LeNSes: Learning Network on Sustainable energy system, focused on System Design for Sustainable Energy for all (EU funded EdulinkII project, 2013–2016). LeNSin: international Learning Network of networks on Sustainable, focused on designing S.PSS applied to DE as a promising approach for designing sustainability for all (EU funded Erasmus+ project, 2015–2019).