|
The global market for Sustainable Products and Services is growing. Environmental and socio-economic
factors are changing the competitive landscape for corporations. Sustainable product and service design is becoming a new point of leverage for brands wishing to retain their competitive advantage in the coming years. In this regard, some enterprises, policy makers and civil society players have already started to understand Sustainable Products and Services as a framework for driving growth, increasing shareholder value, heightening stakeholder satisfaction and protecting and enhancing environmental and socioeconomic standards. Accordingly, many stakeholders have begun to seek out new innovative approaches that go beyond a “technology push“ or a “market pull“.
Considering the delivery of Sustainable Products and Services as a creative process of change, “sustainable enterprises“ are increasingly shifting from the application of traditional eco-efficient practices which are mainly focused on reducing the risks of operating in the market. They are now exploring new business models and design strategies that can open up new market opportunities by promoting innovative solutions. The ongoing transition from industrial production to knowledge and service based economies will certainly present new opportunities to explore and implement sustainable product-service mixes that offer enhanced customer benefits and functionalities that products and hardware alone cannot.
What are Sustainable Products and Services?
Sustainable product and service design based on a lifecycle perspective holds a variety of untapped opportunities that can lead to comparative cost advantages as well as to enhanced performance in terms of environmental and social impact. Sustainable products and services can be described by using – among others – the following set of concepts:
- Efficient use of raw materials (e.g. lightweight construction with regenerative materials and reduction of waste)
- Resource efficient design (e.g. by optimisation of energy and water consumption or using less virgin materials)
- Durable design (e.g. stable construction and high longevity)
- High disposability (e.g. use of easily degradable materials)
- Efficient logistices (e.g. minimised packing and efficient transports)
- Service substitution (e.g. car-sharing and similar per capital resource consumption reduction strategies achieved through redesigning ownership structures)
- Proper training and education for the workers (e.g. at the production site)
- General working conditions (e.g. working hours or living wage)
- Observing and complying with human rights issues (e.g. discrimination based on gender or race at production sites)
- Worker‘s health and safety (e.g. proper gear and equipment in toxic environments)
- Consumer health & safety (e.g. informing the consumer via product labels and voluntary information)
To effectively build these new markets change agents in the policy, business and civil society area need to create partnerships that allow cross-linking knowledge drawn from a wide range of disciplines and take into consideration new trends and dynamic global developments.
In this respect, this conference will bring together key players from a variety of fields to further the understanding and drive processes that are currently ongoing in the field of sustainable products and services. The overarching conference objectives are across linking of knowledge, networking and inspiration as well as implementation of concrete and innovative followup projects.
|
