Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881

www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

New concepts in product use for sustainable consumption

Bernd Hirschl a, Wilfried Konrad b, Gerd Scholl a,∗
a
IÖW—Ecological Economy Research Institute, Potsdamer Str. 105, D-10785 Berlin, Germany
b
IÖW—Ecological Economy Research Institute, Bergstr. 7, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Received 5 November 2002

Abstract

The paper presents the main results of a recent study on sustainable use of products. It reveals that strategies of use intensification
and useful life extension are environmentally beneficial. Moreover, analysis of household washing and winter sports illustrated that
successful implementation of sustainable use patterns occurs as a shift of use regimes. Such regimes are the result of a complex
interplay of supply and demand side factors, relationship among actors, technical trajectories, organisational structures etc. One
decisive factor is the presence of strategic players, so called “change agents”. In addition, four user types have been identified in
a representative survey (“ownership-oriented”, “open-minded”, “consumption-oriented”, “low interest”) to which use intensification
and useful life extension can be targeted.
 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sustainable consumption; Product-service-systems; Life cycle assessment; Consumer acceptance

1. Introduction other users. As a result productivity can also be

30 to 40% of all environmental problems in industrial-
ised countries can be assigned to private households [1].
Hence, against the background of debates on improving
resource productivity by factor 4 or factor 10[2,3],
environmentally relevant household activities are
increasingly under scrutiny. Looking at the huge number
of household goods, the rapid product changes and the
ensuing waste production it is no surprise that claims
like “repair instead of throw away” or “borrow instead
of buy” have (re-)gained publicity. The core idea is very
simple: Products fulfil certain functions, e.g. by taking
us from A to B, by washing our laundry, or by drilling
a hole in the wall. The longer a product is used, the more
often it can deliver its service. Resource input, e.g. for
production and operation of the good, generates a larger
output which boosts resource productivity. Similarly, for
seldom used products, in order to curtail environmental
and financial costs one can share such products with
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-30-8845940; fax: +49-30-
8825439.
E-mail address: gerd.scholl@ioew.de (G. Scholl).
improved.
Approaches aimed at an increase of resource pro-
ductivity by a change in use patterns are called new con-
cepts of product use. They are usually categorised
according to the service component:
product-accompanying services,
service replacing products, and
result-oriented services.
In the first case services are supplied as add-ons to
existing products. This can result in a prolongation of the
useful life of goods and components (e.g. maintenance,
repair, up-grading, re-manufacturing). In the case of
replacement or use-oriented services, leasing or renting
can substitute for ownership-based consumption. It is not
the product which is sold; but a temporary right to use
it (e.g. car-sharing, rent-a-tool, copier leasing). The most
far-reaching use concepts are result-oriented services in
which supplier and customer agree upon a certain result
independently of a carrying medium. Examples are
energy-contracting, fleet management, etc.
Strategies of useful life extension were discussed back
in the late seventies and early eighties [4–6]. Later con-
tributions (e.g.[6,7]) have argued against maximum life

0959-6526/03/$ - see front matter  2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0959-6526(02)00162-2
874 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881
extension. In the case of products, for instance, which
are more environmentally relevant through their use
stage (e.g. cars, washing machines, heating equipment),
a limited use followed by a substitution with a more
efficient technology can in fact be beneficial. The com-
plexity which occurs with respect to the different factors
determining optimum operating lives—from technologi-
cal, over economical to psychological aspects of obsol-
escence—is referred to e.g. by Bänsch [8]. More com-
prehensive approaches, encompassing use intensification
patterns as well, have been elaborated by Stahel[9,10].
His vision of a “service economy” promises a triple divi-
dend:
reduced consumption of natural resources,
high service—and, thus, labour intensity, and
regional production and consumption.
After a number of conceptual and theoretical contri-
butions [11–13] more empirically oriented research was
initiated in the mid nineties. Starting with case study col-
lections[14,15] the conditions for the development and
realisation of sustainable use patterns and—to a smaller
extent—their environmental impacts have been studied
with respect to the supply side[16,17–18] and the
demand side [19–21].
In a large research project funded by the German Min-
istry for Education and Research from 1997 to 2000 an
attempt was made to analyse supply- and demand-side
factors and their dynamics, as well as the actual environ-
mental benefits in a more integrated fashion [22]. The
main objectives have been
assessment of consumer acceptance of sustainable pro-
duct use and derivation of a consumer typology with
respect to use strategies,
exemplary description and characterisation of the
dynamic processes in which new concepts of product use
emerge in certain markets, and
exemplary assessment of the environmental benefits ach-
ieved by product prolongation and use intensification.
In order to meet these objectives comprehensive
empirical studies have been conducted:
1. A representative consumer survey: The survey among
1,000 German consumers provided hints as to rel-
evant motives, attitudes, and potential target groups
of new concepts of product use. It was conducted in
the autumn of 1999 and was based on telephone inter-
views of approximately 20 minutes length with each
of the respondents. The respondents were drawn via
random choice from all German speaking inhabitants
14 years and older living in a household with a tele-
phone. Hence, the results can be regarded as represen-
tative for the German population.
2. Two in-depth studies: In order to analyse the charac-
teristics and the possible change of use patterns very
close to reality two in-depth-studies have been carried
out, namely winter sports and household washing. In
case of winters sports the focus was on the ski and
its use (and not on ski boots, clothing etc.) [23]. In
the case of textile washing, the system analysed was
the private household washing process (including the
washing and drying) as opposed to ‘public’ washing
and drying (laundry rooms, launderettes) [24]. The
empirical basis has been:
(a) in-depth study of winter sports: 20 interviews with
experts from industry, trade, ski and snowboard
rental companies, second-hand retailing companies,
travel agencies and industry associations, 14 inter-
views with clients of rental companies, 61 telephone
based interviews with suppliers of ski renting, 187
interviews in the context of the consumer survey
with people practising winter sports. Furthermore, a
one-day workshop with representatives from indus-
try, trade, tourism industry, politics and scientific
institutions.
(b) in-depth study of private textile washing: 19 inter-
views with experts from industry associations,
equipment producers, and laundry operators, 24
interviews with clients of launderettes, 759 inter-
views in the context of the consumer survey with
people ‘practising’ private textile washing. Further-
more, a one-day workshop with representatives from
equipment producers, washing services companies,
housing companies, politics and scientific insti-
tutions.
In each in-depth study market structure and trends, use
concepts encountered at present, and their ecological
implications have been described in detail.
2. Consumer acceptance and user profiles
2.1. Methodology
The limited acceptance of new concepts of product
use is partly due to consumer-related barriers such as the
prestige of ownership or the wish of renewal through
frequent buying of goods. As several studies have shown
[25–29] behavioural changes which are bound to lead to
longer and/or more intense us of products are a complex
process addressing attitudes and values of consumers,
the socio–cultural context of consumption, their time
management, their knowledge (about alternatives), and
their socio–demographic profile. Moreover, economic
aspects such as the price relation between one activity
and its alternative is, of course, important, too. This
complexity has been considered within the survey by
 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881 875

Table 1
Agreement to items on useful life extension

Statement Agreement

Opportunities
I think in longer terms when buying products, i.e. I preponderantly buy high quality and durable products which can 90.9 %
be a bit more expensive.
If there were more possibilities to get products repaired easily and at a favourable price, I wouldn’t part with them as 87.4 %
quickly.
Products once bought I try to use as long as possible, even though I have to get them repaired. 86.1 %
In general, I am well informed about where I can have broken products repaired easily and at a fair price. 65.6 %
I have bought new products quite often, even though the old ones were still functioning well. 18.8 %
Limitations
If repair of an old product is almost as expensive as a new one, as a rule I decide on the new one. 95.5 %
If frequently used products are on the blink, repair very often takes too much time from my point of view. 51.9 %
It is especially important for me, that the products I buy are in fashion. 35.6 %

asking the interviewees for an assessment of a list of
items on use patterns.1
2.2. Prolongation of product use
According to the survey, the propensity to a more
extended use of goods is deeply rooted in the self-per-
ception of German consumers (see Table 1). This is
approved by the enormous agreement on statements such
as “I think in longer terms when buying products, i.e. I
preponderantly buy high quality and durable products
which can be a bit more expensive” (90.9%),2 “Products
once bought I try to use as long as possible, even though
I have to get them repaired” (86.1%), and “If there were
more possibilities to let products be repaired easily and
at a favourable price, I wouldn’t part with them as
quickly” (87.4%). Moreover, only a small percentage of
consumers say that they replace well functioning pro-
ducts by new ones very often, and at least two thirds of
the respondents regard their knowledge of repair possi-
bilities as sufficient.
In practice, actual behaviour diverges from these state-
ments. One reason revealed by the survey is that product
replacement is dominated by a semi-economical calcu-
lation: Almost all interviewees agree on the statement
“If repair of an old product is almost as expensive as a
new one, as a rule I decide for the new one”. Although
consumers are not able to know whether they obtain
1
It has to be noted that the assessment of the items on use patterns
stands for attitudes, rather than actual behaviour. It might be biased
by socially desired responses. Nonetheless, the assessment provides
hints as to varying priorities and perceptions with respect to ownership,
shared use, repair and maintenance, etc. Furthermore, the factor analy-
sis conducted as part of the cluster analysis (see Section 2.4) reveals
that responding behaviour is not fully accidental. The assessment of
related items is rather quite homogeneous, so that consistency is
ensured.
2
The figures are the result of summing up the first two percentage
values on a scale of “I completely agree”, “I largely agree”, “I agree
to a smaller extent”, “I completely disagree”.
more service units through the new good as compared
to the refurbished old, but possibly more durable one,
they normally decide for substitution. Trend orientation
(“It is especially important for me, that the products I
buy are in fashion”) or a lack of convenience caused by
repair measures (“If frequently used products are on the
blink, repair very often takes too much time from my
point of view”) are other confining factors, which are,
however, apparently less relevant than general cost com-
parisons.
2.3. Consumption without ownership
Use intensification, e.g. by means of renting or shar-
ing, is not that deeply rooted in current consumption pat-
terns. A general refusal, however, was not observed (see
Table 2). Opportunities arise, in particular, in case of
seldom used products and due to the costs of ownership,
e.g. maintenance, repair, disposal etc. Hence, almost two
thirds of all interviewed people saw the advantages of
transferring responsibility for service production from
the consumer to the service supplier in the context of
renting offers (“If I rented products on demand instead
of owning them myself, I would benefit from the fact
that I have nothing to do with maintenance, repair, and
disposal”, 64.3%). However, there is no direct one-to-
one link to a renunciation of buying products: The state-
ment “If there were more possibilities to rent products
on demand simply and at a favourable price, I wouldn’t
buy them myself” is agreed upon by ‘only’ 56.7%. One
can interpret the similar percentage articulating a wish
for initiating and deepening social contacts as a more
supporting factor for collective use patterns.
The borderline for these new concepts is marked by
statements such as “If I share goods with other people,
I can never be sure that they are returned when I need
them myself”, (72.8%) and “I would like to own things
that are very important to me, even though I do not use
them very often” (69.3%). They refer to a hidden sus-
picion on improper use and the significance of an
876 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881

Table 2
Agreement to items on use intensification

Statement Agreement

Opportunities
I find it meaningful to rent or borrow seldom used products on demand. 73.5 %
If I rented products on demand instead of owning them myself, I would benefit from the fact that I have nothing to 64.3 %
do with maintenance, repair, and disposal.
I would appreciate it if there were more possibilities in our house or in the neighbourhood to meet people I do not 57.5 %
know so well.
If there were more possibilities to rent products on demand simply and at a favourable price, I wouldn’t buy them 56.7 %
myself.
Limitations
If I share goods with other people, I can never be sure that they are returned when I need them myself. 72.8 %
I would like to own things that are very important to me, even in cases where I do not use them very often. 69.3 %
If I had to borrow or rent products, this should be possible almost any time of the day. 68.3 %
I found it very time-consuming when I had to co-ordinate collective use of products with other people. 67.6 %
I do not like to lend products, since I do not know how other people will treat them. 66.5 %
I do not like to borrow things from friends or acquaintances; since I fear possible annoyance, if they break just when 62.1 %
I use them.
I found it very time-consuming to borrow or rent products I do not own myself. 50.1 %

emotional relationship to material artefacts. Besides that,
economy of time can restrict the diffusion of new con-
cepts of product use: although about half of the inter-
viewees associated rent-on-demand with additional use
of time, the possible limitations on flexibility caused by a
shift to alternative use patterns obviously weighed more
heavily: Approximately two-thirds expected additional
planning efforts and limited access as compared to own-
ership based consumption.
2.4. Four different types of users
Acceptance of and open-mindedness towards new
concepts of product use are not equally distributed
among German consumers. Differences result from age,
gender, social environment, etc. On the basis of the
above statements and their assessment, however, it is
possible to build clusters of typical consumers. The sam-
ple is classified by the assessment of the list of use items.
In order to simplify the statistical analysis these state-
ments have been aggregated by a factor analysis
resulting in a list of six remaining factors (see “use fac-
tors” in Table 3).3 The cluster analysis4 delivers four
main clusters, i.e. four groups of people which show
similar attitudes towards certain use patterns (see
Table 3).
3
Factor analysis is a statistical procedure aiming at reducing com-
plexity by classifying a set of items according to correlative relation-
ship among them. The result is a reduced number of independent vari-
ables representing the former list of items on an aggregate level [30].
4
Cluster analysis is another statistical procedure by which a hetero-
geneous set of data can be grouped into a limited number of homo-
geneous sub-sets. The single elements are assigned to a sub-set accord-
ing to their similarity. The sub-sets (here: types of users), on the
contrary, should be as different as possible [31].
The so called “ownership-oriented” (35.3% of the
German population, age above average, low level of
education) are well informed about repair offers and
especially stress quality aspects when buying products.
This goes along with a marked propensity to demand
repair services, but also includes a certain wish for new
products and the need to own up-to-date products. The
ownership-oriented reject private forms of collective use
and also commercial renting. One can envisage this type
as a more tradition-oriented consumer. Quality and thrift
are of great importance as well as access to private own-
ership, which obviously is a core parameter of the rather
inflexible consumption pattern.
The so called “open-minded” (20.4% of the German
population, age below average, high level of education)
show very little reservation towards private borrowing
and bartering and are not oriented towards trends and
new products. They believe that rent-on-demand of sel-
dom used products is meaningful and acknowledge its
advantages (e.g. no trouble with repair, maintenance, and
disposal). Hence, convenience and flexible access pro-
vided by privately owned products are of little impor-
tance. The open-minded is a fairly modern, but not too
trendy young consumer who appreciates property and
values quality without making ownership part of his/her
own identity. However, a high level of flexibility is
required in consumption due to his/her social and pro-
fessional environment—either as part of a family or still
in the educational system. Good education allows this
type of user to recognise and weigh the pros and cons
of consumption without ownership.
While the ownership-oriented are the most important
target group for strategies of useful life extension and
the open-minded the most interesting group for renting,
leasing, sharing etc., it is the so called “consumption-
 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881 877

Table 3
User typology

Ownership-oriented Open-minded Consumption-oriented Low-interest

Use factors
Propensity towards useful life + + — +
extension by repair
Being informed (about repair) and ++ + + —
orientation towards quality
Wish to have up-to-date products + — + o
Open-mindedness towards renting o ++ – o
Social barriers towards shared use ++ — – +
Disadvantages in economy of time + – – –
of shared use
Share in German population 35.3% 20.4% 20.9% 23.4%
Malea 40.8% 52.0% 57.2% 44.9%
Segments working persons (34.8%), working persons (46.7%), working persons working persons
pensioners (34.1%) pupils/students (19.9 %) (43.2%), pensioners (39.0%), pensioners
(24.5%) (24.4%)
Households with children below 18.4% 30.3% 24.4% 29.1%
14b
Age (years)c old (50,1) young (38,8) medium (45,6) medium (45,5)
Level of education low high low medium
Income above 4,000 DMd 35.3% 41.0% 32.9% 34.8%
Social characteristics tradition-oriented, inflexible modern, but not too trendy, modern low classes, cannot be specified
consumption habits, flexible consumption habits, prestige via
ownership tends to create pragmatism, ownership does consumption
identity not tend to create identity

++=very high relevance; +=high relevance; o=medium relevance; –=small relevance; —=very small relevance.
a
Male in entire sample: 47.4%.
b
Households with children below 14 in entire sample: 24.2%.
c
Average age in entire sample: 46.0 years.
d
Share of people above 4,000 DM in entire sample: 35.5%.

oriented” (20.9% of the German population, low level
of education) who are inert in both directions. Not least
owing to their relatively low income level consumption
tends to compensate for social deficits. Hence, it is rather
improbable that one can succeed in establishing
extended or intensified use patterns in this group.
The so called “low interest” users (23.4% of the Ger-
man population) are somewhat similar to the consump-
tion-oriented, but can be addressed somewhat more eas-
ily. They start changing their use behaviour only if
alternatives are supplied on a very large scale. Parti-
cularly due to their relatively small emotional link to
private ownership, they are in fact open-minded towards
certain forms of alternative use. The major limiting fac-
tor is, however, that low-interest users are not especially
willing to take on any social commitment in favour of
shared use, borrowing, renting etc.
systems which are, in this context, coined as “use
regimes”. A use regime describes a set of technological,
economic, and social elements such as technical infra-
structure, attitudes and values, institutional arrange-
ments, price relations, and symbolic meanings of pro-
ducts that determine consumer behaviour.5 The
characteristics and the possible change of use regimes is
depicted empirically in the following at the example of
two consumption areas that differ in two respects: Winter
sports (alpine skiing, snow boarding, cross-country
skiing) is an optional, not necessary household activity.
It is characterised by temporary use of products and, at
present, huge dynamics in the field of professional rent-
ing. In contrast, household washing is among the neces-
sary and frequently occurring activities. Due to the wide-
spread market penetration of household washing
machines consumption without ownership is bound to

3. Use regimes in household washing and winter 5

sports
Consumer behaviour cannot fully be understood if
regarded as a series of isolated decisions subject to econ-
omic calculation. They are rather part of heterogeneous
The term “use regime” refers to the debate on technological para-
digms[33,34] and, in particular, a broad interpretation of technological
regimes as “the grammar or rule set comprised in the complex of scien-
tific knowledges, engineering practices, production process techno-
logies, product characteristics, skills and procedures, and institutions
and infrastructures that make up the totality of a technology (. . .) or
a mode of organization” [35], p. 3.
878 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881
niche markets. While market structures and diffusion of
new concepts of product use have been depicted in great
detail in other publications [22–24 and 32], we will
stress the structural similarities and differences and the
conditions for a change of use regimes here.
3.1. Market characteristics
More than 90% of German households have their own
washing machine. The market for this kind of product
has not expanded during recent years with 2.5 million
machines sold per year of which 90% have been replace-
ment for old machines. Pushed by cheap imported pro-
ducts, price competition has cut market value from 3.8
billion DM in 1992 to 3.3 billion DM in 1997.
By way of contrast, only 27% of the German popu-
lation ski (3.5% frequently). But market saturation and
even a shrinking of market volume can be observed as
well. In spite of price dumping by retailers, turnover of
cross-country and alpine skiers has been reduced by 4
million during the nineties. This could not be compen-
sated for by snowboard sales and sale of so called fun
equipment, e.g. the ski-board that is a synthesis of ski
and snowboard.
The diverging market dynamics reflect that purchasing
and use of washing and skiing equipment, respectively,
is embedded in contexts of different stability. Household
washing is a frequently occurring activity for which no
alternative exists. The washing machine is a highly
specialised apparatus delivering the services—cleaning
clothes—for decades and represents an accepted part of
household equipment. There is no evidence so far that
the socio–technical system of household washing and
washing machines will face pressure from new product-
service-systems to such an extent that substantial market
losses have to be feared. Against this background a high
level of market demand (for replacing older products)
will be maintained even though market saturation has
been achieved.
It is completely different with winter sports. It is not
only possible to simply stop skiing, but there are a num-
ber of alternatives one can turn to. At present, the mass-
ive loss of attractiveness caused by the enormous expan-
sion of leisure time and sports offers in association with
a worsening in climatic conditions shows that this kind
of household activity can be stopped at any time.
In order to respond to the ensuing loss of turnover,
the ski industry has put the paradigm of ‘design and
innovation’ at the centre of its marketing strategies. This
involves differentiation of the product range and rapid
graphical renewal. As opposed to that trend, innovation
strategies in the washing sector are incremental by nature
optimising product characteristics such as washing per-
formance, noise emissions, water and energy consump-
tion, etc.
In the following, we will show that the diffusion of
new concepts of product use are strongly dependent on
these kind of structures and dynamics.
3.2. Re-use and maintenance
Price competition in household washing and winter
sports is rather similar, which is crucial for useful life
extension, namely re-use of products and maintenance
and repair. Trading of used products is a market niche
in both areas and most often operated on informal supply
platforms (e.g. ski bazaars). Initiatives to commercialise
second-hand markets, e.g. in the skiing and snowboard-
ing areas, by setting up franchise systems such as “Part-
ner of Sports” have not been very successful due to the
very low sale prices of first-hand products.
With respect to maintenance and repair, however, both
consumption areas develop differently. This is due to the
fact that market actors have come to different decisions
on how to respond to price competition. Suppliers of
washing machines have reacted by adopting their service
capacities to the perceived reduction of consumer
demand for after-sales services. Another driver of this
trend is increasing quality of products in terms of break-
down characteristics.
In the case of skiers and snowboards maintenance and
repair is almost exclusively performed by retailers. Since
sales margins have decreased, they created additional
inexpensive, automation-based and high quality service
capacities as another source of income. Instead of with-
drawing service offers due to price competition they
further developed maintenance and repair to an attractive
service in terms of price and quality which is marketed
very successfully.
3.3. Use intensification
While renting of skiers and snowboards has become
a prosperous business during the last couple of years,
commercial forms of washing outside private house-
holds, e.g. launderettes and washing services, are stuck
between stagnation and degression. This is the result of
the success story of the private household washing
machine. Along with its market penetration textile wash-
ing has been transformed from a semi-public to a private
activity. In particular, laundry-rooms in bigger houses
have lost attractiveness in Germany. Meanwhile washing
outside the household has become an option only for
those who have no alternative. In Germany, this is a
group of around 3 million households (mainly young
one-person units with low income level). The size of this
group further decreases, not at least owing to the grow-
ing availability of low-price washing machines. Oper-
ators of launderettes seem to take this development as
given and respond to it by either pushing competitors or
withdrawing their own offers.
There is also a limited demand for certain washing
 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881
services as a ‘residual’ product for laundry that cannot
be washed at home sufficiently well. In Germany, there
are only a few services for shirts and bed-linen based
on automation of large parts of service production,
which, in particular, address high income small house-
hold units with limited time resources.
A completely different picture is found in winter
sports. The establishment of rent-a-ski as an alternative
to skiing with privately owned equipment is due to three
main factors:
앫 The massive loss of attractiveness of winter sports
resulting in an absolute decrease of practitioners and a
relative increase of occasional users for which rented
equipment very often is economically superior.
앫 The opportunity to use new and highly innovative
equipment in addition to privately owned skiers and
snowboards; which is especially attractive for
younger and/or more advanced people.
앫 A strategic re-orientation of the supply side by setting
up franchise organisations which aim at offering high
quality rental services (better material, more product
alternatives, more flexible access), technical modern-
isation of rent-a-ski (ICT at the customer interface,
information and booking via internet) and new stra-
tegic alliances with local service providers (e.g.
hotels), travel agencies, etc.
3.4. Conditions of regime shift
Like normal consumption patterns new concepts of
product use are also embedded in systems of social,
structural, technical, institutional, and economic factors.
We call them ‘use regime’ and, hence, a shift towards
repair, leasing, sharing etc. can be interpreted as a
change from one use regime to another. But what are
the drivers of such a shift?
In the case of strategies of useful life extension it is
mainly a matter of price and innovation. A small rate of
innovation, a high price differential between new goods
and measures for extending the useful life of products,
favours this strategy. In the case of use intensification,
however, market success is contingent upon prior socio–
structural changes that constitute a pre-condition under
which a regime shift can occur. While demand for repair
services, for instance, ‘only’ requires altered use patterns
with existing equipment, renting and sharing imply devi-
ation from socially and culturally formed ways of
satisfying needs based on ownership and household pro-
duction.
The examples support this perspective: Against the
background of a general increase of flexibility of leisure
time behaviour and a deterioration of climatic con-
ditions, winter sports have lost attractiveness among
German consumers. The result is an increasing number
of occasional users. This setting creates the conditions
879
under which consumers reflect on their traditional own-
ership-based use patterns and start comparing them with
the renting option. Whether this comparison leads to
growing demand for services depends on associated
costs (for renting the equipment, transaction costs, etc.)
and benefits (no trouble with maintenance, no transport,
etc.). And in this respect professional renting offers have
become more and more appealing compared to privately
owned equipment because of qualitative, organisational,
and technical improvements of the service offer and the
customer interface. Thus, re-assessment of vacation hab-
its did not automatically favour rental business. Further-
more, the emergence of supporting factors and their
exploitation by strategically acting players—“change
agents”—was necessary.
Also in the case of washing, there are actors trying to
create innovative service concepts. In fact, one can
observe a number of trends which can be interpreted as
supporting conditions for a regime shift: the increasing
number of smaller household units, growing spatial
flexibility requirements (e.g. distance between work and
home), or the dissolution of nine-to-five labour patterns
might render in-house washing less beneficial. So far,
however, there is growing market demand only for
specialised shirt services mainly addressing high income
segments with limited time for household management.
Besides that, laundry rooms, public laundrettes etc.
experience market stagnation at best. One can conclude
that the trends mentioned above have not yet reached
large parts of the population so that the question whether
to alter use patterns or not is irrelevant. Moreover, there
seems to be a lack of strategic players exploiting these
changes as a chance for developing new product-service-
systems in the washing sector. The most important argu-
ment for limited service-orientation, however, is the fact
that social transformation is not advanced enough to sub-
stantially curtail the convenience advantages of washing
in-house. Flexibility requirements might put the time
budget for private textile washing under pressure, but
they are not able to change its nature as an invariable,
frequently occurring household activity.
4. Environmental benefits of sustainable product
use
Useful life extension and use intensification aims at
improving resource productivity: in theory, more output,
in terms of service units delivered, is realised by a
smaller amount of resource input. To what extent this
actually occurs has been explored in both washing and
ski renting. We have compared a laundrette with wash-
ing at home and using own ski equipment as opposed
to rent-a-ski. The comparison has been based on stream-
lined life cycle assessment according to ISO 14040. The
result, by and large, support the hypothesis that altered
880 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881
use patterns are environmentally beneficial. In the fol-
lowing we focus on the results of the comparative
assessment.6
Rental skiers are on average used 106 days and pri-
vately owned skiers 62.5 days. Due to the fact that both
rental and private skis and boards roughly have the same
material characteristics, rent-a-ski raises resource pro-
ductivity by a factor 1.7. Considering additional use, i.e.
the number of owners that use rental equipment, too, and
resource input for maintenance and repair this factor falls
slightly to 1.6 (assuming that travel to and from winter
sport areas does not significantly differ between the rent-
ing and ownership option). In addition, we presupposed
that operation of renting stations does not weigh heavily,
since they are normally used for sales business at the
same time.
In the case of textile washing the result is contingent
upon the scenario underlying the comparison and also
the system borders. Comparing solely the washing pro-
cess primary energy consumption in the laundrette
accounts for less than half of the energy consumption at
home (factor 2.4). This is due to the application of natu-
ral gas for water heating, higher loads, and reduced con-
sumption of washing detergents.7 Adding the operation
of the laundrette (lighting, heating, etc.) as well as the
transport of the laundry by car, the factor falls to 1.8.
This means that neither operation nor transport substan-
tially compensates for the efficiency advantages of the
laundrette. Even if people use the dryer each time they
visit the laundrette, the system remains beneficial (factor
1.3). Applying empirically observed use quotas for dry-
ers and actual transport profiles of customers this figures
rises to 1.4 (assuming that mechanical drying is not
employed at home). If we take the actual use patterns
of in-house washing and, in particular, drying as a basis
of comparison, resource productivity of the laundrette is
1.9 times better than that of private washing.
Hence, in both cases of consumption without owner-
ship there is a significant improvement of resource pro-
ductivity between a factor 1.5 and 2.0. A further
improvement, however, can hardly be expected, so that
productivity shifts by a factor 4 or even 10, which build
the bottom line of sustainability debates, are fairly
improbable in the present technical and organisational
setting.
5. Conclusions
The research conducted proved the environmental
soundness of new concepts of product use at two
6
Primary and secondary data used for this comparison and also the
calculations can be found in[22,24,32,36].
7
Primary energy consumption of the washing detergents is based
on the energy consumption for their production. An average value is
approximately 40 MJ per kilogram of detergent.
examples. Remarkably, efficiency gains are smaller than
expected. We conclude that the actual potential of a shift
from products to services should be carefully assessed
at concrete examples, rather than be promoted as the
golden path to sustainability. Nonetheless, innovative
use patterns should be further encouraged, since they can
together with eco-efficiency approaches (such as Design
for Environment) substantially contribute to an increase
of resource productivity of prevailing production and
consumption patterns.
Moreover, the study revealed that broadband stra-
tegies attempting to address all consumers with concepts
of sustainable product use, regardless of their prefer-
ences, are bound to fail. One will rather encounter vary-
ing preferences for repair, renting, shared use etc. in dif-
ferent social environments. The results of the consumer
survey provide a target group typology: The so-called
“ownership-oriented” are especially susceptible to stra-
tegies of prolonged use (e.g. repair, durable products),
while the so-called “open-minded” could be targeted for
approaches of consumption without ownership (e.g. rent-
ing, sharing, borrowing). The “consumption-oriented”,
however, are more or less impervious to such concepts.
This differentiated view should be taken into account,
e.g. when designing public information campaigns or
marketing strategies.
The case studies have provided two main results:
1. While the diffusion of strategies of useful life exten-
sion is mainly a matter of relative prices and inno-
vation dynamics, market success in the case of use
intensification is contingent upon prior socio–struc-
tural changes that constitute a pre-condition under
which a regime shift can occur. In this context, rent-
ing and sharing concepts have to be regarded as devi-
ations from socially and culturally formed ways of
satisfying needs based on ownership and household
production. As regards the costs of different use
options one can further conclude, that price differ-
ences between, for instance, the use of owned and
rented ski equipment are one important, but not the
major driver. It rather appears that consumers reflect
their use patterns due to a fundamental change in use
patterns first (e.g. increasingly occasional use).
2. Modern service concepts such as renting or shared
use are not confined to the supply of goods for tem-
poral use. They are rather about the integration of a
number of organisational, logistical, technological,
etc. innovations in the context of co-operative net-
works. Snowboards or washing machines are only one
element in this setting. That means getting companies
to transform from providers of goods to suppliers of
services is a necessary rather than sufficient condition
for a regime shift. A successful development and dif-
fusion of new concepts of product use will require a
re-arrangement of the relationship among actors, tech-
 B. Hirschl et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 873–881
nical infrastructures, supply- and demand-side factors
and organisational patterns. Creating suitable frame-
work conditions and a favourable climate for complex
innovations and, in particular, identifying and sup-
porting change agents should therefore be at the core
of future sustainability policies.
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