This open access book addresses the issue of diffusing sustainable energy access in low- and middle-income contexts. Access to energy is one of the greatest challenges for many people living in low- income and developing contexts, as around 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity. Distributed Renewable Energy systems (DRE) are considered a promising approach to address this challenge and provide energy access to all. However, even if promising, the implementation of DRE systems is not always straightforward. The book analyses, discusses and classifies the promising Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS) business models to deliver Distributed Renewable Energy systems in an effective, efficient and sustainable way. Its message is supported with cases studies and examples, discussing the economic, environmental and socioethical benefits as well as its limitations and barriers to its implementation. An innovative design approach is proposed and a set of design tools are supplied, enabling readers to create and develop Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS) solutions to deliver Distributed Renewable Energy systems. Practical applications of the book’s design approach and tools by companies and practitioners are discussed and the book will be of interest to readers in design, industry, governmental institutions, NGOs as well as researchers.

This book investigates the potential contribution that a strategic design approach can make to stimulating and supporting the societal embedding of sustainable PSSs (product-service systems). A new strategic design role thus emerges; a role in which the ideation and development of sustainable PSS concepts is coupled with the designing of appropriate transition paths (sequence of socio-technical experiments) to gradually incubate, introduce and diffuse these concepts. The book also outlines the new design approach and capabilities needed by strategic designers, project managers and consultants to operate at such a strategic level. On a more operational point of view, the work presents a practical “how to do” design process and associated guidelines to support practitioners in designing and managing the societal embedding process of sustainable PSS innovations.

This book, based on a huge European and Asian research project, is a state-of-the-art examination of the theory and practice of system innovation through Product-Service System (PSS) design for sustainability from a trans-cultural viewpoint. PSS design incorporates innovative strategies that shift businesses away from simply designing and selling physical products to developing integrated systems of products and services that satisfy human needs. The book provides background, advice and tools for designers interested in sustainable PSSs and has a wealth of case studies for practitioners to digest.

This edited volume presents the research results of the Collaborative Research Center 1026 “Sustainable manufacturing - shaping global value creation”. The book aims at providing a reference guide of sustainable manufacturing for researchers, describing methodologies for development of sustainable manufacturing solutions. The volume is structured in four chapters covering the following topics: sustainable manufacturing technology, sustainable product development, sustainable value creation networks and systematic change towards sustainable manufacturing. The target audience comprises both researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable manufacturing, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

"Introduction to Product/Service-System Design" contains a collection of practical examples demonstrating how to design a PSS in industry. These recent examples are the results of applying various theories developed in different countries and therefore accommodating diverse cultural differences. Providing a useful overall guide to the state of the art in theory and practice, each chapter covers the cutting edge of a different methodology or practice. The book’s focus on design is also evident in the discussion of how to anticipate and utilize the various dynamics within each dimension. "Introduction to Product/Service-System Design" will help improve working processes and inspire creative thinking for the wide range of people involved in designing a PSS: designers, marketing professionals, sales staff, production engineers, and service engineers. It can also serve as a reference book for university students on advanced courses.

This book discusses the most significant ways in which design has been applied to sustainability challenges using an evolutionary perspective. It puts forward an innovation framework that is capable of coherently integrating multiple design for sustainability (DfS) approaches developed so far. It is now widely understood that design can and must play a crucial role in the societal transformations towards sustainability. Design can in fact act as a catalyst to trigger and support innovation, and can help to shape the world at different levels: from materials to products, product–service systems, social organisations and socio-technical systems. This book offers a unique perspective on how DfS has evolved in the past decades across these innovation levels, and provides insights on its promising and necessary future development directions. For design scholars, this book will trigger and feed the academic debate on the evolution of DfS and its next research frontiers. For design educators, the book can be used as a supporting tool to design courses and programmes on DfS. For bachelor’s and master’s level design, engineering and management students, the book can be a general resource to provide an understanding of the historical evolution of DfS. For design practitioners and businesses, the book offers a rich set of practical examples, design methods and tools to apply the various DfS approaches in practice, and an innovation framework which can be used as a tool to support change in organisations that aim to integrate DfS in their strategy and processes.

Smart Product-Service Systems draws on innovative practice and academic research to demonstrate the unique benefits of Smart PSS and help facilitate its effective implementation. This comprehensive guide explains how Smart PSS reshapes product-service design in several unique aspects, including a closed-loop product design and redesign manner, value co-creation with integrated human-machine intelligence, and solution design context-awareness. Readers in industry as well as academia will find this to be an invaluable guide to the current body of technical knowledge on Smart Product-Service Systems (Smart PSS), future research trajectories, and experiences of implementation. Rapid development of information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies have driven today's industries towards the so-called digital servitization era. As a result, a promising IT-driven business paradigm, known as Smart Product-Service Systems (Smart PSS) has emerged, where a large amount of low cost, high performance smart, connected products are leveraged, together with their generated on-demand services, as a single solution bundle to meet individual customer needs. - Explains what factors a company needs to consider in their transition towards digital servitization and its advantages - Describes how this field relates to the sustainability movement, and how Smart PSS can be implemented in a sustainable way - Includes detailed case studies from different industries, including DELTA Electronics Inc. Singapore (smart commercialization), COMAC aviation industry (smart manufacturing servitization), and Van High Tech (smart building services)

Life cycle design is understood as "to develop" (to plan, to calculate, to define, to draw) a holistic concept for the entire life cycle of a product". Life cycle design means a one time planning during the concept phase of a product in which the pathway of a product over the entire life cycle is determined. So e.g. the planning of possible services for a product during its utilization phase, the way of material recycling, how and which parts can be reused, how the logistics for recycling will be organised or how the product can be used afterwards. So it is a conceptual pre-design of all later activities over the life cycle. By this understanding the book delivers a really holistic approach because before a product is physically made a life-long concept and utilization scenarios with closed material and information cycles have to be developed. This promotes a real "thinking in product (life) cycles". The book addresses professionals as well as researchers and students in the field of product life cycle management. Different methods in the field of product design, operation and recycling will be presented and finally merge to an integrated method of product life cycle design. Readers will benefit from the holistic approach which enables them to design successful products by the implementation of closed loop product life cycles.

Toughening environmental legislation, national and supra-national environmental product policies and growing customer demands are focusing the attention of companies on the environmental and broader social issues linked to the creation and delivery of their products and services. There is now an urgent need for appropriate management structures, practical tools and increased awareness among all stakeholders in the product development process and throughout the entire product life-cycle. These are huge issues – with major implications for corporate management, design and production strategies. Sustainable Solutions provides state-of-the-art analysis and case studies on why and how cutting-edge companies are developing new products and services to fit "triple-bottom-line" expectations. The book is split into three sections: first, the broad issues of business sustainability are examined with focus on sustainable production and consumption and consideration of North–South issues. Second, the book tackles the major methodologies and approaches toward organising and developing more sustainable products and services. Third, an outstanding collection of global case studies highlights the progress made by a wide range of companies toward dematerialisation, eco-innovation and design for durability. Finally, the book collects together a comprehensive list of web addresses of useful organisations. Practical and comprehensive, Sustainable Solutions will be essential reading for corporate managers, product designers, R&D staff, academics and all individuals interested in a definitive source on how new product and service development can and is contributing toward tacking the challenge of sustainable development.

Product lifetimes are critical for the circular economy, resource efficiency, waste reduction and low carbon strategies for sustainability, and are therefore of interest to academics from many different disciplines as well as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other stakeholders. The challenges related to product lifetimes must be tackled from multiple perspectives, making the sharing of knowledge and expertise from different disciplines particularly important. This book presents papers from the second Product Lifetime and the Environment (PLATE) conference, held in Delft, the Netherlands, in November 2017. The conference originated from the desire to bring together academic researchers working in the field of sustainability to benefit from each other’s knowledge and further advance the field. The book includes the 88 full papers delivered at the conference, grouped according to the following 7 conference themes: design for product longevity; product lifetime optimization; cultural perspectives on the throwaway society; circular economy and product lifetimes; business opportunities, economic implications and marketing strategies; consumer influences on product lifetimes; and policy, regulation and legislation. The book will be of interest to all those concerned with sustainable consumption, circular economy and resource efficiency.