In recent years there has been a growing body of international research exploring the potential to achieve environmental benefits by reconfiguring the product-service mix. Much of the work seeking to demonstrate the benefits of this strategy, with the notable exception of car sharing, has related primarily to the business sector. There appears to be inadequate understanding of whether similar successes can be achieved in domestic markets.

The aim of this paper is to present the results of an exploratory study which identified and evaluated current and potential product-service transformations in the UK market for domestic products. The identification of potential new product-service scenarios was based on a synthesis of existing work that identified a framework of six possible types of transformation. This framework was then applied through a series of case studies to several key domestic sectors, comprising washing machines, energy, transport, televisions and personal computers.

At a theoretical level the paper examines the scale of potential environmental, economic and social benefits and opportunities provided by product-service transformations in each of these sectors. This process illuminates the most powerful strategies for successful sustainable services and systems in the domestic economy and provides a platform for identifying business development opportunities.

The paper concludes that economic, cultural and technical barriers currently act to prevent or inhibit transformations to new product-service scenarios in the domestic economy and proposes a range of fiscal, regulatory and voluntary proposals through which these might be overcome.

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Last updated: 13 November, 2008