Peter Groenewegen
Department of Public Administration and Communication Science,
Vrije Universiteit,
Netherlands
  

Lissy Nijhuis
STB TNO,
Netherlands
  

The overall purpose of the EU funded project "Creating Eco-Efficient Producer Services" is to bring the topic of eco-efficient services into the mainstream of European business and policy-making. In the project the broad characteristics and possibilities of eco-efficient producer services as well as the barriers to their development are examined. Moreover, practical tools have been developed for companies to identify opportunities to introduce eco-efficient services. The main focus has been on Eco-Efficient Producer Services (EEPS), i.e. a business-to-business perspective. The project did have five principal stages: concept development, inventory of examples, case studies, and analysis of policy implications and preparation of business educational materials.

This paper presents some of the results of this project. After an introduction to the project, we want to focus on the empirical work performed under stage 2 and 3 of the project. In the second stage some service innovations in selected product chains have been identified and analysed. Business sectors that were studied in the project are; building construction, maintenance and management; industrial ecology, industrial gasses and chemicals; professional laundry and cleaning; electronic appliances and equipment for the business sector; document services; transportation and communication. In the third stage ten case studies were analysed: five in the field of energy utilities and five in which Information and Communication Technologies appeared to be helpful in replacing physical products and energy consumption.

In the paper we describe some service innovations that has been applied and focus on factors (drivers and barriers) determining the success of service innovations.

This paper will be based on the results of the research project CREATING ECO-EFFICIENT PRODUCER SERVICES. The research partners were, Matteo Bartolomeo and Davide dal Maso (AVANZI), Peter Eder (European Commission, IPTS), Peter Groenewegen and Paulien de Jong (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Peter James and Peter Hopkinsson (UK CEED), Gerd Scholl (IÖW), Adriaan Slob, and Lissy Nijhuis (TNO-STB), Olof Zaring and Marie Örninge (Gothenburg Research Institute). The project was financed by the European Commission under contract ENV4-CT98-0725.

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Last updated: 13 November, 2008