Product-service systems (PSS) represent a business model that increases material decoupling and decreases environmental risks while providing customer value. PSS can help realize a more sustainable construction industry, which remains among the largest polluting and waste-generating sectors. Systemic change in the infrastructure sector requires client involvement, which is represented by the government. However, establishing circular PSS is challenging due to the complexities, which need to combine the lifecycle approach, customer-client aspects, new contracting, knowledge transfer, technology, and PSS-specific aspects. It requires ex-ante evaluation of real case studies to increase knowledge and understanding. This article presents a first-of-its-kind framework for infrastructure based on the current literature and analysis of five infrastructure pilots in the Netherlands (bridge deck, digital road lights, guide rails, roads). The final multistakeholder integrated circular PSS framework includes i) lifecycle perspective and circularity, a) materials and b) management, ii) customer-contractor relationship including a) customer-perspective b) co-creation aspects, c) client-customer hierarchy, iii) technology perspective (functions and resources) iv) business aspects such as a) network and b) value creation and retention. The framework allows customer-contractor communication and can serve as decision support. It is applicable to circular PSS where the customer has more involvement in the formulation of PSS.

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This is the English report for the first academic study into the Infrastructure As a Service (IAAS) business model as part of the De Circulaire Weg partnerprogram. This research asks the question: Under what conditions does the applied As a Service model on infrastructure lead or not to a higher level of circularity and lower or equal life cycle costs? To answer this question, we followed and evaluated seven pilots that experimented with IAAS in practice at the municipalities of Amersfoort, Utrecht, and Amsterdam and in the provinces of Overijssel, North-Holland, and North Brabant. We looked at the As-a-Service level, the degree of circularity, and the degree of the costs. In addition, we also outlined the underlying circumstances within which the pilots were carried out, such as the organizational, financial, and technical similarities and differences. Overall, we can conclude that each pilot had a unique set of circumstances and that they each walked their own path with the As-a-Service. This demonstrates the importance of contextual conditions for establishing a successful model. We found these conditions in the patterns we discovered in the data from these pilots.@en

The circular economy (CE) has been established as one of the leading strategies to achieve a more sustainable system leading to national and global goals. One of the models coupled with CE is Product-Service Systems (PSS), with service integrated into products to various degree. PSS implementation in the infrastructure sector has been studied to a limited extent, with evidence of circularity lacking. This study analyzed five PSS infrastructure assets: bridge deck, guide rails, road lights, and municipal and provincial roads. Circularity improved in the design, input materials, and availability of secondary materials. A three-step framework is suggested to enable a circular process: incorporating R-strategies and circularity metrics during design, tracking material circularity, and evaluating implemented metrics and strategies. We suggest mandatory data collection by law to allow traceability, transparency, and the establishment of a secondary resource market.

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