.This chapter introduces the concept of Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS). S.PSS is an offer model providing an integrated mix of products and services that are together able to fulfil a particular customer/user demand (to deliver a “unit of satisfaction”), based on innovative interactions between the stakeholders of the value production system (satisfaction system), where the ownership of the product/s and/or the life cycle services costs/responsibilities remain with the provider/s, so that the same provider/s continuously seek/s environmentally and/or socio-ethically beneficial new solutions, with economic benefits. Next it discusses the potentional environmental, socio-ethical and economical benefits of S.PSS.

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We understood in the previous chapters that Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) applied to Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) represents a win-win opportunity to extend the access to sustainable energy to All.

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A key contemporary query is the following: within the current social, environmental and economic crisis, which are the opportunities for innovate towards sustainability? Do we know any offer/business model capable of creating (new) value, decoupling it from material and energy consumption? In other words, is there any alternative to significantly reduce the environmental impact of traditional production/consumption systems?.

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We argued in previous chapters that Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) generation is a promising approach towards sustainable energy for All.

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In the previous chapter, we introduced that Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) is the most promising model to bring sustainable energy to All.

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This chapter illustrates two practical applications of the SD4SEA design approach and tools, describing how they have been used by companies, practitioners and academics in different countries as part of the LeNSes project.

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The method developed within the LeNSes project is called Method for System Design for Sustainable Energy for All (MSD4SEA).

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The world is facing a strong evolution due to the advancement of information and communication technologies that set the knowledge technologies at the base of productivity, competition and power.

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Historically, the reaction of humankind to environmental degradation, especially since the second half of the last century, has moved from an end-of-pipe approach to actions increasingly aimed at prevention.

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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.

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We recognise that the dominant socio-economic development models in industrialised contexts are unsustainable. The pressure of human beings on the environment has profoundly modified natural systems, and today the planet is reaching its limits in the capacity of assimilating environmental effects caused by anthropic activities. In the last few decades the reaction of humankind to sustainability problems has produced a series of approaches that has gone from relying upon end-of-pipe solutions to cleaner production and product eco-design strategies. However, although these types of interventions are fundamental and necessary, the improvements they can provide are usually more than offset by the pace and scale of population growth and increasing consumption levels. For these reasons it is clear that we must not only address products, production processes and provision of services but we must also address the patterns of consumption, lifestyles, and the institutions that underpin them and how all of these must be addressed simultaneously, if we intend to make the transformation to sustainable societal processes. [...]@en