Conference article

Products designed for long-life often have significant potential for better sustainability performance than standard products due to less material and energy usage for a given service provided; which usually also results in a lower total cost. These benefits are not always obvious or appealing to customers; who often focus on price. Long-life products are therefore at an inherent disadvantage: due to lower volume of sales that results from the products’ longer-life; the margins (price) often need to be higher. In this paper; we demonstrate that when the revenue base is shifted to be the service of light (instead of the sales of light tubes); there is an opportunity for a “win-win-win” for the light user; the long-life light provider and society. Through a product-service system approach; resulting in a well-communicated total offer; the full array of benefits becomes clearer to the customer; including that they avoid the high initial cost.

sustainability performance; long-life products; product-service system; value chain; modeling