ABSTRACT
Product-service systems (PSSs) have been a major concern of research into sustainable consumption for more than ten years (e.g. Bartolomeo et al. 2003; Goedkoop et al. 1999; Mont 2004; Stahel 1994). Usually, PSSs are divided into services providing added value to the product life-cycle, such as maintenance and upgrading, services providing enabling platforms for customers, such as renting or leasing, and services providing final results to the customers, such as mobility services or delivery of warmth (UNEP 2002). In this chapter, we will focus on PSSs that replace ownership of products. Obenberger and Brown (1976: 82) have denoted this category of consumption as ‘usership’. They define it as ‘all types of consumption in which the consumer does not possess legal title to the product’.
