Sustainable Consumer Services: Business Solutions for Household Markets

by Halme, Minna; Hrauda, Gabriele; Jasch, Christine; Kortman, Jaap; Jonuschat, Helga; Velte, Daniela; Trindade, Paula

• ISBN13: 9781844072095
• ISBN10: 1844072096
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-30
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

* Highlights a booming sector: the supply of sustainable consumer services for household markets (such as delivery of organic food, mobile laundry services or car pooling) * Shows how businesses, housing organizations, NGOs and public providers can develop and evaluate sustainable consumer service business models and offer sustainable services profitably * Provides invaluable market data covering 200 innovative sustainable services from Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Finland, and extensive customer survey results Sustainable consumer services for household markets--i.e. services that are offered to a consumer at the premises such as home delivery of organic food, appliance leasing, mobile laundry services, or car pool schemes--are viewed by many as the way forward in reducing material consumption while turning a profit. Yet until now there has been little information to guide the development of such business models and practices and to develop ways to make service-based consumption models more attractive to consumers than object ownership-based models. This book sheds light on the missing links of sustainable household service competitiveness by providing best practice examples and surveys of consumer behavior to show how such services can be provided cost-effectively and garner tremendous benefits for consumers and service providers, be they public, private or non-profit, as well as the environment.

Author Biography

Christine Jasch is director of the Institute for Environmental Management and Economics, IOW, Austria. Minna Halme is an adjunct professor at Helsinki School of Economics' Corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility Research Group, Finland.

Table of Contents

Preface	v
The authors	viii
List of figures	xi
List of tables	xii
List of acronyms and abbreviations	xiv
Win-win-win? Ecologically, socially and economically sound services	1	(17)
Products, services or something in between?	3	(2)
Sustainable services are more than eco-efficient	5	(4)
What is a sustainable homeservice?	9	(3)
Cities, towns and service areas	12	(1)
Blueprint of the book	13	(5)
Innovative homeservice examples and their sustainability effects	18	(36)
The sustainability evaluation tool	21	(6)
Innovative service examples	27	(12)
Sustainability effects of homeservices	39	(15)
What conditions the demand for sustainable household services?	54	(31)
How does the housing situation influence homeservice provision?	55	(11)
Socio-cultural features	66	(6)
Willingness to use and pay for sustainable services	72	(11)
Summary of the conditions for sustainable household service use	83	(2)
Who provides homeservices?	85	(26)
Housing organizations and related actors as homeservice providers	87	(5)
What kind of business are homeservices for housing organizations?	92	(6)
Commercial, public and non-profit organizations as homeservice providers	98	(4)
Alone or in cooperation? Arrangements for homeservice provision	102	(5)
Summary of homeservice providers and their offerings	107	(4)
Drivers and hindrances for sustainable homeservices	111	(20)
Legislation and regulation	113	(5)
Market factors	118	(5)
Practices and norms of the housing industry	123	(3)
Physical infrastructure	126	(1)
Promoting sustainable household services	126	(5)
Business models and service development	131	(35)
Business models of sustainable services	132	(7)
Commonalities of successful homeservice business models	139	(3)
Service Engineering: Improving the sustainability profile of services.	142	(24)
Rediscovering immaterial pleasure	166	(8)
Business for multiple providers	167	(3)
Making service use easier	170	(2)
Happiness solutions	172	(2)
References	174	(13)
Index	187