Sustainable Consumer Services Business Solutions for Household Markets

About this book

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 behaviour 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.

Contents

Win - Win - Win? Ecologically, Socially and Economically Sound Services; Innovative Homeservice Examples and their Sustainability Effects; What Conditions the Demand for Sustainable Household Services?; Who Provides Homeservices?; Drivers and Hindrances of Sustainable Homeservices; Business Models and Service Development; Rediscovering Immaterial Pleasure; Bibliography, Index.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Minna Halme (Finland), Gabriele Hrauda (Austria), Christine Jasch, Jaap Kortman (The Netherlands), Helga Jonuschat (Germany), Michael Scharp (Germany), Daniela Velte (Spain) and Paula Trindade (Portugal)