Product-Service Systems and Sustainability: Analysing the Environmental Impacts of Rental Clothing

Abstract

Business models like product-service systems (PSSs) often recognise different sustainability goals and are seen as solutions for the impacts of consumption and fast fashion, but there is a lack of evidence supporting the environmental claims of such business models for clothing. The research aimed to understand if rental clothing business models such as PSSs have the environmental benefits often purported by quantifying the environmental impacts of rental formal dresses in a life-cycle assessment (LCA) in a case study in Stockholm, Sweden. The effects of varying consumer behaviour on the potential impact of a PSS vs. linear business model are explored through three functional units and 14 consumption scenarios. How users decide to engage with clothing PSSs dictates the environmental savings potential that a PSS can have, as shown in how many times consumers wear garments, how they use rental to substitute their purchasing or use needs, as well as how consumers travel to rental store locations.

Can Fashion Be Circular? A Literature Review on Circular Economy Barriers, Drivers, and Practices in the Fashion Industry’s Productive Chain

“…The authors of [62] proposed a closed-loop supply chain based on sustainable rent practices for fashion products, investigating actions that could improve sustainability. The authors of [63] also conducted a study on comparative life cycles assessments for rental business models versus a linear dress sales model.…”

Value Leakage in Product–Service System Provision: A Business Model Alignment Perspective

“…The present article provides insights into business model alignment problems and their consequences, which are manifested through value leakages as manufacturing companies in B2B settings make the transformation to PSS provision [37], [40]. The business model concept provides a strategic framework for explaining how companies can create, deliver, and capture value [25].…”

“…Servitization, by offering PSS, has become an increasingly relevant approach that manufacturing companies can employ to obtain economic, social, and environmental benefits [1], [35], [37]. The initial studies defined the PSS concept as a marketable combination of products and services that, together, fulfill customer needs economically and sustainably [41].…”

“…In conclusion, the present article offers numerous insights into PSS business model elements, business model alignment problems, and their consequences. Hence, this article improves our understanding of the business model concept and, in particular, its use as an organizing device when undertaking analysis of fundamental issues that need to be resolved if the potential gains from PSS provision are to be successfully harnessed [34], [37]. By thinking of business model elements as part of an interrelated system instead of analyzing them individually, chances are increased that value to customers and the providing company can be maximized, delivered, and captured.…”

Fashion Rental: Smart Business or Ethical Folly?

“…Thus, exploring how sustainable business model innovations are functionally implemented in specific markets, such as the fashion industry, is important to understanding their long-term viability. As part of the drive toward more sustainable consumption and production, Circular Economy Business Models (CEBMs) represent an alternative economic model that aims to keep products and materials at their highest utility and value, achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling [12,15,16]. CEBMs are a sustainability paradigm that challenges companies to revaluate and adapt their supply chains through maximising product value and usage.…”