Abstract

Product sustainability is usually looked at from a business perspective with the goal to reduce product related risks or to differentiate the product from those of the competition – mostly with limited effects for sustainable development (SD). In light of the global sustainability challenges, we raise the question how products can make a significant contribution to SD? In addressing this question we analyze the evolution of the product sustainability concept over time. This analysis is guided by two questions and it applies two different perspectives. The first question uses an analytical perspective and asks: “How have different product sustainability concepts been framed with regard to their contributions to SD and how have they evolved over time?” The second question uses a normative perspective and asks: “How do the product sustainability concepts in their different developmental phases contribute to SD?” We present a systematic analysis of the evolving perspectives of product sustainability which we group in three different phases and levels of development: from selective to holistic improvements (Product Sustainability 1.0), from better products to good products (Product Sustainability 2), and from private value to public value generation (Product Sustainability 3.0). In this evolution we perceive a development towards a model of “true product sustainability”, where the product makes a specific contribution to solving societal problems.

Introduction

Product sustainability (PS) looks at how products can provide economic benefits to companies while at the same time providing environmental and social benefits to society in general. Or, in other words, PS aims at balancing the contributions of products to the triple bottom-line, thereby creating multiple and shared values for different stakeholders. There have been a great number of different approaches of how this balance can be achieved and preserved through eco design, design for sustainability, cradle-to-cradle, product service systems or handprinting. While early approaches were focusing on balancing economic and environmental benefits, the discussion later moved on to address sustainability problems in all its dimensions. And while the discussions revolved for long around minimizing the negative impacts of products, more recent approaches have started to focus on positive impacts, thereby aiming for net-positive products. The evolution of these different approaches to PS presents a remarkable development that is rarely perceived.