Product/Service‐Systems for a Circular Economy: The Route to Decoupling Economic Growth from Resource Consumption?
Open accessAbstract
Summary: Product/service‐systems (PSS) that focus on selling service and performance instead of products are often mentioned as means to realize a circular economy (CE), in which economic growth is decoupled from resource consumption. However, a PSS is no implicit guarantee for a CE, and CE strategies do not necessarily lead to decoupling economic growth from resource consumption in absolute terms. Absolute resource decoupling only occurs when the resource use declines, irrespective of the growth rate of the economic driver. In this forum paper, we propose a two‐step framework that aims to support analyses of PSS and their potential to lead to absolute resource decoupling. In the first step, we present four PSS enablers of relative resource reduction that qualify as CE strategies. In the second step, three subsequent requirements need to be met, in order to successfully achieve absolute resource decoupling. Conditions and limitations for this accomplishment are discussed. Danish textile cases are used to exemplify the framework elements and its application. We expect that the framework will challenge the debate on the necessary conditions for CE strategies to ensure absolute resource decoupling.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Not all business models based on product-service systems have superior circularity potential.
“However, not all business models based on product-service systems have superior circularity potential.”
From Configuring New Business Models for Circular Economy through Product–Service Systems (2019) · cites this paper as [17]
For a PSS to contribute to a circular economy, it must contribute at least to relative resource decoupling.
“and the second is that it must contribute at least to relative resource decoupling [6].”
From Is Prolonging the Lifetime of Passive Durable Products a Low-Hanging Fruit of a Circular Economy? A Multiple Case Study (2019) · cites this paper as [6]
The available passages labeled Abstract list circular economy, decoupling, and PSS as keywords, but do not state that relative resource decoupling is a minimum requirement for a PSS to contribute to a circular economy. Searches for “relative resource decoupling” and paraphrases of the requirement returned no passage addressing it. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNot every PSS contributes to a circular economy.
“Although the idea is simple, it is noted in literature that not every PSS contributes to a CE, e.g., [6]”
From Is Prolonging the Lifetime of Passive Durable Products a Low-Hanging Fruit of a Circular Economy? A Multiple Case Study (2019) · cites this paper as [6]
The available Abstract-labelled passages contain keywords and bibliographic information, but no substantive statement about whether every PSS contributes to a circular economy. Searches for that claim and for related points about resource savings and rebound effects found no passage that addresses it. (LLM, conf=0.73)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAchieving resource reduction and avoiding burden shifting between life cycle stages is not enough to decouple economic growth from resource consumption.
“according to Kjaer, Pigosso, Niero, Bech, and McAloone [6], achieving resource reduction and avoiding burden shifting between life cycle stages is not enough to decouple economic growth from resource consumption.”
From Is Prolonging the Lifetime of Passive Durable Products a Low-Hanging Fruit of a Circular Economy? A Multiple Case Study (2019) · cites this paper as [6]
The available indexed passages contain the paper’s title and bibliographic metadata, but no discussion of whether resource reduction and avoiding burden shifting are sufficient for decoupling. Searches for the claim’s wording and for those concepts returned no substantive passage, so the attribution cannot be verified from our copy. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions
Kirchherr, J., Reike, D., & Hekkert, M. (2017) · Resources, Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005 · Cited by 8,550 · see citing works
Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C., & Ulgiati, S. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007 · Cited by 6,536 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Circular supply chain management: a definition and structured literature review
Farooque, M., Zhang, A., Thürer, M., Qu, T., & Huisingh, D. (2019) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.303 · Cited by 894 · see citing works
Circular Economy in the WEEE industry: a systematic literature review and a research agenda
Bressanelli, G., Saccani, N., Pigosso, D. C. A., & Perona, M. (2020) · Sustainable Production and Consumption · doi:10.1016/j.spc.2020.05.007 · Cited by 226 · see citing works
Self-citationHofstetter, J. S., De Marchi, V., Sarkis, J., Govindan, K., Klassen, R., Ometto, A. R., Spraul, K. S., Bocken, N., Ashton, W. S., Sharma, S., et al. (2021) · Circular Economy and Sustainability · doi:10.1007/s43615-021-00015-2 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Configuring New Business Models for Circular Economy through Product–Service Systems
P. P. Pieroni, M., C. McAloone, T., & C. A. Pigosso, D. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11133727 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
“Final BM Idea Original Selected BM Pattern Combined Patterns Customer Value Potential Structural Waste Source/Type Decoupling Potential (Based on [17])”
BackgroundInfluentialKaddoura, M., Kambanou, M. L., Tillman, A.-M., & Sakao, T. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11184819 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
“The first is that a PSS, or other circular measure, must be an attractive business for companies so that it actually gets implemented [11–13], and the second is that it must contribute at least to relative resource decoupling [6].”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Kjaer, L. L., Pigosso, D. C. A., Niero, M., Bech, N. M., & McAloone, T. C.
- Affiliations
- Engineering Design and Product Development Department of Mechanical Engineering Technical University of Denmark Lyngby Denmark
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- NIRAS Allerød Denmark
- Venue
- Journal of Industrial Ecology
- Published
- 2018-03-13
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-35
- ISSN
- 1088-1980 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9290
- OpenAlex
- W2792156022
- Cited by
- 490
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 56 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 73 · 2023: 75 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 10
- FWCI
- 68.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orbit.dtu.dk
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Industrial Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Carlsbergfondet
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Service and Product Innovation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Sustainable Design and Development
- Keywords
- product-service systems, circular economy, textile industry, resource utilization (natural resources), economic growth
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
