LCA of Product Service Systems: Clarifying the Assessment Methodology through Clothing Rental Service

Abstract

Product Service Systems (PSS), a generic term for business models that encourage consumers to shift their consumption activities from ownership to use, such as renting and sharing, have long attracted attention for their potential to meet customer needs while reducing adverse environmental impact through dematerialization. Many LCA case studies have been published in the past fifteen years to quantify the environmental performance of PSS, but in reality, assessing a PSS, which has both product and service attributes, using LCA is complicated and not a simple task. In this paper, we first explain the environmental impact assessment method of PSS using LCA based on the existing literature to clarify the challenges to be addressed when conducting LCA of PSS. Then, we take a clothing rental service as an example to discuss how the setting of the objective and scope of the study affects the conclusions and interpretation based on cases. We lastly summarize recommendations for practitioners who will conduct LCA of PSS in the future.