Conny Bakker Libri

Products that Last starts where most books on product development end. This new edition (first self-published by the TU Delft in 2014) contains new examples and insights from recent publications. From the perspective of designers and entrepreneurs, once a product has been designed, produced and sold, it disappears beyond the newness horizon. They are little aware of the opportunities that exist in the next product universe, where money is made from products in use, as well as from a product's afterlife. These opportunities clearly exist, otherwise they would not be providing an income for so many people. However, to be recognized as segments of a circle of continuous value creation, they need reframing. The book offers readers an innovative and practical methodology to unravel a product's afterlife and systematically evaluate it for new opportunities. It introduces business models that enable us to benefit from the opportunities offered by a much longer product life. Products that Last changes the way designers and entrepreneurs develop and exploit goods, helping reduce material and energy consumption over time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Product lifetimes are critical for the circular economy, resource efficiency, waste reduction and low carbon strategies for sustainability, and are therefore of interest to academics from many different disciplines as well as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other stakeholders. The challenges related to product lifetimes must be tackled from multiple perspectives, making the sharing of knowledge and expertise from different disciplines particularly important. This book presents papers from the second Product Lifetime and the Environment (PLATE) conference, held in Delft, the Netherlands, in November 2017. The conference originated from the desire to bring together academic researchers working in the field of sustainability to benefit from each other's knowledge and further advance the field. The book includes the 88 full papers delivered at the conference, grouped according to the following 7 conference themes: design for product longevity; product lifetime optimization; cultural perspectives on the throwaway society; circular economy and product lifetimes; business opportunities, economic implications and marketing strategies; consumer influences on product lifetimes; and policy, regulation and legislation. The book will be of interest to all those concerned with sustainable consumption, circular economy and resource efficiency.