Rethinking our economic model does not only involve a
reorganisation of manufacturing processes, the change goes as
far as redefining the relationship between objects and
consumers. Then again, looking forward, will “consumer” still be
the right word? The emphasis on Services rather than Goods is a
central idea of the new circular economy. Beginning in the
mid-1980s, Swiss industry analyst Walter Stahel and German
chemist Michael Braungart independently proposed a new
industrial model that is now gradually taking shape. Rather than
an economy in which goods are made and sold, these visionaries
imagined a service economy wherein consumers obtain services by
leasing or renting goods rather than buying them outright (their
plan should not be confused with the conventional definition of
a service economy, in which burger-flippers outnumber
steelworkers). Do you really want to own that microwave, or
simply benefit from the service it provides? © Joss Blériot
Manufacturers cease thinking of themselves as sellers of