The goal for consumer oriented business should be to make a profit and to do it without costing the Earth. Yet exactly how to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers without contributing to environmental degradation is proving to be the essential, but elusive goal for businesses in the 21st century. The leading solution is to substitute material consumption with the consumption of services that offer consumers convenience and value but eliminate much of the inefficiency and waste associated with our throw-away society. Sustainable consumer services for households - services that are delivered to consumers at the premises such as home delivery of organic food, appliance leasing, mobile laundry services, internet marketing of homeservices or car pool schemes - provide a key part of the answer of how to reduce material consumption and waste while still turning a profit. Yet until now there has been little information to guide the development of such business models and practices, and to develop ways to make service-based consumption more attractive to consumers than object-ownership-based models. This book, equally a practical business handbook and business course text, provides the missing link in sustainable household service competitiveness by examining the issues, looking at business models, providing dozens of real-life best-practice examples and presenting data from the first large-scale consumer survey that explains consumer behaviour and what they want from home service provision. The book is an essential resource for businesses and public or nonprofit organizations and housing organizations entering the growing consumer services market. It provides a wealth of business know-how on what works and what doesn t, how to avoid potential pitfalls, and how to provide consumer services at the household level that are profitable, environmentally sustainable and that add to consumers quality of life.
Sustainable development will not be possible without fundamental improvements in resource productivity and energy efficiency, the adaptation of material flows into natural cycles as well as a radical change in production and consumption patterns. In essence, what is required is not only an ecological approach to product design but also new marketing and consumption patterns for products that can satisfy our needs in a more environmentally sound way.In recent years there has been growing interest in the possibilities of eco-services to achieve some of these aims. Ecologically oriented leasing, renting, pooling and sharing, where the emphasis is placed on the sale of a product's use rather than on the product itself, offer great possibilities for innovation and environmental impact reduction. At the same time, there are opportunities to create new commercial enterprises, produce added value to production and distribution functions, and therefore create jobs. Up until now, however, there has been little research about the state of the art in eco-services, how new services can be developed, what the attitudes of consumers are to services rather than products and what the consequences of such a structural adjustment would be for firms. Eco-service Development addresses this lack of research, first by providing a comprehensive inventory and analysis of current eco-services in four European countries: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain. It then systematically explores the options open to market participants, the potential for environmental impact reduction, potential barriers to eco-services (such as consumer and producer resistance) and, finally, with what political and legal instruments ecologically oriented services can best be promoted. The book analyzes eight consumer sectors – washing, cleaning, cooking, entertainment, gardening, do-it-yourself, mobility and leisure time – from the point of view of both supply and demand and highlights the optimization potential and development perspectives for commercial new use eco-service concepts. This book is the most comprehensive analysis yet published of how eco-services are being implemented and how they could best be encouraged and contains valuable lessons for policy-makers, interested businesses and all those in the academic community searching for ways to dematerialize the economy.
The goal for consumer oriented business should be to make a profit and to do it without costing the Earth. Yet exactly how to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers without contributing to environmental degradation is proving to be the essential, but elusive goal for businesses in the 21st century. The leading solution is to substitute material consumption with the consumption of services that offer consumers convenience and value but eliminate much of the inefficiency and waste associated with our throw-away society. Sustainable consumer services for households - services that are delivered to consumers at the premises such as home delivery of organic food, appliance leasing, mobile laundry services, internet marketing of homeservices or car pool schemes - provide a key part of the answer of how to reduce material consumption and waste while still turning a profit. Yet until now there has been little information to guide the development of such business models and practices, and to develop ways to make service-based consumption more attractive to consumers than object-ownership-based models. This book, equally a practical business handbook and business course text, provides the missing link in sustainable household service competitiveness by examining the issues, looking at business models, providing dozens of real-life best-practice examples and presenting data from the first large-scale consumer survey that explains consumer behaviour and what they want from home service provision. The book is an essential resource for businesses and public or nonprofit organizations and housing organizations entering the growing consumer services market. It provides a wealth of business know-how on what works and what doesn t, how to avoid potential pitfalls, and how to provide consumer services at the household level that are profitable, environmentally sustainable and that add to consumers quality of life.
Sustainable development will not be possible without fundamental improvements in resource productivity and energy efficiency, the adaptation of material flows into natural cycles as well as a radical change in production and consumption patterns. In essence, what is required is not only an ecological approach to product design but also new marketing and consumption patterns for products that can satisfy our needs in a more environmentally sound way.In recent years there has been growing interest in the possibilities of eco-services to achieve some of these aims. Ecologically oriented leasing, renting, pooling and sharing, where the emphasis is placed on the sale of a product's use rather than on the product itself, offer great possibilities for innovation and environmental impact reduction. At the same time, there are opportunities to create new commercial enterprises, produce added value to production and distribution functions, and therefore create jobs. Up until now, however, there has been little research about the state of the art in eco-services, how new services can be developed, what the attitudes of consumers are to services rather than products and what the consequences of such a structural adjustment would be for firms. Eco-service Development addresses this lack of research, first by providing a comprehensive inventory and analysis of current eco-services in four European countries: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain. It then systematically explores the options open to market participants, the potential for environmental impact reduction, potential barriers to eco-services (such as consumer and producer resistance) and, finally, with what political and legal instruments ecologically oriented services can best be promoted. The book analyzes eight consumer sectors – washing, cleaning, cooking, entertainment, gardening, do-it-yourself, mobility and leisure time – from the point of view of both supply and demand and highlights the optimization potential and development perspectives for commercial new use eco-service concepts. This book is the most comprehensive analysis yet published of how eco-services are being implemented and how they could best be encouraged and contains valuable lessons for policy-makers, interested businesses and all those in the academic community searching for ways to dematerialize the economy.
With the growing number of MR installations, clinicians and radiologist are being confronted more and more with visual information they do not feel as confident with as with the more 'mono-form' infor mation of conventional radiographs, CT and US. The freedom of parameter choice ofthe MR operator allows the same object to be depicted in various ways and the contrast in the images to be changed and inverted at will. For those not experienced in interpreting MR images, this may cause confusion and uncertainty about their diagnostic content. This will sometimes lead to an unnecessary retreat to other diagnostic modalities. The purpose of this book is to help close the gap between MR operators and readers and clinicians. A variety of cases is presented, together with the MRI considerations. In nearly all these cases, confirma tion of diagnosis was obtained by histological examination. Quite deliberately, this book only includes the occasional CT scan or angiography for comparison, to avoid the temptation of falling back on other modalities and of escaping from the often more difficult to interpret, but in the end more rewarding MR images. All the MR images in this book were made with a 'first-generation', unsophisticated Teslacon I, 0.6 T, superconducting magnet system. Hopefully, they will reflect the quality of the machine. Some people will agree with me that it is sad that investments in expensive health care systems are subject to the whims of those who are mainly interested in satisfying their stockholders.
This is the first work to take a comprehensive look at the application of Magnetic Resonance (MR) techniques in the diagnosis, follow-up and therapy monitoring of dementing illnesses. The authors present an overview of MR findings in neurodegenerative and vascular disorders leading to dementia. In doing so, they also discuss other diseases that lead to cognitive and/or behavioural deterioration, such as infectious inflammatory disorders, toxic encephalopathies, inborn errors of metabolism of adult onset and post-traumatic, post-radiotherapy and post-chemotherapy conditions. This authoritative, well-written and richly illustrated reference work is indispensable for anybody working in the field.
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