Cycling to Sustainability–The role of local public authorities in furthering the creation of sustainable Product-Service Systems to promote cycling for climate change mitigation.
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2018
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Creative Sustainability
Language
en
Pages
91
Series
Abstract
This masters’s thesis studies how local public authorities can support the creation of sustainable Product-Service Systems which promote cycling to reach climate change mitigation goals in the transport sector. Transportation in general is one of the largest sources for greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union, making up about one fourth of all greenhouse gas emissions. This share is comparable in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The vast majority, about 90%, of those transport related emissions in Finland are caused by road traffic with private cars accounting for almost two thirds of those. In addition to the large amounts of greenhouse gases it produces, individual motorised traffic by cars also creates a scarcity of space in growing urban areas such as the Helsinki metropolitan area. To drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and to address the scarcity of space in urban areas a shift towards more sustainable modes of transportation is necessary which heavily builds on the use of public transportation as well as increasing walking and cycling. In order for this shift to happen, new solutions need to be developed. Product-Service Systems (PSS) are seen in the literature as a viable solution to decouple economic growth from increased resource consumption. However, the literature also points out that PSS needs to be designed well to unlock the full sustainability potential. Despite the seemingly big benefits PSS could offer with regards to climate change mitigation, the literature found them to not be widely implemented yet. Among the reasons for that the necessary change in business models and the resulting need for investment as well as a lack of legislation mandating more sustainable solutions were named. The role of public institutions in furthering the creation of sustainable PSS solutions is mostly only discussed from as that of legislators or procuring entities. The purpose of the thesis was therefore, to exploratively investigate whether public institutions, in particular local public authorities, could take other and more active roles in supporting the creation of sustainable PSS solutions especially with regard to those promoting cycling to enable reaching transport related climate change mitigation goals. For that six semi-structured interviews with four representatives from public institutions and two representatives from the local bike industry were conducted. The findings imply that local public authorities are already taking an active role in testing and promoting new sustainable business models through projects. Existing procurement regulations often limit supporting innovative solutions as competition might not exist. New models to, such as “market dialogue” need to be developed. Additionally the issue of financing the increased investment need for such sustainable PSS solutions needs to be addressed. This was found to be especially challenging with regard to solutions promoting cycling due the seasonality of the business.Description
Thesis advisor
Temmes, ArmiKeywords
product-service systems, servitisation, mobility, transport, cycling, sustainability, climate change mitigation, public authorities