Product lifetime

Product lifetimes represent an important area of enquiry with regards to product design, the circular economy and sustainable development. This is because products, with the materials involved in their design, production, distribution, use and disposal (across their life cycle), embody carbon due to the energy involved in these processes. Therefore, if product lifetimes can be extended, the use of energy, embodied in carbon, can be reduced and progress can be made towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Bocken et al. term this "Slowing resource loops" (309, their emphasis). In addition, excessive waste generation has been attributed to short-lived goods and a throwaway society.

Discussion of product lifetimes stretches beyond consideration of the service life concept. For example, the consideration of a product's service life refers to the time a product is in use from when it is sold to when it is discarded (see ). However, Murakami et al. identify that, firstly, there are different ways service life can be defined (e.g. total lifespan, domestic service lifespan, extended service lifespan by domestic reuse etc.), and secondly, there are aspects of product lifetimes which are not captured by service life (e.g. residential time, service lifespan of parts, production span etc.).

In recent years, there has been a growth in academic and policy discussions around product lifetimes. For example, discussion of product lifetimes are an integral part of the European Commission's action plan for the circular economy. In academia, the PLATE (Product Lifetimes and the Environment) Consortium hosts regular conferences and seminars around the topic of product lifetimes and the environment (see: http://www.plateconference.org/).

This article examines how product lifetimes are defined in the academic literature and discusses how product lifetimes can be measured. A distinction is made between the definition and measurement of actual and expected product lifetimes.

Definitions of product lifetimes vary depending on what aspects those conducting research are interested in. Generally, actual product lifetimes refer to the actual time that a product exists in a particular state. In contrast, expected product lifetimes refer to users' expectations for the lifetime of a product. Additionally, actual and expected product lifetimes are influenced by durability and longevity; these concepts are briefly outlined below.

...
Wikipedia