Abbreviation | Term | Definition |
B2B | Business-to-Business | A type of commerce where transactions are conducted between businesses rather than directly with consumers. |
B2C | Business-to-Consumer | A type of commerce where businesses sell products or services directly to consumers. |
B2G | Business-to-Government | A type of commerce where businesses provide goods, services, or information directly to government and public agencies and organisations. |
B2B2C | Business-to-Business-to-Consumer | A type of commerce where businesses provide its product or service to another business, which then provides it to the end consumer. |
BIM | Business Information Modelling | A collected digital model of a building, used to explain terms, definitions, and connections between objects in construction. |
CapEx | Capital Expenditure | The capital used by an organisation or company to procure, maintain, and improve assets and activities. |
CBAM | Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism | A carbon charge on carbon-intensive products, introduced under European Parliament and the Council’s ordinance 2023/956. |
CE | Circular Economy | An economic system focused on reusing and regenerating materials and products. |
CO2-eq | Carbon Dioxide Equivalent | A metric to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential. |
Culture of Ownership | A cultural tendency for consumers to prefer owning the products they acquire. | |
Direct Rebound Effect | Direct impacts in response to the introduction of a PSS model, affecting environmental outcomes. | |
E-commerce | The buying and selling of goods and services, typically over the Internet. | |
EOL | End of Life | The final stage of a product’s lifecycle, often involving disposal, recycling, or repurposing. |
ETS | Emission Trading System | The European Union’s system, established in 2025, to facilitate carbon emission trading and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. |
FU | Functional Unit | A term for the amount of a product or system, based on its performance in its intended end-use. |
GHG | Greenhouse Gas | Gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change |
ICT | Information and Communication Technology | A broad term for technologies facilitating communication, including wireless networks, the Internet, cell phones, software, and middleware. |
Indirect Rebound Effects | Indirect impacts related to broader systemic effects that occur when a PSS model is implemented. | |
Lease-and-Lease-On | A model allowing an entity to lease products from a third-party lessor and then sublease them to others, acting as an intermediary. | |
LCA | Life-Cycle Assessment | The evaluation process of a product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle. |
Linear Economy | An economic model where products are purchased, used, and then disposed of. | |
LR | Loss Rate | Represents the ratio of losses, such as product loss, associated with a product-leasing model. |
Rebound Effects | Effects that occur when benefits from a PSS are diminished by changes in customer behaviour, impacting environmental goals. | |
PaaS | Product-as-a-Service | A specific application of the XaaS model for physical products, where customers access a product without owning it, and the provider manages maintenance and end-of-life processes |
PCF | Product Carbon Footprint | Measures the greenhouse gas emissions generated across the lifecycle of a product or service. |
POM | Product-Ownership Models | Business models that challenge traditional ownership transfer, common in linear economies, by keeping ownership with the provider. |
Product-Oriented Model | A model in which product ownership is transferred to the consumer, often with additional services like maintenance contracts. | |
Product Pooling Model | A model where a product remains owned by the provider and is made simultaneously available to multiple users, who pay for its use. | |
PSS | Product-Service System | A business model that offers products, services, or outcomes to facilitate shared or collaborative consumption, often with pro-environmental goals. |
Result-Oriented Model | A model where the provider commits to delivering a specific result or outcome to the customer, with emphasis on service rather than the product itself. | |
Sale-and-Leaseback | An agreement where the owner sells an asset to a purchaser and then leases it back, allowing the original owner to continue using the asset while freeing up capital. | |
TCO | Total Cost of Ownership | A financial estimate considering all costs associated with owning, operating, and maintaining a product over its entire life cycle, including initial purchase, maintenance, and disposal. |
Use-Oriented Model | A Product-Service System model where a provider retains product ownership but grants customers usage rights, often through rental or leasing | |
XaaS | X-as-a-Service | An umbrella term for business models where products, software, or services are delivered as a recurring service rather than a one-time purchase. |