PSS Toolkit
By Brussels Environment, Ecores, Groupe One, Strategic Design Scenarios and Egerie Research
Last updated
By Brussels Environment, Ecores, Groupe One, Strategic Design Scenarios and Egerie Research
Last updated
The PSS toolkit is part of the TURAS program (supported by the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU). The toolkit development was led by Brussels Environment, Ecores, Groupe One, Strategic Design Scenarios and Egerie Research. The aim was to explore new hybrid-combinations between products and services systems in order to develop new creative and sustainable business opportunities (both economically viable and creating new jobs) for the Brussels-Capital Region.
As part of the TURAS project, a methodological Toolkit to facilitate the development of innovative Business Models in a sustainable city context has been developed and tested.
The particular feature of the Toolkit is that it offers a combination of a territorial approach and individual business support. In the methodological process, the first step (Phases 1 to 4) ensures synergy and complementarity between the territory and the users (public authorities, non-profit making organisations, residents and businesses) through the co-creation of innovative business models. The second step (Phase 5), meanwhile, provides individual support for the business in order to develop the idea of the innovative business into an appropriate economic model, after, in particular, being confronted with the real world via the “reality check”.
to set up a “benevolent ecosystem” made up of a wider circle of indirectly involved players (owners of other related projects, indirect stakeholders, public or private financial backers, etc.) capable of directing, advising, synergising, disseminating and communicating the project under development;
to identify a set of strategic challenges which can integrate the functional economy model in an appropriate way and facilitate the transition to a sustainable and resilient city;
to identify/develop the business models which are not based on individual ownership but which, instead, highlight access, alternative use, sharing, etc.
The methodology proposed is structured around an approach which is firstly territorial and then followed by an individualised approach towards the project owners and businesses.
The territorial approach provides:
Entrenchment in a local context, making it possible to create solutions which meet the needs and expectations of the territory’s users (public authorities, residents, businesses, associations, etc.)
A pooling effect (collective coaching, peer-to-peer exchange of experience, grouped dissemination, etc.) and a synergy effect (hybridisation between innovations, communication on all the initiatives in addition to individual communication, etc.).
The owner/initiator of the process can be a territorial authority (region, municipality, town, etc.) or a structure which represents businesses (e.g. chamber of commerce). All the ideas generated must feed a “pool of ideas”. In addition to the ideas exploited (meeting with an owner, suitable marketing window, etc.), all the ideas must be retained (open collaborative platform), firstly, to stimulate the territorial process and, secondly, to encounter other opportunities for them to be put into practice (new owners, marketing window).
The individualised “reality check” tools are the opposite of traditional consultancy/ tutoring: they are stimulating (owners authorised to carry out a participative co-design development: consultants as process facilitators) and directed towards experimentation (rapid simulation of solutions; full-scale trials; modelling used as the first stage of launch, etc.).
The methodology is presented in the form of various key phases (Phases 1 to 5) represented in the diagram below).
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