人類在高度工業化之後消耗了大量天然資源，同時也產生了大量廢棄物，對人類的永續生存與發展蒙上陰影。因此，減少天然資源的消耗，或提升資源使用效率，是全球各個國家的當務之急。而強調減少實體物質的投入，又能達到相同經濟效益並降低廢棄物的「去物質化」觀念，廣為受到重視。其中，以提供服務取代產品銷售的「服務化」作法，受到各國政府大力提倡，也是企業因應法規要求的重要方式之一。政府與企業都冀望能透過提供服務來減少實體產品的消費，達成去物質化的目標，帶來可觀的環境效益。然而，並非所有的服務都能夠產生環境效益，而企業提供服務的策略考量，也並不一定基於永續目的。如何能夠以服務化來達成永續目的，是當今眾多企業都在思考的議題。本研究採用探索性個案研究，探討哪些服務屬性對於永續性最有幫助。研究發現，有五種服務屬性能帶來環境效益：(1)共享閒置資源；(2)優化產品使用與延長產品生命週期；(3)為客戶承擔產品責任與風險；(4)提供功能與成果；(5)實體產品虛擬化。企業所提供的服務若能包含這些屬性的一項或多項，對於環境將有正面的影響。

Since industrialization, the human being has been consuming a huge amount of natural resources, and, at the same time, produced significant wastes. Sustainability of the human race has thus been shadowed. Countries around the world have been trying very hard to reduce the consumption of natural resources and increase the efficiency of resource usage. Dematerialization, the concept of reduction in the quantity of materials required to serve economic functions, thus attracted vast attentions. Among all the dematerialization practices, “servitization” (or servicizing) was one of the most frequently advocated by governments and businesses. This approach aims to reduce the consumption of physical goods, so as to dematerialize and bring considerable environmental benefits. However, how product firms can utilize servitizing to achieve sustainability remains an unanswered question. This study uses exploratory study to investigate what characteristics of services facilitate sustainability. Out results indicate that five essential characteristics are beneficial to sustainability: sharing of slack sources, optimization of product usage and prolonging of product lifecycle, taking product responsibilities and risks for clients, providing product functions and outputs to clients, and virtualization of physical products. If product companies’ service offerings include one or more of these characteristics, their offerings will bring positive effects to the environment.