Incentives and frameworks for increasing the capital value, service value and use rates of durable goods

Maximising the value and utilisation rate of the capital stock of durable goods offers a way to sustain wellbeing even in a capacitated environment. Niche examples demonstrate the potential, but new framing conditions and incentives are needed if the approach is to become mainstreamed. Although single-measure solutions to the essentially-systemic problem of how to provide incentives for change are unlikely, some measures may nevertheless be pivotal. Resource/emission ceilings and individual allowances (preferably tradable) for one or two critical resources or pollutants could form the lynchpin in a systemic approach to restructuring markets that would act on producers and consumers simultaneously.