Journal of Service Science and Management, 2011, 4, 125-131
doi:10.4236/jssm.2011.42016 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jssm)
125
Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry
Approach
Adi Wolfson1, Dorith Tavor1, Shlomo Mark2
1Green Processes Center, Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheva, Israel; 2Negev Monte Carlo Research Center, Sami
Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Received January 18th, 2011; revised March 6th, 2011; accepted April 13th, 2011.
ABSTRACT
Environmental issues have become an integral factor in any decision-making process and in the design and implemen-
tation of manufacturing and agricultural production systems. As the service sector continuously grows in size and
importance and service systems become more comprehensive, complex, and interdisciplinary, the creation of new
services should be imbued with sustainability a s the primary value of each service and as a service in and of itself . The
paper presents a na tural mimetic approach that follows the ground ru les of nature to characterize the sustainability of
a service and to choose the most sustainable service alternative.
Keywords: Service Science, Service System, Sustainability, Lifecycle, Service Lifecycle, Sustainable Service, Nature
Mimic
1. Introduction
The service sector is continuously growing in size and
importance, and service systems are becoming more
comprehensive, complex, and interdisciplinary [1-3].
This fact was one of the primary incentives behind estab-
lishing a new track for service research, i.e., service sci-
ence, the study of service systems value co-creation of
people, information, and technology (e.g., language, laws,
measures, and methods) [4,5] to create a basis for sys-
tematic service innovation.
Service is traditionally defined as whatever is not ag-
riculture or manufacturing [6-8] and that which involves
a transformation of values and methods by the service
provider into a product (i.e., service) requested by the
customer. However, because the service sector integrates
different disciplines, such as marketing, computer sci-
ence, information systems, and operations, service phi-
losophy has in recent years shifted from service products
that are economically measurable and manage-
ment-oriented to values that are more operational and
socially responsible.
Environmental issues have become an integral factor
in any decision-making process and in the design and
implementation of manufacturing and agricultural pro-
duction systems. Sustainability, defined as the capacity
of an ecosystem to bear the stress of processes while
maintaining them into the future and preserving enough
space for subsequent generations, is currently the leading
paradigm [9,10]. It integrates economic, social, and en-
vironmental elements into different measures and indi-
cators, ecological and carbon footprints among them.
Recently, the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA),
which is an analysis of the sum of materials and energy
involved in the production, distribution, use, and disposal
steps of a tangible product, was also adopted to optimize
the environmental performance of processes [11,12].
Similarly, a new service approach, e.g., sustainable
service, based both on the rational use of natural re-
sources and on acting with environmental awareness,
was recently introduced [13,14]. Sustainable service also
facilitates conceptualizing services as shared and dy-
namic problem-solving endeavors that create value in
multiple dimensions, and it takes into account potential
long-term effects. The development of sustainable ser-
vices also requires a life cycle-oriented perspective on
the relationships between consumers, providers, and sup-
pliers [15] and a desire to be ecosystem compatible. Yet,
the fundamentals of sustainable service and strategies for
making a service more sustainable are still in develop-
ment.
We recently presented a novel perspective together
with a model that describes the relationship between sus-

Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry Approach 126
tainability and service within the framework of service
science [16]. The new perspective defines sustainable
service not just as a service that fulfills customer demands
and that can be perpetuated for long periods of time
without having a negative impact on either the natural or
the social environment, but also as a basic value and as an
essential part of each service, and in fact, as a “super-
service” in and of itself. More specifically, the new model
describes sustainable service as the integration of tangible
and intangible resources together with manufacturing and
agriculture. Service customers comprising the current
generation simultaneously evolve into active suppliers
who deliver sustainable values to the next generation, as
illustrated in the “S3 Sustainability as Service Science”
Model (Figure 1). Additionally, sustainable service
should also generate new and alternative values for sup-
plying customer demands more sustainable.
The model comprises two main stages (Figure 1) first,
a sustainable decision made by a service, with said deci-
sion relying on the service’s resources, including natural
resources, technologies, and information and knowledge;
second, the most sustainable choice is selected from
among the alternatives after evaluating each in terms of
its integration of services and of manufacturing and agri-
cultural processes.
In addition, because sustainability represents the com-
bined influences of environmental, economic, and social
elements, sustainability values which will represent the
full sustainability image of a process based on a compara-
tive scale such as its carbon footprint, an assessment of its
impact on health, or its gross domestic product should be
used [16].
2. Nature’s Ground Rules
Current global realities make it imperative to move in the
direction of sustainable services. Herein, we demonstrate
an innovative approach to characterizing sustainable ser-
vices will facilitate the decision making process when
choosing between different service alternatives based on
nature’s ground rules.
From the very beginning, nature has inspired and chal-
lenged scientists. Biosystems present an excellent exam-
ple of natural, efficient, green, low energy, and compati-
ble, multistep processes that function in concert. The need
to develop more efficient and cleaner (“greener”) produc-
tion systems and services is a universal concern. Nature
itself provides many services to promote and sustain eco-
systems and benefit humans, such as air cleansing and
temperature control by trees and water filtration by
swamps [17].
The primary driving force behind nature, and in fact,
its main role, is the perpetuation of life, which is accom-
plished through smart and efficient life cycles that func-
tion together in concert with a future-oriented perspective,
adapting to changes over time. Human efforts at devel-
oping sustainable services can benefit from nature’s
model by adopting a natural mimicry approach that en-
tails making these fundamental ideas inherent to every
sustainable service.
3. Sustaining Life—Future-Oriented Service
Because nature’s main incentive is the perpetuation of
life, each natural process or service is future-oriented.
Likewise, the core of sustainability entails living com-
fortably but responsibly today, which necessarily implies
preserving the rights of coming generations to live
equally well. In this respect, sustainable service should be
imbued with future-oriented thinking to maintain global
sustainability, which should be a primary value of each
and every service. But at the same time, as services and
production processes are usually tied together, sustain-
ability should also participate in a super-service that in-
Information
Knowledge
Techno lo gie s
Natural
Resources
Environment
Social
Sustainable
Decision
Economics
Information
Knowledge
Techno lo gie s
Natural
Resources
Environment
Social
Sustainable
Decision
Economics
Agriculture
Manufacture
Service
Environment
Social
Economics
Sustainable
Choice
Agriculture
Manufacture
Service
Environment
Social
Economics
Sustainable
Choice
Past PresentFuture
Time axis
Customer Supplier Service valuesSupplier Customer
Service axis
Implementation
Future oriented

n
Information
Knowledge
Techno lo gie s
Natural
Resources
Environment
Social
Sustainable
Decision
Economics
Information
Knowledge
Techno lo gie s
Natural
Resources
Environment
Social
Sustainable
Decision
Economics
Agriculture
Manufacture
Service
Environment
Social
Economics
Sustainable
Choice
Agriculture
Manufacture
Service
Environment
Social
Economics
Sustainable
Choice
Past PresentFuture
Time axis
Customer Supplier Service valuesSupplier Customer
Service axis
Implementation
Future oriented

n
Figure 1. S3-Sustainability as Service Science Model.

Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry Approach 127
cludes services and manufacturing and agricultural proc-
esses, and customers who comprise the current generation
simultaneously evolve into active suppliers who deliver
sustainable values to the next generation (Figure 2).
4. Energy—Service Quantification
Systems can be quantified in terms of energy, the con-
cept of which, and its transformation, are useful in ex-
plaining and predicting most natural phenomena. How-
ever, beyond the physical definition of energy, it is also
accepted as a measure of life. In general, each natural
process is based on the minimum use of material energy
to sustain life. In this respect, to survive, animals and
plants developed efficient ways to live and reproduce,
while using minimum resources.
The driving-force of every process is a potential gradi-
ent such as a pressure gradient that causes fluid motion or
a temperature gradient that leads to heat transfer that can
be translated into a change in energy. Similarly, each ser-
vice is based on a gradient of need between the customer
and the provider. The customer needs what the provider is
selling. This driving force produces a value that is trans-
ferred between the two parties. However, besides a need
gradient, sustainable service should also be driven by
sustainable decision making that asks whether the service
is necessary, uses a future-oriented viewpoint, and con-
siders existing natural resources, technologies, and know-
ledge and information to ensure that global sustainability
will be preserved.
It should be noted that although services are intangible
products that do not directly use energy and materials,
they are based on natural resources and different tech-
nologies and manpower that constantly use materials and
energy for their operation. Hence, sustainable service
should also be based, akin to natural processes, both on
the minimum use of energy and materials and also on
efficiency, which should be calculated from the service
supply chain and technologies in use all the way to cus-
tomer operations. Therefore, service sustainability com-
pels implementation of a service that employs sustainable
supplies and that uses clean technologies while encourag-
ing the customer to take responsibility for its actions and
to supply sustainability to the next generation.
Finally, as defined by the basic laws of physics, the
conservation of mass and energy are fundamental to life,
and neither can be created nor destroyed. In other words,
the energy and materials balance of a sustainable service
must ensure that the resources invested by the provider
will be eventually delivered by the customer to the com-
ing generations for its re-use.
5. Entropy—Service Quality
Although the transfer and balance of mass and energy are
vital to understanding each process, more detail is needed
to describe natural systems and life. The direction and
efficiency which the energy is transferred is crucial in
determining whether a process will be carried out. In
other words, although a temperature gradient is the driv-
ing force for heat transfer, the spontaneous transfer of
heat is possible in only one direction, from high to low
temperature. Moreover, a certain amount of heat is lost in
its conversion to work. These two phenomena are de-
fined in the second law of thermodynamics, which deals
not only with the quantity of energy, but also with its
quality [18]. The second law defines a property intrinsic
to each system, named entropy, which dictates the direc-
tion of change that occurs in a system during a process.
As such, a system naturally progresses in the direction of
increasing entropy, and the smaller the change in entropy
undergone by a system during a process, the greater the
efficiency of that process. Alternatively, in statistical
mechanics, entropy is a measure of the number of ways
Customer/Provider
Current
generation
Customer
Next
generation
Services
Manufacture
Agriculture
Sustainability
Services
Manufacture
Agriculture
Sustainability
Super-value
Primary-value
Provider
Current
generation
Sustainable
solution
Customer/Provider
Current
generation
Customer
Next
generation
Services
Manufacture
Agriculture
Sustainability
Services
Manufacture
Agriculture
Sustainability
Super-value
Primary-value
Provider
Current
generation
Sustainable
solution
Figure 2. Future-oriented sustainable service.

Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry Approach 128
in which a system can be arranged, often termed the
“disorder” of a system, such that increased entropy signi-
fies greater disorder.
To minimize the impact a service has on mass and en-
ergy, we should define sustainability as a state of a ser-
vice and measure the change in sustainability during im-
plementation of the service (S). The S should be cal-
culated from the various sustainability indicators (men-
tioned above) and integrated into a single-scale number
that facilitates the decision making process as to whether
a service is sustainable, which, in turn, contributes to
making a sustainable decision (Figure 1). In general, as
with entropy, every process, including a service, utilizes
materials and energy and thus increases the sustainability
(S > 0), while the lower the S is the more sustainable
the service/process is (S  0). However, like energy,
which can neither be created nor destroyed (the first law
of thermodynamics), the selection of a sustainable service
should also consider its integration and balance with other
services and with manufacturing and agricultural proc-
esses, with the goal being to minimize the overall sus-
tainable change (Overall Smin). An evaluation of overall
sustainable change, therefore, will enable the selection of
the most sustainable choice from among the alternatives
(Figure 1).
Moreover, just as entropy is a measure of the number
of ways in which a system can be arranged, there are
usually a variety of routes for delivering a given service.
Thus, the entropy of a sustainable service is also repre-
sented by two functions: a decision about whether the
service in and of itself is sustainable, i.e., a sustainable
decision, and then the selection of the most sustainable
service from among the alternatives and its integration
with other processes to yield the most sustainable choice
(S  0).
6. Life Cycle—Service Renewability
Originally applied in biology to describe the generational
progression of a species via its reproduction, the term life
cycle is future oriented insofar as it entails using mini-
mum energy for maximum efficiency. For the same rea-
sons, nature works in cyclic processes—the carbon cycle,
the water cycle, etc.—to balance and regulate earth and
its atmosphere.
The concept of life cycle or cyclic process, however, is
not limited in its applicability to natural processes; it is
also used widely in the economics and management
fields and even to characterize services. The life cycle of
a tangible product, for example, covers the product from
the design and development process to its launch into the
market until eventually the market stabilizes and the
product matures. Eventually, it is overtaken by its com-
petitors and it goes into decline, after which it is ulti-
mately withdrawn from the market.
In addition to the commercial-oriented life cycle of a
product, there is also the material-oriented life cycle,
which traces the utilization of materials from when they
exit the production process to their use and disposal until
they are finally recycled or recovered. Recycling, the
directed exploitation of materials from one product to
create another to prevent waste is an example of incor-
porating a life cycle perspective into sustainable life.
Alternatively, the production of new, biodegradable
products that can be recovered after their use, such as
corn based polymers, is today expanding with its wider
acceptance as a more sustainable production route.
Nevertheless, besides tracking the phases of a process
or a product and the materials it uses, a life cycle ap-
proach also allows for system analysis and for measuring
the system’s environmental, social, or economical impact
on life, i.e., life cycle analysis or assessment. A life cycle
assessment entails a method to determine the influence of
all the stages of a product or process, from “cradle-to-
grave,” on the environment, taking into account material
and energy consumption from the point of development
through manufacturing to marketing, distribution, and
disposal or recycling. It is in fact a measure of all the re-
sources required in the overall life cycle of a product or a
process [11,12].
As such, life cycle can be used to describe the stages of
a service, from its planning and design to its delivery and
eventual use. Yet, applying the concepts of life cycle to
sustainable service should also take into account the ra-
tional use of resources, knowledge and information, and
clean technologies while aspiring to maximum efficiency
and the integration of the service with other services and
agricultural and manufacturing processes in a future ori-
ented perspective. These components should be integrated
in the different phases of a service, from its design and
development to its management and implementation.
Therefore, the life cycle of a sustainable service should
integrate the life cycles of each component of the new
“super-service” and consider both tangible and intangible
resources. Finally, to complete the cycle, a new value is
created that transfers sustainability from the customer,
who now becomes a supplier, to the next generations, i.e.,
it is a renewable service (Figure 3).
7. Evolution—Spiral Service
Finally, from an evolutionary viewpoint, life is a process
in which each population adapts to various changes and
goes through various selection steps. In the same manner,
tangible and intangible products have to track changes in
resources, technologies, and information and knowledge
and incorporate those changes into their life cycles.
Moreover, a sustainable service should be comprehensive,

Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry Approach 129
Knowledge
and
Information
Technologies
Resources
Management
Implementation
Design and
development
Provider Customer
Knowledge
and
Information
Technologies
Resources
Management
Implementation
Design and
development
Provider Customer
Figure 3. Sustainable service life cycle.
integrative, and smart, such that it actively anticipates
future scenarios (e.g., availability of resources, new com-
petition, etc.) instead of simply reacting to change as it
happens. In other words, a sustainable service can exist
as a spiral, multi-dimension “super-service” that transfers
sustainability over time while constantly learning and
adapting to changes in suppliers, customers, and values
(limt∞S = 0).
8. Summary
Sustainable service is that which fulfills customer de-
mands and that can be continued for long periods of time
without having a negative impact on either the natural or
the social environment. Furthermore, it is imbued with
sustainability as its primary value and as a “super-service”
in and of itself. Herein, an innovative approach that uses
nature’s ground rules to characterize sustainable services
and choose between different service alternatives was
demonstrated. It was suggested that sustainable service
should mimic natural processes, and in so doing achieve
energy efficiency, use future-oriented and life cycle per-
spectives, and evolve to adapt smoothly to changes in its
environment. Moreover, it should incorporate sustain-
ability into its supply chain and as its primary value and
allow the customer to deliver sustainability to the next
generation. Table 1 presents an example of quaternary
that have to be considered when characterizing whether a
service is sustainable.
9. Examples
9.1. Car Wash
A car wash is a daily process that is often provided by a
distinct business as a service. First, it can be claimed that
based on resource use, the most sustainable approach is
not to clean your car. However, as maintaining a clean
car has several incentives, the least of which is to pre-
serve the car’s value, it should be done using the most
sustainable method. A distinctly unsustainable approach
entails elements such as supplying the water through a
constantly running pipe or employing children or other
employees at unfair wages (S > 0). Alternatives, of
course, exist, such as washing cars using the rag and
bucket technique or using efficient, specialized car
washing machines designed to minimize water usage (S
> 0). Taking it one step further, these machines often

Sustainable Services: The Natural Mimicry Approach 130
Table 1. Quaternary to characteri ze w he ther a service is based on nature’s gr ound r ule s.
Rule Questions
Sustaining life-Future-oriented service
1. Does the service stand for a long time?
2. Does the service anticipate future scenarios?
3. Does the service use toxic materials?
Energy-Service quantification
1. Is the service necessary?
2. Is it the most sustainable solution?
3. Does the service use minimum energy and materials?
4. Does the service lean on clean-technologies?
5. What is the carbon foot-print of the service?
Entropy-Service quality
1. Is it the most sustainable choice?
2. Is the service broad, comprehensive and integrative?
3. What is the efficiency of the service compare to other alternatives?
4. How the service integrates with other services and manufacturing processes?
Life cycle-Service renewability 1. What is the life cycle of the service?
Evolution-Spiral service
1. Does the service transfer sustainability over time?
2. Does the service learn and adapt to changes?
3. Does the customer supply sustainability to the next generations?
achieve their goal to reduce waste by implementing a
system that recycles the water (S  0), which makes a
significant contribution to sustainability. Finally, in addi-
tion to considering water, a sustainable car wash must
also strive to minimize its energy requirements, and the
use of ecological detergents is ideal.
9.2. Carbon Labeling
One of the most useful and popular indicators of sus-
tainability is the carbon footprint, which is a measure of
the total greenhouse gas emissions from a process, or a
product. Since each process involves the use of materials
and energy that can be equivalently expressed via carbon
dioxide emissions, the carbon footprint represents the
total environmental impact of a process/product and en-
ables between different processes/ products to be com-
pared on a single scale. This important tool has gained
wide acceptance, and in 2006, the Carbon Trust Com-
pany from the UK introduced a new service, named car-
bon labeling, to include in a product’s label its carbon
footprint just as, for example, calorie count or price is
clearly stated.
Carbon labeling is a future-oriented service as it uses a
simple, clear, and comparative tool to allow everyone
designers, manufacturers, suppliers, and customers to
participate in reducing human-generated greenhouse gas
emissions to sustain the world. It has sustainability as a
primary value, but it also integrates with other services
and manufacturing and agricultural processes into a “su-
per-service” that supplies sustainability as service by
itself. The labeling of a tangible product with its carbon
dioxide equivalent emission is a tool for producers and
suppliers to evaluate the sustainability of their supply
chain and determine whether cleaner technologies can be
substituted while giving them an incentive to make the
processes more sustainable and keep their carbon foot-
print in check by making a sustainable decision (S > 0).
To that end, carbon labeling gives the buyer the opportu-
nity to choose between competing alternatives and make
the most sustainable choice (S  0). Finally, carbon
labeling allows each buyer to actively participate in
promoting a more sustainable world, for example, by
transferring sustainability to the next generation by using
the label to choose the product with the smallest carbon
footprint.
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