PSS Creating Business for Sustainability: The Brazilian Olive Oil Case in Mantiqueira Community

This study aims to investigate the influence of Product-Service-Systems on sustainability in small rural communities. The methodological approach is a case-based research. A case of olive processing in the Mantiqueira mountain range community, an inland region from Brazil, is in-depth analyzed. This case is a result-oriented PSS deployment that brings some insights on the creation of new business ecosystems, previously unfeasible due to the large amount of hectares dominated by small proprieties with intensive familiar farming labor. Some aspects of this PSS business model on producing olive oil more intensively introduced in the region by 2012 are the access to more financially viable technologies; financing and partnerships with government; on distance labor training possibility and compact equipment automation for olives processing. It enables new businesses previously limited to producers with large investment possibilities. In addition, it collaborates with the local economy, adding value to products offered by the farmers, promoting sustainable land management through the waste reuse and encourages tourism, job creation and skilled labor training, collaborating with progress in small agricultural towns in the inland.