The standard business model of delivering cooling typically involves the manufacture, sale, use, and disposal of equipment. Higher production volumes generally support more sales and more profit. As a result, manufacturers can lack a strong incentive to voluntarily focus on minimizing the energy and resource use of cooling products. Alternative business models are possible and can promote much more energy and resource efficient technologies.

This brief presents a new approach to cooling – Cooling as a Service (CaaS) – which is based on the servitization concept that is rapidly penetrating other marketplaces. CaaS, in its purest sense, involves customers paying for the cooling they use rather than the physical product or infrastructure that delivers the cooling (e.g., air conditioner).