Stahel was awarded the Thornton Medal 2020 of IOM3 jointly with James Blake GBS OBE JP CEng FICE FIStructE HonFHKIE.

He has been influential in developing the field of sustainability, by advocating 'service-life extension of goods - reuse, refill, reprogram, repair, remanufacture, upgrade technologically' philosophies as they apply to industrialised economies.

While employing somewhat jargon-laden and difficult economic language, Stahel and Genevieve Reday's 1976 report Potential for Substitution Manpower for Energy for Commission of the European Communities (today the European Commission) essentially put the argument of extending the service-life of buildings and such goods as cars and highlighted the waste inherent of disposing of old products Instead of repairing them.

Stahel's paper suggested extension of the use-life of goods was a sensible point at which to start a gradual transition towards a sustainable society.

Also in 1982 Stahel, with Giarini, founded the Product-Life Institute to develop practical strategies for economic growth with lower resource consumption.

The Institute promotes what has become known as the loop or circular economy, the key attributes being product-life extension, long-life goods, reconditioning activities and therefore waste minimisation.

Stahel advocates making a better use of resources during the utilization of goods and proposes a new type of economic growth taking into account ecological factors.

Updates in the 1993 edition arise mainly from work done at the Product Life Institute founded by Orio Giarini and Walter R. Stahel in Geneva in 1982.