Quantifying Circularity
Owain Griffiths
Sustainability | Circular Economy | Biodiversity | Strategy | Tranformation
For sustainability and environmental advocates within businesses, it can often be difficult to get enough evidence that the work you are doing or proposing can be revenue generating and cost saving. When operations must adapt because regulations are changing, the speed of board level buy-in can be lightning quick but, if it is less clear, things can often get stuck.
When evaluating a decision to buy a new piece of equipment, enter a new market or hire a member of staff, the systems for evaluating the ROI and accounting for their impact are standard procedures. This is not the case when we talk about the quantification of circular economy activity. If a new business initiative is aimed at increasing the repairability of products, designing a product to be remanufactured or creating a modular piece of furniture, it is likely that you will be asked “why” and “how can you prove/measure it”.
The most common tool for measuring impact is a life cycle assessment (LCA) but as any user or reviewer of an LCA knows, they are costly and the frame of reference will likely be questioned. There are some other tools which have general measurements that help get an idea of the CO2, water and energy impacts of business but, they are usually only somewhat adaptable. These limitations have caused sustainability, circular economy and environmental managers to reach out to Oakdene Hollins and Clearstream to ask for advice.
Our response has been to identify a method of ensuring the circular economy choices that are chosen are correct from the outset, run in a lean way and are measured so that subsequent information can be easily reported and used. This gives businesses the assurance that they are quantifying their circularity and measuring the activities positive impact on their business; which in turn should lead to greater investment and further exploration of innovative circular economy initiatives.
Oakdene Hollins and Clearstream have partnered up to run a workshop and talk through how the tools work. We will provide a step by step guide on how you can be assured that you are choosing the right CE strategy, and can confidently measure your progress. The 90 minute morning session will be on the 12th of June and has been developed to be part of the London Circular Economy Week 2019.
For more information and to sign up click here
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