Shifting from Linearity to Circularity

*Moving forward from a take-make-use-dispose linear chain to a take-make-use-recover circular chain*

Keywords:

Circular Economy (CE)

Sustainability

Systems Design Thinking 

Tackling climate change and addressing the urgent planetary challenges requires a breakthrough mindset of doing business in industrialized systems. One ambitious disruptive model that holds excellent promises concerning sustainability and responsible production and consumption aligned to Goal 12 of the UN 2030 Agenda is the Circular Economy (CE) sustainable business model. 

Defined by the United Nations Climate Change, CE is a regenerative system through which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are strategically minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing energy and material loops achieved by a systems design thinking that entails the hallmarks of maintenance and the seven (7) essential Rs: rethink, reduce, re-use, repair, refurbish, recover and recycle.

More than ever, business leaders realize that circularity is the future for sustainable and responsible businesses. According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), CE will enable businesses to tap into new innovative business solutions and forge resilient markets and responsible supply chains capable of delivering sustainable prosperity. 

As the circular economy is becoming one of the hottest sustainability topics, I have prepared for you a four (4) steps toolkit that brings together the theoretical side of CE along with the monetary and customer perspective aspects. 

1.   Closing the loop: Moving forward from a take-make-use-dispose linear chain to a take-make-use-recover circular chain

Closing the loop is a crucial prerequisite for advancing CE and is attainable through direct reuse of products – refurbishment or recycling – or through committing to biodegradable universal standards.  Making progress on the first step needs an in-depth understanding of these two points:

• Systems design: Adopting systems design thinking is essential to ensure the close of the loop. Modularity, reversible connection techniques, and the avoidance of mixed non-biodegradable materials are vital essentials that simplify assembly and disassembly and help recover the product at the end of the day.
• Merging forces with relevant partners: Circular design requires close collaboration with relevant partners along the circular value chain to create an overall sustained and shared value proposition. A core principle of sustainability is to build a conducive circular ecosystem through which all partners have a common goal and share the same sense of purpose. These partnerships will result in cross-company design re-quirements and prevent the lack of specific knowledge about all phases of the loop.

2.   Enhancing the loop: Advancing sustainability practices and social-environmental impact

 A central ambition of this step is to ensure that CE practices serve as a secret weapon against Climate Change and thus contribute to Goal 13 of the UN 2030 Agenda advocating for Climate Action. By committing to the fundamentals of circular economy, companies have an excellent opportunity to advance their sustainability status as they tend to contribute to solving environmental problems by committing to Goal 12 of the UN 2030 Agenda on responsible consumption and production. These circular economy offerings include patterns like reparability and investment in renewable energies aligned to Goal 7 of the UN 2030 Agenda on Affordable and Clean Energy. 

3.   Creating value out of the loop: Capturing the value of a circular product

The most pressing question of this step how to capture the value of a circular product?

The answer is quite simple, repair components and parts so that products can be used longer by the user. With the slow-down of throw-away consumption, consumers will be thinking about purchasing products that last, and the "repair" business will boost revenue and value proposition as a whole. Businesses must drill deeper into their own and their partners' production processes and customer activities to understand the ecological footprint along the entire loop. According to evidence-based research, technology is an excellent booster to the loop. Investing in disruptive technologies can help find tangible solutions that are best for the environment, but still, consider the needs of the individual companies.

4. Enticing the loop: Shifting to advanced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) marketing practices

The broader aim of this step is to create attractive value propositions that trigger customers' appetite, which goes beyond the fact that the product is circular. Circular businesses have an excellent opportunity to build a sustainable and responsible brand reputation to the extent that buying their products or services is also an environmental commitment and statement. Of course, circular economy on its own will not solve the planetary challenges we are currently encountering. Only with merging forces and collective action we can amplify impact and elevate progress. 

Today's business equation is quite simple! Let us rethink, reduce, re-use, repair, refurbish, recover and recycle.