A circular economy approach for lifecycles of products and services
The CIRC4Life Business Models
The CIRC4Life project aims to develop the following three business models and demonstrate them at the large scale in four case industries.
Business Models
The Co-creation of Products/Services model will bring end-users closer to the design and manufacturing phases by identifying consumer preferences via Big-data online mining product reviews and evaluating product specifications and prototypes via Living Lab to customise the end-user requirements. Benefited from the co-creation features, sets of sustainable production methods will be implemented and new products/services will be created.
The Sustainable Consumption model will develop a method to calculate the eco-points of products based on the outcome of FP7 myEcoCost project, assess product environment footprints (PEF), provide a traceability solution to monitor product’s sustainability along the value chain, and support end-users and stakeholders to actively implement the circular economy via awareness raising and knowledge sharing activities.
The Collaborative Recycling/Reuse model will develop a system for stakeholders to interact with each other to facilitate the use/reuse of end-of-life products and reduce waste, and implement the eco-credits awarding scheme to encourage people to recycle/reuse.
Short Descriptions of Case Industries (CIRC4LIFE Project Demonstrators)
Industrial Lighting Product
The new Circular Economy Business models will be demonstrated using industrial lighting products manufactured by Kosnic, Newbury, UK. To implement the co-creation of products model, living lab methods will be applied to address the end-users’ requirements, including end-user workshop, semi-structured interview, user feedback via the customer service and product Website, and survey through Twitter, Facebook and Emails. Sustainable techniques developed by the project will be applied in the production of industrial lights, including traceability, ICT, eco-accounting, and sustainable design and manufacture.
With the sustainable consumption model, the module design structure will be applied to make the faulty or end-of-life components easily be replaced or repaired at the use stage and, hence, to extend the product service life. Necessary information will be provided for the users to select more sustainable products, and, in particular, the product sustainability indicator, eco-points of the products, will be available for the user to make a purchase decision. Instructions will be provided to the users for sustainable consumption of the products, such as energy saving, longer service life, etc.
To demonstrate the sustainable recycling/reuse model, the company will implement the leasing service. In this service, Kosnic will look after the lights throughout their product life time, provide regular maintenance service to enable the product’s performance, and take-back the products when it reaches the end of life (EoL), then the recycling, reuse and remanufacture will be implemented with those EoL products.
Domestic Lighting Product
Partner ONA will demonstrate the three business models in the luminaire sector by producing domestic lighting. The pilot action will take place in Valencia (Spain).
Using the big data mining and living lab tools, ONA will apply the big data technique developed in WP3 to mine consumer preferences via large volumes of light products’ reviews and comments through social media websites and onaemotion.com.
Sustainable consumption will be encouraged by showing the eco-points information of the new domestic lighting in Ona´s online store, providing valuable information to help consumers on their sustainable purchase decisions.
Collaborative recycling will be demonstrated by extending the lighting recycling practices to the end-user, enabling the citizens to separate and recycle their lighting products which have overpassed the expiration date through intelligent bins, which can record the recycled product’s eco-points into consumer’s eco-account. The recycling center sorts end of life products and sends the components in working condition to the manufacturer for them to make new lights.
Tablet Product
The main logistical challenges are focused on defining and demonstrating an efficient collection system for the reuse or remanufacturing of the tablets, which, in addition to ensuring the integrity of the equipment, allows it to be traced and allows the end user to know at all times the destination of his equipment and how his/her actions during the product life cycle are rewarded. This includes the design and implementation of an incentive scheme for improving reuse and recycling ratios.
The project includes a heavy workload in educational institutions, as a source of information for stakeholders (due to the intense use of electronic tablets in schools), and as potential mass end users of reused tablets. The information of users of interest will be transferred to the producing companies. The demonstration will take place in the Basque Country.
The innovation camp will explore these issues in greater depth, the application of which to electronic tablets is generally valid for other computer and communication equipment (mobile phones, laptops), and represents an opportunity for manufacturers of such equipment. It is also an opportunity for collection agents, container manufacturers interested in participating in the circular economy and its reuse and remanufacturing processes, and for local institutions interested in environmental awareness for people and improving e-waste collection figures in their population. The innovation camp will address the latest methodologies in these different fields and is a unique opportunity to listen and consider the opinion of citizens regarding these products, the impression they have about their environmental performance, and the involvement and encouragement of citizens, as end users of electronic products such as tablets, at the end of their lives.
Vegetable Product
The demonstration will take place at the farm business Scilly Organics, based on the Isles of Scilly, UK coordinated by Partner Jonathan Smith.
Incorporating the needs and desires of consumers in to vegetable products, the demonstration will be based on co-creation of new markets for vegetables. This includes demonstrating and communicating the environmental and social impacts of production to consumers.
Using the Impact Analysis Tool, sustainable production of vegetables will be demonstrated at Scilly Organics. A ‘before and after’ approach will be used to understand how the implementation of circular economy approaches to vegetable production can reduce environmental and social impacts of production, whilst improving the offer to consumers and creating business opportunities.
Furthermore, the Decision-Making Tool will demonstrate how Scilly Organics, and other businesses, are able to make informed decisions about changes to business practices to reduce environmental and social impacts.
Reducing and recycling all forms of waste is critical in this demonstration. Of particular focus will be the reduction of waste vegetable products, assessing the ability of outgraded and unsold produce to be used productively in new business opportunities.
This approach includes demonstrating how increased recycling and reused benefits consumers’ eco points, and a Brokerage System to connect buyers and sellers of ‘waste’ vegetable products.
Meat Supply Chain
The pilot action will take place in Lorca (Spain) and will involve the companies of ALIA’s holding group.
Using the big data mining and living lab tools, ALIA will incorporate sustainability preferences of consumers in two new products and will implement different environmental friendly techniques along the whole value chain (from the animal feeding to the meat elaborate manufacturing) in order to produce these products.
Sustainable consumption will be encouraged by showing the eco-points information of the new products in the retail point, at ALIAS factory’s store, providing valuable information to help consumers on their sustainable purchase decisions.
Collaborative recycling will be demonstrated by extending the meat recycling practices to the end-user, enabling the citizens to separate and recycle their meat products which have overpassed the expiration date. This meat will be collected and transformed into animal fat (for cosmetics, chemical industry and animal feeding) and meat meal for animal feeding, becoming valuable raw materials for other industries.