topic 6 Flashcards
(16 cards)
Why is Circular economy important?
- Growing environmental challenges are pushing businesses and governments to adopt sustainable practices.
- One key solution: Circular Business Models that focus on:
- Resource reuse, recycling, and repurposing.
- Promoting longevity and resilience.
What are the roles of the government for circular economy?
- Encourage adoption of circular models through:
- Incentives and supportive policies.
- Research funding for technologies that enhance sustainability.
Explain linear economy vs circular economy
📍 The Linear Model:
“Take – Make – Dispose”
- Overuses materials and energy.
- Produces excessive waste.
- Damages natural systems.
⭕ The Circular Model:
- Keeps materials in use as long as possible.
- Encourages:
- Repair
- Reuse
- Recycle
- Aims to:
- Eliminate waste.
- Preserve natural resources.
- Minimise landfill and incineration.
- Require minimal new raw materials.
what are the key concepts for circular economy?
- Circular product design 🛠️
- Innovative business models 💡
- Policy support 📜
- Changes in social behaviour and norms 👥
What are the benefits of circular economy?
- Reduces pollution and resource depletion.
- Sparks innovation in product development.
- Creates new jobs.
- Encourages self-sufficiency.
- Helps developing countries leapfrog to regenerative models.
What is a global value chain?
- A global value chain (GVC) involves:
- The transformation and movement of materials across multiple countries.
- A network of actors, processes, and regions tied to one product or industry.
Supply chain analysis vs GVC Analysis
📦 Traditional Supply Chain Analysis:
- Focuses on:
- Logistics and efficiency.
- Tracking material flows and costs.
- Creating supply chain maps to locate key players.
🌍 Global Value Chain Analysis:
- Goes beyond logistics:
- Looks at value flows 💰 and how value is shared.
- Studies governance structures 🧑⚖️ (who has power/control).
- Explores decision-making and regional differences.
- Examines institutional frameworks (laws, capabilities, etc.).
What are the key principles of business transition to circular economy?
🔁 Closed Loops - Keep materials/products in use as long as possible
🛠️ Design-for-Repair - Make products easy to fix
♻️ Design-for-Recycling - Easy material separation at end-of-life
💻 Dematerialisation - Shift to digital services (e.g., e-books, Spotify)
🔄 Reuse/Remanufacture - Extend product life through restoration
What is Material Management?
- 🎯 Goal: Keep products and materials in use as long as possible to reduce waste.
- 🔗 Key actions:
- Connect circular products
- Recover materials from industrial waste and collection systems
- Remove harmful materials for safe recycling
- 🔄 Inner loops (user & small scale):
- Repair 🛠️
- Reuse 🔄
- Refurbish ♻️
- Remanufacture 🏭
- These extend product life and keep value with less work.
- ♻️ Outer loops (company scale):
- Recycle raw materials ♻️
- Recover energy from waste 🔥
- Safely dispose of hazardous waste ☣️
- These need more energy and are usually handled by companies.
What are the maturity levels of the Circular Economy
0 Linear: Take → Make → Dispose
1 Prevent landfill use or pollution at end of life (EOL)
2 Recover materials for energy
3 Recover EOL materials as raw materials (Reduces natural resource usage)
4 Recover and reuse components in production (Reduces energy to recover materials and natural resource usage)
What are the 3 key strategies/pillars of a circular business model?
- Narrowing Loops ♻️
- Use less material per product → saves resources & cost
- Focus on efficiency (e.g., lean manufacturing)
- Examples: IKEA (renewable/recycled materials), Apple (trade-in program)
- Slowing Loops 🐢
- Make products last longer via repair, reuse, remanufacture
- Requires good design + user behavior change
- Example: Gomi speakers made from waste plastic + repair services
- Closing Loops 🔄
- Recycle materials by avoiding mixing/contamination
- Turn waste into new raw materials
- Examples: Nike Grind, G-Star turning waste into new products
What is reverse logistics?
- Recover products before waste → keeps materials in loops
- Waste in one process = resource in another (e.g., coffee waste grows mushrooms)
What are the circular business model strategies?
- Value Proposition: What value does product offer? (e.g., Waterproof Bags = 100% waterproof, outdoors lovers)
- Value Creation & Delivery: How is product made and sold? (e.g., lightweight materials, online sales, partners)
- Value Capture: How business earns & controls costs? (e.g., sales revenue, manufacturing cost)
How do we add circularity?
- Encourage product returns by targeting eco-conscious customers
- Design resources & partnerships to extend product life
- Adjust revenue to capture value multiple times (e.g., leasing, resale)
- Move from single-use → multiple-use cycles
- Plan integratively to maximize resource use
What is the role of business in a circular economy?
Businesses help build a circular economy by using 3 key strategies: Narrowing, Slowing, and Closing loops. By combining these strategies in circular business models, businesses keep resources and products valuable for longer and move away from the take-make-dispose cycle.
Why is GVC important?
- 💡It tells us: Who makes decisions about material flows
- 💰How value is negotiated between buyers & suppliers
- 🌍 Value isn’t just in materials — it’s shaped by:
- 📈 Market dynamics
- 🤝 Strategic relationships
- 👥 Stakeholder views along the chain
