Circular Economy
Hmm... What's that again?
Circular Economy Model (source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
From linear to circular
With growing signs of resource depletion and increasing price volatility across the global economy, a new economic model differing from our current linear consumption model seems to be required to keep enabling growth.
The circular economy entails the restorative use of non-renewable resources as illustrated in the figure above. The industrial model aims at decoupling sales revenues from material input through intention and design. Materials defined as either biological or technical are as a result designed to re-enter the biosphere or to circulate with minimal quality losses. All leakages to energy recovery and landfill are to be eliminated. This is simultaneously powered by renewable energy only.
Analysis has shown that by iterating product design, business model, reverse cycle processes and/or other enabling factors, a circular system can create tremendous material productivity improvements and can be considerably profitable for manufacturers. The concept has been proven by various companies’ success and is economically viable as well as scalable for a variety of products whatever the service life time. According to McKinsey, shifting to a circular economy would save up to 630 billion dollars in annual net material costs, looking only at a set of European manufacturing sectors.
The Basics
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The CE is based on five key principles:
Design waste out
See the components of a product as nutrients for the biological or technical material cycles. The product should be designed for disassembly and refurbishment.
Build resilience through diversity
In a fast evolving economy, modularity, versatility and adaptivity are important features of products as it is actually also the case in natural systems.
Rely on energy from renewable sources
Think in ‘systems’. Look at the bigger picture; where does the product fit in, what is the infrastructure supporting it, the environment and social context behind it?
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Think in systems
In a fast evolving economy, modularity, versatility and adaptivity are important features of products as it is actually also the case in natural systems.
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Think in cascades
In a fast evolving economy, modularity, versatility and adaptivity are important features of products as it is actually also the case in natural systems.
What is this based on?
The thinking behind circular economy
While strategies to improve the resource efficiency of processes and the use of new forms of energy had explored and applied, until circular economy thinking, no systematic approach had been adopted in order to design out losses throughout the value chain and life cycle of the products. The theory behind CE is based on main concepts from multiple schools of thought:
Industrial Ecology. Industrial ecology is concentrating on the actors within industrial ecosystems. It studies material and energy flows through industrial systems. This approach purposes to create closed-loop processes in which ‘waste’ is used as an input.​
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Regenerative Design. The American professor John T. Lyle developed the concept in which systems could, like in nature, be arranged in a regenerative fashion. Processes could renew themselves or generate energy sources and materials they could in turn consume.​
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Performance Economy. Walter Stahel has throughout his work emphasized the importance of selling services as opposed to products. His Product-Life Institute in Switzerland is a rational sustainability think tank with four distinct goals: product-life extension, long-life good, reconditioning activities, and waste prevention.
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Cradle to Cradle. In this design philosophy, coined by chemist Michael Braungart and architect Bill McDonough, materials implemented in industrial and commercial processes should be considered as nutrients. The concept focusses on effectiveness rather than efficiency and aims at creating a positive impact in contrast to the current design focussing on reducing negative impact. Principles include ‘waste is food’, ‘use solar income’ and ‘celebrate diversity’.
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Biomimicry. Nature is the results of thousands of years of engineering and offers a broad scale of solutions adaptable to human problems. Janine Benyus, author of ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’, describes biomimicry as the study of nature’s best ideas and imitates these to our design issues.
Ok. And now?
Key principles
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There are a few things you could start with:
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We've made an overview of all the interesting resources you could use
We've got some news for you plus a list of events
There's a list of circular things happening in Delft
And last but not least, awesome opportunities for you!