Addressing Circularity Gaps in Manufacturing

The Circular Strategies Scanner 🌎 This diagram, developed by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and its Nordic partners, provides a great framework for identifying practical strategies to embed circular economy principles across business operations. The Circular Strategies Scanner highlights three core action areas: recirculating parts and products, recirculating materials, and rethinking or reconfiguring business models. These categories cover the full lifecycle of products and materials, from raw material sourcing to end-of-life management. Key strategies for recirculating parts and products include repair, maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, repurposing, and upgrades. These interventions aim to extend existing use cycles and maximize the value extracted from products. Material recirculation focuses on recycling (both chemical and physical), cascading uses across industries, recovery processes such as composting or energy recovery, and integrating secondary or renewable materials. This is critical for reducing dependence on virgin resources and minimizing waste. The model also emphasizes rethinking value creation. Business model strategies such as product-as-a-service, buy-back agreements, and sharing platforms are essential for shifting from linear consumption patterns to circular, access-oriented systems. Impact reduction is addressed through restorative sourcing, lean manufacturing, and efficient use-phase operations. Optimizing logistics, reducing idle capacity, and designing for longevity are also integral components of a robust circular approach. Importantly, the scanner provides a visual link between traditional linear processes and the opportunities to intercept waste and inefficiency at every stage. It underscores the importance of full decoupling of environmental impact from growth through systemic change. Circular economy success depends not only on individual strategies but on their integration across the value chain. This framework offers a strong foundation for companies and industries aiming to transition toward circularity in a structured and impactful way. Source: CIRCit - Circular Economy Integration in the Nordic Industry #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #circulareconomy

A company spends $1M annually on IT hardware. When those assets retire, $100K-$150K comes back through recovery. The other $850K-$900K just disappears. In research for our 2025 white paper on circular electronics, Peter C. Evans, PhD and I kept finding this pattern: 10-15% recovery across enterprise IT programs. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 85-90% 𝘨𝘢𝘱 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵. We call it the 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗮: the distance between potential recovery value and actual realized value when assets leave service. The gap accumulates across dozens of small decisions that all point toward disposal instead of monetization. Low-bid recyclers because procurement treats retirement as a cost line. Trade-in programs built for optics rather than velocity. Compliance processes that unintentionally block resale. And here's a second benchmark I've found useful: Purpose-built recovery systems consistently hit 30%+ recovery rates. That's a solid double from the typical 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗮 norm, and the difference comes down to system design. In this fourth issue of 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗚𝗮𝗽𝘀, I break down where the delta accumulates, the five-minute diagnostic to calculate yours, and what separates best-in-class operators from the rest.

ISO 59000 is the new global framework for the circular economy, published in 2024, and connects to #procurement and #supply chain professionals as it establishes the first internationally agreed definitions, principles, and implementation guidance for transitioning from linear to #circular value chains. In essence it enables and creates; 🌏 Creates a shared global definition of circularity — reducing ambiguity when engaging suppliers across markets. 🌉 Supports compliance with emerging regulations (e.g., EU ecodesign, packaging, resource traceability). 📍 Enables circular procurement by defining principles such as systems thinking, value creation, value sharing, resource management, and traceability. 🧑💻 Improves supplier evaluation through consistent terminology and performance expectations. 💱 Supports redesign of value networks, including remanufacturing, reuse, repair, and industrial symbiosis. ISO 59004: Establishes the six circular principles and a four‑stage implementation framework—useful for policy, category strategies, and supplier requirements. ISO 59010: Helps procurement reshape supply chains toward circular models (e.g., product‑as‑a‑service, reverse logistics). ISO 59014: Provides metrics and assessment approaches for supplier performance, tenders, and contract management. KEY SUGGESTED ACTIONS: ➖ Align procurement policies with the six circular principles. ➖ Update specifications to include durability, repairability, reusability, and traceability requirements. ➖ Engage suppliers using the shared vocabulary and frameworks in ISO 59004. ➖ Integrate circularity metrics (ISO 59020) into evaluation and contract management. ➖ Map value networks to identify opportunities for reuse, remanufacturing, and reverse flows (ISO 59010). FEEL FREE TO SHARE AND COMMENT: Kelly Barner Kelly Hobson Ben Farrell MBE Dr Adam Read MBE Chris McCann MSc MCIPS (Chrtd.) FRSA NSc Jyoti Mishra Annalisha Noel Anthony Hanley MBA Anthony Greig BSc MBA Iván-Alonzo Gaviria M. ∴ Karl Green Anthony Flynn Tom Mills Inma V. Regine PAHMER Dr Howard Price PhD FRSA MSc DMS MCIPS Chartered Phil Broughton Ankit Aggarwal Dr. Raji Sivaraman, PMI-ACP, PMP, PMO-CP™, GPM-b™ Ben Stamp Dr Deepak Arunachalam Eirini Etoimou, MSc, MBA LS, FISEP, MICW Melissa Demartini, PhD Marc Hutchinson FCIPS CEng EMBA Jim Goodhead, FCIPS, Supply Chain, CPO, Procurement Director, Interim Sarah-Jane Ellis BA(Hons) MBA FCIPS Chartered Nina Bomberg

Kohler Co., the 150-year-old bathroom and kitchen fixtures company, and Legrand, a 160-year-old maker of electrical supplies, are overhauling new product design processes to incorporate principles such as longer durability, simpler repair and disassembly, and more recycled content. This takes cross-company collaboration and discipline at the earliest stages of research and development, said sustainability professionals for both companies who spoke recently at #Circularity25, a Trellis Group conference. “The opportunity to influence product attributes happens super early on, and oftentimes it might be before engineers are actually involved,” said Jaden B., senior sustainability analyst at Legrand. Both Legrand and Kohler have had formal programs for reducing emissions from manufacturing and use of their products for some time. In recent months, they have revised those initiatives to include considerations that extend the useful length of time products can be used. Here are four best practices their guidelines have in common: 1. Consider features early in the design process: If suggestions are made too late in development, they’re likely to be rejected and that can be frustrating. 2. Synchronize goals and processes with industry standards: Both companies look to established methodologies from organizations such as the U.S. Green Buildings Council and the International Organization for Standardization, which in March updated foundational guidance for circular product design. 3. Check progress at each design phase: Kohler uses a scorecard to track how proposed designs meet criteria related to circularity and emissions reductions at several stages during the development process. Legrand uses a similar points-based system to gauge success. 4. Take cues from customers: Legrand trains customer-facing employees to probe for information during encounters, and that data is passed along to designers where it can be married with goals. You can read more details here: https://lnkd.in/ewGPCWR8 Ashley Fahey

If you're told that circularity is about being carbon neutral, you've been sold a lie. Carbon is just ONE piece of the puzzle. Real circularity is about fundamentally redesigning how we create value. After analyzing dozens of businesses, I've seen companies obsess over carbon footprints while ignoring the elephant in the room: linear business models that treat resources like they're infinite. Here's what circularity ACTUALLY measures: 🔄Material flows & Resource efficiency: moving beyond "reduce waste" to "eliminate waste as a concept." This means designing closed-loop systems where every output becomes an input elsewhere. It's about material recovery rates, recycled content integration, and treating waste streams as untapped revenue opportunities. 🛠️Product lifecycle & design: shifting from planned obsolescence to planned permanence. Products designed for durability, repairability, upgradability, and ultimate recyclability. It's the difference between selling a washing machine and designing a washing system that lasts generations. 💼Business model innovation: the fundamental rewiring of how value is created and captured. Moving from transactional sales to outcome-based services, from ownership models to access models, from linear supply chains to regenerative ecosystems. Most "sustainable" companies score under 45% on true circularity metrics. The leaders hitting 80%+ aren't just talking about emissions, they're rethinking ownership, designing for disassembly and turning waste streams into revenue streams. ➡️I've developed a comprehensive Circularity Assessment based on 7 major ISO standards that measures what actually matters: your ability to keep resources in productive use. Want to know where your organization really stands? 📩Let's have a conversation about what true circularity looks like for your business. Because if we're serious about planetary boundaries, we need to move beyond carbon tunnel vision and start designing regenerative systems. What's been your biggest revelation about circular vs. linear thinking? #circularity

Circularity Starts Upstream Most circularity advancements we see are downstream: • Product repair programs • Resale platforms • Recycling initiatives And there's a reason for this. We have too much waste. But here's what I've learned after years in product development: we keep focusing on what happens after products exist—when the real opportunity is in how they're designed from the start. Downstream solutions matter. They're essential parts of the puzzle. But they're also fixes for upstream design decisions. True circularity asks different questions: → Can this material actually be recycled, or are we creating future waste? (Materials Matter) → Is this construction method repairable, or are we designing for the landfill? (Waste Reduction & End-of-Life Accountability) → Do we know exactly where our materials came from and who made them? (Traceable by Design) → Are we overproducing, or testing smarter to reduce excess inventory? (Interconnected Impact) → Will this product be valued enough to be kept, repaired, and used for years? (Emotional & Physical Durability) The greatest leverage point isn't better recycling. It's better design. I wrote the Circular Standards framework to make it easier for brands to ask the right questions during the design process—before it's too late to change course. I'll link back to that Substack and Blog post in comments. When we design for circularity from the start—traceable materials, mono-material construction or recyclability analysis, safe chemistry, durability, intentional end-of-life—downstream solutions become infinitely easier. Or in many cases, unnecessary. Where are you focusing your circularity efforts—upstream or downstream? #CircularDesign #DesignForCircularity #FashionInnovation #ProductDevelopment #SustainableApparel