Towards circular economy through design
Through circular design, companies are able to ensure their competitiveness and build a sustainable future that the planet can cope with.
Our lives are shaped by design solutions
‘Human beings don’t have a pollution problem; they have a design problem,’ said the creators of the Cradle to Cradle framework, William McDonough and Michael Braungart. This illustrates the essence and the greatest potential of circular economy: there is a need for better design at both systemic and product levels.
Design solutions permeate and shape our daily lives. Everything from clothes to vehicles, packaging, detergents, food, furniture and various types of services are results of design. Similarly, design is utilised in system-level solutions, such as in supply chains and business models of companies, urban infrastructure, various sectors ranging from industry to fashion, construction, electronics and agriculture.
Facts about circular economy
Goal
2035
Finland’s circular economy goal is to reduce the use of virgin raw materials and double the circular economy rate of materials by 2035. Source: MInistry of the Environment, 2021
Design phase
80 %
Up to 80 % of the environmental impact of a product is determined during its design phase. Source: EU Commission bulletin 2022
Budget
40 %
The manufacturing industry spends around 40 % of its budget on materials. Source: EU Circular Economy Action Plan 2020
Emissions
70 %
A total of 70 % of global CO2 emissions are caused by material acquisition and processing, as well as product manufacturing and use. Source: Circular Economy: Circularity Gap Report, 2022
Circular economy principles as basis for design
Our current economy has largely been based on a linear model, where natural resources are used to produce goods that are discarded as waste after use. This linear take – make –dispose approach has weakened the planet’s ecological resilience, reduced biodiversity, and accelerated climate change. Yet the Earth’s resources are finite. The circular economy offers an alternative — one that enables us to build a sustainable future that stays within the limits of a single planet.
This applies to the design of an individual product, production process, supply chain, and even an entire city district. In nature, there is no waste, as everything serves as raw material in an endless cycle. Therefore, the production of waste and emissions can be seen as a design flaw in linear economy.
Design is based on several lifecycles of a product (cf. the natural cycle) instead of just a single lifecycle. Similarly, product design solutions – materials, chemicals and product characteristics – aim to achieve, in principle, an endless, safe and healthy cycle of products and materials without increasing the environmental load.
In design, the focus extends from an individual product to an entire business ecosystem. A better understanding of natural processes and the way they can be promoted through design is required. All companies depend on the vitality of nature and the opportunities it offers. Examples of these opportunities include water and pollinators: cotton cannot be grown without water, and the cotton plant can only reproduce and produce new crops through pollination.
What truly creates genuine wellbeing for your customers?
Multiple studies show that the pleasure gained from purchasing a new product is short-lived. In a circular economy, the customer relationship is built on renting, maintaining, and upgrading products. Customer loyalty toward your company grows when you genuinely listen to them and invest in the quality of both your products and your services.
Photo credit: Durat, photo: Christian Jakowleff
What does circular economy mean for businesses?
Going forward, circular economy will be the only economic and operating model to be promoted at EU level under the twin green and digital transition. For companies, this will mean significant changes in their market environment, because operations will need to be redesigned according to the circular economy principles.
- product and services
- production
- revenue models
- customer relationship
- customer experience
The EU’s Sustainable Product Policy initiative proposes that all products sold within the EU must, in the future, be repairable and recyclable, with spare parts available and harmful chemicals minimized. The EU Taxonomy classification, which ties the cost of capital to sustainability criteria, is already in force.
At the same time, customers are actively seeking ways to reduce the environmental footprint of their consumption. All of this creates enormous potential for companies to generate new kinds of value.
The goal of the circular economy is decoupling. Decoupling refers to a situation where a company’s production can grow, while circular business models simultaneously reduce emissions, the use of virgin raw materials, and overall resource consumption. Put simply: achieving significantly more with less — and doing it smarter.
Nature has carried out 3.8 billion years of research, development, and innovation — and we can still learn from its solutions.
Build your competence with the circular economy toolkit
Through circular design, companies are able to ensure their competitiveness and build a sustainable future that the planet can cope with. image: Solar Foods, Solein
How to get started on your circular economy journey
The circular economy is a matter for top management. The circular economy transition pathway is essential for safeguarding a company’s competitiveness, which is why it belongs on the management team’s agenda. You can get started as follows:
Hold a steering group meeting and ensure that you share the same vision of circular economy as a facilitator of sustainable growth.
- Strategy, company culture and business model: What are the objectives of your current strategy? How do the strategy and the current business model help mitigate climate change, adapt to it and slow down the loss of biodiversity? The company strategy should be compared with Finland’s circular economy objectives. Will the current company culture enable a transition towards circular economy? And can your current business model promote the transition?
- Operations: What does the value chain of the entire company look like from the acquisition of raw materials to the end user? Have the operations been designed based on the “take, make use and discard” model or are you already trying to keep products and materials in circulation with the help of a network of partners
- RDI and design: What is your decision-making based on at the moment? A good way to test this is to turn the three main principles of circular economy into questions and compare them with your existing RDI work and design process. How can we design waste and emissions away? How do we maintain the high quality of materials in circulation? How can we strengthen natural ecosystems through design?
- Customer interface, brand and marketing communications: What are the cornerstones of your brand? Does an interface with circular economy already exist? On what grounds do customers choose your company? How could aspects of circular economy increase the attractiveness of your company?
- Staff competence and internal organisation: What are your strengths and weaknesses in terms of circular economy? Does your current expertise facilitate a transition from selling a product to providing services, for example? Do your team configurations and departments fit into the circular economy model?
A good rule of thumb is that if you already know how to achieve a goal when setting it, then the goal is not sufficiently big or inspiring. In addition to a major goal, create a path, i.e. a strategy or a roadmap, towards this goal. What needs to change in the above areas to allow you to have a winning strategy in use once the foundations of the economy have been aligned with the principles of circular economy?
Which measures could be quickly and easily implemented? And which measures – such as circular economy design guidelines that steer the design process – will have the greatest impact on your journey towards circular economy?
Pure Waste Textiles Oy, environmental impact of the product
Circular Design Guidebook
Our new guidebook is aimed at business decision-makers, product and service developers, as well as design professionals. Read the book on our website or download it!
Circular Design for Business
Do you work in product or service development and are fluent in Finnish? Our free online course will provide you with an understanding of circular economy-based design in just ten hours.
