WHAT IS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY? Keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life

1. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.1
Sajith Wimalaratne & Edward Brunner
Food & FMCG Open Innovation Forum
The Circular Economy – how can
innovation help?

2. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.12
Edd Brunner
Head of Food and Beverage
Systems
10 years experience in product
development across Consumer
and Industrial sectors
Sajith Wimalaratne
Commercial Lead, Food and
Beverage Systems
7 years experience in consultancy
across the FMCG sectors

3. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.13
WHAT IS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY?
“Keep resources in use for as long as
possible, extract the maximum value
from them whilst in use, then recover
and regenerate products and materials
at the end of each service life”

4. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.14
Roughly one third of the food produced in the
world for human consumption every year —
approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or
wasted
Food and Agriculture Organisation
Why is this important?

5. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.15
MSW generation levels are expected to double by
2025
World Bank Group
Solid waste generation rates are rising fast, on pace
to exceed 11 million tonnes per day by 2100
Nature
Why is this important?

6. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.16
Over the past 30 years, 30% of the world's natural
environment has been destroyed, populations of
freshwater animal and plant species have been halved
and natural forests have declined by 10%
World Health Organisation
Why is this important?

7. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.17
50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year
and it is increasing
The Guardian
Why is this important?

8. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.18
Regulation and policies
Governments are introducing new regulations and policies
which are enforcing us to do something
Financial
Cost is always a significant requirement of any product,
and it is possible to reduce cost and eco impact
Volatility in natural resources
It’s a fact that natural resources are becoming scarce, and
so we have to innovate to identify other options
Volatility in ingredients
Food and Drink is nothing without the raw ingredients and
so we need to consider the long term to maintain supply
Consumer perception
They may not be willing to pay more for an eco-friendly
product, but it does influence decisions
WHYSHOULDWECARE?
Whatarethedriversfor
FMCG?

9. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.19
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
There are opportunities across the whole supply chain
 A system level view is important:
– Identify where the most significant opportunities for improve are
– Ensure that changes we make in one area do not have a negative impact overall
Sustainable
ingredients
and materials
Better
design
Increased
production
efficiency
Innovative
consumption
Improved
logistics
and stock
control
Better
waste
recovery

10. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.110
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
There are opportunities across the whole supply chain
Sustainable
ingredients
and materials
Increased
production
efficiency
Innovative
consumption
Improved
logistics
and stock
control
Better
waste
recovery
Better
design
 Good design is fundamental to minimising the eco impact
of a product.
 Approaches such as design for durability (so a product will
last longer) or design for repair (such as the iPhone which
has created a whole mini economy of repair services) can
all help
 However, design should not just have eco impact as a
requirement – it is not a high enough priority for
consumers alone. Take the opportunity to make the
product better – e.g. Unilever’s Compressed Can is not
only environmentally better but also more convenient
 Considering how the consumer uses a product is also
important – we ran a study on vacuum cleaning and found
that for 40% of the time an upright vacuum cleaner is
switched on it is not used (while the consumer moves
furniture etc.). By adding a feature that automatically
switches the vacuum cleaner off when this is the case, a
significant saving in energy use can be achieved

11. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.111
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
There are opportunities across the whole supply chain
Sustainable
ingredients
and materials
Increased
production
efficiency
Improved
logistics
and stock
control
Better
waste
recovery
Better
design
Innovative
consumption
 Changing consumer behaviour is notoriously
difficult. However it is possible, particularly
where convenience is improved or other
benefits are offered to the consumer
 We strongly believe that more innovative use
of concentrates in the beverage sector could
have a significant impact on reducing the
shipment of water across the world and hence
reduce shipping costs and environmental
damage.
 Britvic is doing a lot in this area, with their
super concentrate product Squash’d. This
naturally lends itself to allow consumers to
customise their water wherever they are.
Equally, their campaign to encourage
consumers to drink more water through
providing simple mounts for the workplace is
simple but effective.

12. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.112
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
There are opportunities across the whole supply chain
Sustainable
ingredients
and materials
Increased
production
efficiency
Innovative
consumption
Improved
logistics
and stock
control
Better
design
Better
waste
recovery
 Thinking about the end of life of a product is clearly important. There are two aspects
of this – the infrastructure to deal with disposal and the design of the products
themselves. And of course, the two must be considered together
 There has been a lot in the news recently regarding single serve coffee products, and
the impact that the amount of packaging used is having on the environment. The city
of Hamburg has even gone as far as to ban such products from government
buildings. This is despite Nespresso, for example, having dedicated recycling
processes. This in itself is part of the problem – the fact that a dedicated recycling
process is needed and not fitting in to existing processes provided by governments
 However, there is an argument that could say they are better than products such as
the Senseo, where the primary packaging is paper based and compostable. That
argument is that those products are packaged in multi-packs, where the coffee can
quickly loose its freshness and so many could be thrown away unused. This
emphasises the point that looking at the complete lifecycle and how a product is
used is important
 Petainer are one of the many companies entering the PET beer keg market with their
Linestar product. What is interesting about this one is that the different plastic
materials can be separated very easily and put into established recycling processes

13. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.113
OUR KEY TAKEAWAYS…
Consider the whole life cycle when
innovating – understand how your
product interfaces at each point
Make use of the existing infrastructure
– it’s bad to have to create your own
circular economy
Innovate not just for the circular
economy – find additional benefits

14. 27 May 2016 S3908-P-793_Summary v1.1
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