The document summarizes the development of a more sustainable business model for producing point-of-purchase (POP) displays. Key points include: 1. The current POP display market relies on disposable models using multiple materials and glues that are not recyclable. 2. A new circular business model was developed that focuses on renting reusable POP displays made from recycled and recyclable materials to enable multiple life cycles. 3. Additional services like digital displays, marketing insights, and waste management were incorporated to further support sustainability goals and create additional value for brand partners. 4. Partnerships with recycling companies and non-profits were established to facilitate closing material loops through waste collection, dismantling

1. Life Cycle Thinking
+
Circular Economy

2. Francesco Fullone
Business & Sustainability Designer
Consulente strategico
Co-Director Founder Institute Italia
Digital Transformation Manager
Manager dell’Innovazione
https://linkedin.com/in/fullo

3. Setting the stage: Sustainability

5. Today! 😱

6. 3.000 executives
113 countries
MIT - BCG survey 2012

7. Sustainability definition
Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything
that we need for our survival and well-being depends,
either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment.
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. meet[ing] the needs
of the present generation without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their needs”
(UN, WCED, 1987: 43)(

8. Prof. Raghu Garud - Green Strategy - BBS Sustainability

9. Triple bottom line
https://johnelkington.com/archive/TBL-elkington-chapter.pdf

10. Triple bottom line tensions
Elkington, 1997

11. Setting the stage: Purpose Entrepreneurship

12. Friedman vs Freeman

13. Friedman vs Freeman

17. Adams model for Sustainability Oriented Innovation, 2016

18. Iso56002 innovation processes
ADAMS 1
ADAMS 2
ADAMS 3

19. Prof. Raghu Garud - Green Strategy - BBS Sustainability

20. The majority of Generation Z (54
percent) state that they are willing to
spend an incremental 10 percent or
more on sustainable products, with 50
percent of Millennials saying the same.
Forbe’s Sustainable Retail: How Gen Z Is Leading The Pack

21. Setting the stage: Circular Economy

23. Responsible Consumption/Circular Economy
A circular economy describes an economic system that is based on business
models which replace the end of life concept with reducing, alternatively reusing,
recycling, and recovering materials in production/distribution and consumption
processes thus operating at the micro-level ( companies, consumers meso level
(eco-industrial parks) and macro-level ( region, national and beyond), with the aim
to accomplish sustainable development, which implies creating environmental
quality, economic prosperity and social equity to the benefit of current and future
generations.
(Kirchherr et al., 2017).
A circular economy is one that is regenerative by design and aims to keep
products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all
times, distinguishing between technical and biological Cycles.
This new economic model seeks to ultimately decouple global economic
development from finite resource consumption.
(Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) 2015
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/circular-design

24. From a single loop
From «Taking, Making and Disposing» To «Regenerating, Lasting, Sharing» Cooper (1999)

25. Cradle to Cradle, 2002
Michael Braungart William McDonough

26. … to a multiple loop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVb4hvA3jY4

27. Circular Economy
[CE] Can’t be achieved alone, you have
to work with other companies, achieving
multiple loops.
BBS Master In Sustainability & Innovation

28. Setting the stage: Eco Design

30. Life Cycle Thinking
Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is about going
beyond the traditional focus on production site
and manufacturing processes to include
environmental, social and economic impacts of
a product over its entire life cycle.
https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/life-cycle-assessment

31. Life Cycle Management
It is a product management system that helps
enterprises to minimize the environmental and
social burdens associated with their product or
product portfolio during its entire life cycle.

33. Life Cycle Assessment

34. Life Cycle Assessment
Life cycle assessment is a
cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle
analysis technique to assess
environmental impacts associated
with all the stages of a product's
life, which is from raw material
extraction through materials
processing, manufacture,
distribution, and use.
From: Environmental Management, 2017

35. The 4 phases of a Life Cycle Assessment
https://ecochain.com/knowledge/life-cycle-assessment-lca-guide/
The phases of a Life Cycle Assessment are defined in the ISO standards 14040 and 14044.

36. TOP of the PoP
Circular Revolution for the display industry

37. of total GHG emissions of
the cosmetic industry
come from the
PoP/Display production
53kT in Italy - Quantis - Make Up The Future - 2020
20%

38. We reshaped the Business
Model of Sarno Display
from selling a passive
product to selling a service
to enable a sustainability
path for (cosmetics)
brands
1. PoPs Production
Using recycled plastics and
with lesser eCO2 per produced
unit. We designed these PoPs
using Design for Disassembly
principles.
5. Recycle & Reuse waste
We collect used PoP and
Brands’ good to recycle and
reuse the plastics in
production
2. PoPs Rent
We rent the good to
the brand in order to
get it back in EOL to
dismantle it and
reuse the material
4. Brands’ waste
management
We help brands to
redesign their
products’ packaging in
order to collect
disposed/used goods
and extending the life
of thermoplastics
linking disposed packs
with long life durable
PoP by means of
downcycling
3. PoP digital services
The PoP will add digital services
to increase final customer
interactions and to give
marketing insight to brands and
give to PoP more durability on the
place of sale.
Circular &
Servitized
Business
Model

39. Step 0.
Sarno Display:
Rethink,
Reshape,
Re-Do
“We want to transform Sarno Display in the most
sustainable full service company in the shopfitting and
display industry”
C. Paravano
To reach our idea we had to rethink how Sarno
Display operates, to do that we proceeded with
some assessments and contributions:
- B-Corp assessment to envision the future
of Sarno as a CSR guided company
- GRS cert. to guarantee to Sarno’s
customers certifications for procedures
and products
- Global Compact membership (Agenda
2030 and reporting)
- We contribute to reshape the Sustainability
Report (family business) for the
shareholder.

40. Step 0. Sarno Display new vision
Sarno Display (Gatto Group) designs and produces
large-scale of exhibition solutions for the point of
sale.
The company has identified sustainability as the
main driver of its business innovation path, thus
implementing: a new business model and a
change management process to anticipate trends
in the B2C mkt looking on the digital and
sustainable trends for the final customers (B2B); an
open innovation process which gave rise to the
Top of the PoP project; a set of certification
procedures (see beside).
Membership and Certifications (pending)

41. Step 0. Top of the PoP Partners
To develop the Top of the PoP project we created a
network of companies:
SARNO Display srl: Part of Gatto Group spa, Sarno is one of the
italian market leader in display and PoP production.
BBS: the Business School of the Bologna University
HERA: one of the Top Italian listed multi-utility companies,
active in the field of waste, water, electricity, gas and telco.
ALIPLAST: Leader in the industry of plastics recycling
ROUGJ: Company active in the field of
cosmetic-pharmaceutical.

42. Step 1.
PoP Production
Our product design principles
We analyzed the state-of-the-art in the
PoP/display production and we design our
own framework:
- Material’s 3R: Reuse, Reduce and
Recycle
- Product’s 3S: Standardize, Semplify,
Smart
- Top of the POP: Personalized,
Omnichannel, People Engagement
Material’s
3R
3
Product’s
3S
2
Top of the
POP
1

43. Step 1. Old “Durable” PoP Market
How it is made
● 5-8 materials
● Glues
● Not recycled/recyclable
materials
● Each Brands have different
production procedures
● Disposable and not reusable
Industry’s data
1. Durable PoP Italia
○ Ca 250 Mio € / Year
○ 3,5 Mio Pcs/Year
○ 53 KTons of waste
(8,1 Ktons only from Pharmacy channel)
2. Pack Visage – Eyes – Lips
○ C.a. 650 Kg / Year of waste

44. Step 1. Top of the PoP Production
How it is made
- 1-2 materials
- No Glues
- 100% Recycled/Recyclable materials
- Reusable
- Recycle plastic from disposed goods
- Modular and disassemblable

45. Step 2.
A new Business
Model:
Servitization
A new Business Model needs a good plan
To change the business model of PoPs/Displays
we had to work on different scenarios to avoid
bureaucratic deadlocks.
Renting the good helped us to get back disposed
PoP to enable a circular economy approach.
We had to reshape Sarno’s Business Plan in
order to analyze the business feasibility of our
project.
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46. Step 2. Business Model
OLD Business Model
- Produce
- Sell
- Forget
NEW Business Model
- Produce
- Rent + Services
- Logistics
- Digital Services
- Marketing Insight
- Reverse logistic (to
collect waste)
- Dismantle + Recycle
- Start over

47. Step 3.
Digital and
Social
Innovation
Services
Moving faster, moving together
Creating digital services on top of the PoP
was enough to share products information,
but it enables little to nothing to create a
better environment, thus the choice to use
the monitors and tablet mounted to teach
Brand’s customer about sustainable actions
they can do (ie. recycling in the PoP the
exhausted goods) in exchange for a small
discount.
Digital PoP will also enable Brand’s
marketing office to analyze customers
behaviour in order to pursue a best selling
and communication approach.

48. Step 3. Digital & Social Innovation Services
Digital
- Future measurement for marketing
- Display and digital twin
Social Innovation
- Recycled plastic used as a form of art
- Raising final user awareness towards
recycling
- Cooperation with social ONGs for the
disassembly activities

49. Step 4.
Waste
Management
Circular Economy2
In this step we studied a way to manage
Brand’s waste in order to include them in
our circularity.
By doing that we helped the Brand to
redesign the primary packaging using our
own design principles.
To retrieve the exhausted goods we started
a partnership with HERA and calculate the
economic impact for the Brand.

50. Step 4. Waste Management
We calculated the economic and ecologic impact to collect
exhausted products from the pharmacies in order to recycle
the plastic afterward.
Apart from the complete LCA of the product itself, here not
accounted, we estimated a median growth of cost of 0.05 €
per unit (easily covered by the high margins) and a production
of eCO2 of 0.05 Kg at worst case* per unit to retrieve and
bring the products to Aliplast recycling factory.
* The worst case scenario is calculated without any logistic optimization, considering single
trip for each PoP from a pharmacy. Taking into the account this optimization we will reach
easily the break even point.

51. Step 5.
Recycle and
Reuse
Your waste, my treasure!
We create a partnership with Aliplast and
HERA to recycle the plastic to be used in
the production of the PoPs/Displays.
We also analyzed the LCA of the production
to decide the best combination of plastics
in the PoPs.
We partnered with a no-profit to
disassembly the PoPs.

52. Step 5. Recycle and Reuse
Version A – PS+RPET Version B – RPET+PET Old Version – RPET+PMMA
In kg eq.CO2 % In kg eq.CO2 % In kg eq.CO2 %
Electricity 0,22 0,3% 0,22 0,2% 0,22 0,2%
Freight 59,57 69,9% 60,03 60,9% 59,70 49,7%
Materials 17,96 21,1% 60,31 61,2% 47,67 39,7%
Packaging 3,15 3,7% 3,15 3,2% 3,15 2,6%
Studies and Labour
Force
6,14 7,2% 6,97 7,1% 6,14 5,1%
End of Life 20,55 24,1% 29,82 30,3% 23,18 19,3%
Emissions avoided -22,34 -26,2% -61,95 -62,9% -19,94 -16,6%
Total 85 Kg 99 Kg 120 Kg

53. Sarno Display’s revenue plan
Sarno Display does not expect a return on investment in a year but to change the entire industry over
the next 5 years in order to be a driving force for the rest of the market. This project will lead the
company to be first mover in the market and therefore to dictate its future.
Even in a 2020 with a -44% in revenues the company had already rise the margin of production due to
best efficiency and less waste (c.a. 7% on gross margin).
The market benchmark (70%) on long term PoP has EBITDA 5,93% with a ROI of 8,25%
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
EBITDA 2.1% 5.9% 7.4% 8,8% 11,5%
ROI -3% 4% 7% 11% 16%

54. Milestones
Show where we are in the process and what’s left to tackle
✅ Phase 1
PoP redesign, LCA, Business
transformation, Partner
discovery, Communication
✅ Phase 2
Customer Engagement
Phase 3
Digital Services for
Brands, Marketing
Insight
Phase 4
Smart Cuvette, PoP as
refiller, packaging design
services for Brands
Phase 5
Full Digital PoPs
2020 2021 2022 2023

55. Think globally,
act locally

56. TOP of the PoP
as a framework
We developed our idea with
Sarno Display Srl in mind, but
we noticed it can be easily
adapted as a framework, or a
business model, to cope the
needs of different industries.
Life Cycle Thinking
of products
Business Model Design
for Sustainability
Circular Economy as
Open Innovation process
Social
Innovation
triggers

57. The team
When different skills meet each others, 2+2 could results in 5
Valentina Ridolfi
Coordinator at Rimini
Strategic Plan Agency and
Board Member at Italian
Exhibition Group Spa
Francesco Fullone Giorgia Stancari
Founder Institute’s Director
and consultant in Business
and Sustainability Design
Processes and Digital
Innovation Manager for the
Environmental Services
Business Unit in HERA
Cristian Paravano
Gatto Group Since 2008
with different roles.
Currently Group General
Director & Board Member

58. How can I start a
sustainable
transition?
1. Understand the knowledge about Sustainability in your
company (for the whole triple bottom line)
2. Do a LCA for Cradle to Gate, Grave or Cradle
3. Identify the Co2 hotspot
4. Define actionable KPIs and identify the SDGs (and action
points) you want to work with
5. Start a Design Thinking Process to innovate
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/circular-design

59. Documents
https://www.today.it/partner/adnkronos/green/l_espositore-cosmetico-e-bello-e-sostenibile.html
https://www.gruppohera.it/gruppo/com_media/comunicati_stampa/-hera_spa/pagina830.html
https://www.adnkronos.com/sostenibilita/world-in-progress/2020/11/05/dalle-materie-prime-pa
ckaging-sfide-della-cosmetica_Ja55S6DF5gRD4vs5CGkICP.html
Rougj press coverage: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvXq-OLGccUBwOEMEqaodfpUSEERHg?e=ox81n0
https://www.adnkronos.com/sostenibi
lita/world-in-progress/2020/11/05/dall
e-materie-prime-packaging-sfide-della-
cosmetica_Ja55S6DF5gRD4vs5CGkIC
P.html

60. Francesco Fullone
Business & Sustainability Designer
Strategic Consultant
http://linkedin.com/in/fullo