This document summarizes the key concepts of a circular economy. It discusses how a circular economy is focused on optimizing existing stock through reuse, repair and life extension rather than continuous throughput. This allows decoupling economic growth from resource use while creating more jobs. A circular economy relies on business models like performance-based services that keep ownership of goods and materials. It argues that public policy should incentivize renewable resources like labor to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
The document discusses waste management. It defines different types of waste and provides examples. It also discusses the importance of proper waste management, including preventing disease, pollution, and injuries. Effective waste management involves reducing, reusing, and recycling waste as well as proper collection, transport, processing, treatment and disposal.
Một số biện pháp quản lý, xử lý nước thải nhiễm dầu; ứng phó sự cố tràn dầu v...SOS Môi Trường
Các nguồn phát sinh nước thải nhiễm dầu tại các cửa hàng kinh doanh xăng dầu: Hoạt động kinh doanh của các kho xăng dầu thường bao gồm các công đoạn nhập khẩu, tồn trữ trong kho xăng dầu, vận chuyển, phân phối tới người tiêu dùng thông qua mạng lưới cửa hàng xăng dầu. Với đặc thù như vậy, hoạt động kinh doanh xăng dầu khác biệt với các ngành công nghiệp khác, đó là không sử dụng nước làm nguyên liệu đầu vào cho quá trình sản xuất kinh doanh, vì vậy xét về nguyên tắc thì sẽ không có nước thải phát sinh trong hoạt động kinh doanh xăng dầu. Tuy nhiên, thực tế trong quá trình vận hành khai thác các công trình xăng dầu (kho, cửa hàng) có phát sinh nước thải nhiễm dầu cần phải xử lý do những nguyên nhân sau:
- Súc rửa bể chứa định kỳ tại các kho xăng dầu nhằm đảm bảo chất lượng nhiên liệu.
- Xả nước đáy bể sau khi kết thúc quá trình nhập tàu vào bể chứa trong kho.
Nhận viết luận văn Đại học , thạc sĩ - Zalo: 0917.193.864
Tham khảo bảng giá dịch vụ viết bài tại: vietbaocaothuctap.net
Download luận văn khoa học công nghệ với đề tài: Nghiên cứu trồng thử nghiệm giống quýt ngọt không hạt (Citrus unshiu Marc) tại Bắc Kạn và Thái Nguyên, cho các bạn làm luận văn tham khảo
This document summarizes solid waste management in Amravati City. It includes tables showing the daily waste generation by zone and ward based on population. The waste is classified as 35.53% biodegradable, 15.95% recyclable, and 48.52% debris and silt. Additional tables provide the chemical characteristics of municipal solid waste in Amravati City such as pH levels, organic carbon content, and concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and other elements. In conclusion, the document presents data on solid waste generation and composition in Amravati City.
Download luận văn thạc sĩ ngành thú y với đề tài: Nghiên cứu một số đặc điểm dịch tễ của ngoại ký sinh trùng phổ biến ở chó mèo tại phòng khám thú y Hanvet và biện pháp phòng trị
The document discusses waste management. It defines different types of waste and provides examples. It also discusses the importance of proper waste management, including preventing disease, pollution, and injuries. Effective waste management involves reducing, reusing, and recycling waste as well as proper collection, transport, processing, treatment and disposal.
Một số biện pháp quản lý, xử lý nước thải nhiễm dầu; ứng phó sự cố tràn dầu v...SOS Môi Trường
Các nguồn phát sinh nước thải nhiễm dầu tại các cửa hàng kinh doanh xăng dầu: Hoạt động kinh doanh của các kho xăng dầu thường bao gồm các công đoạn nhập khẩu, tồn trữ trong kho xăng dầu, vận chuyển, phân phối tới người tiêu dùng thông qua mạng lưới cửa hàng xăng dầu. Với đặc thù như vậy, hoạt động kinh doanh xăng dầu khác biệt với các ngành công nghiệp khác, đó là không sử dụng nước làm nguyên liệu đầu vào cho quá trình sản xuất kinh doanh, vì vậy xét về nguyên tắc thì sẽ không có nước thải phát sinh trong hoạt động kinh doanh xăng dầu. Tuy nhiên, thực tế trong quá trình vận hành khai thác các công trình xăng dầu (kho, cửa hàng) có phát sinh nước thải nhiễm dầu cần phải xử lý do những nguyên nhân sau:
- Súc rửa bể chứa định kỳ tại các kho xăng dầu nhằm đảm bảo chất lượng nhiên liệu.
- Xả nước đáy bể sau khi kết thúc quá trình nhập tàu vào bể chứa trong kho.
Nhận viết luận văn Đại học , thạc sĩ - Zalo: 0917.193.864
Tham khảo bảng giá dịch vụ viết bài tại: vietbaocaothuctap.net
Download luận văn khoa học công nghệ với đề tài: Nghiên cứu trồng thử nghiệm giống quýt ngọt không hạt (Citrus unshiu Marc) tại Bắc Kạn và Thái Nguyên, cho các bạn làm luận văn tham khảo
This document summarizes solid waste management in Amravati City. It includes tables showing the daily waste generation by zone and ward based on population. The waste is classified as 35.53% biodegradable, 15.95% recyclable, and 48.52% debris and silt. Additional tables provide the chemical characteristics of municipal solid waste in Amravati City such as pH levels, organic carbon content, and concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and other elements. In conclusion, the document presents data on solid waste generation and composition in Amravati City.
Download luận văn thạc sĩ ngành thú y với đề tài: Nghiên cứu một số đặc điểm dịch tễ của ngoại ký sinh trùng phổ biến ở chó mèo tại phòng khám thú y Hanvet và biện pháp phòng trị
The document discusses various topics related to entrepreneurship development including definitions of an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, advantages of being an entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial decision process, characteristics and core competencies of successful entrepreneurs, skills required, classifications of entrepreneurs based on different factors, myths about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial development models, and principles for a successful new venture.
This document discusses store design and layout. It identifies learning outcomes related to the role of store environment in marketing and the importance of design. It then examines factors that contribute to a retailer's image such as quality, price, and location. Various elements of store design are explored, including atmosphere, lighting, music, smell, and temperature. Different types of store layouts - grid, curve, boutique, and guided flows - are described along with considerations for space management and allocation to induce sales and profitability.
This document proposes establishing an Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) as a partnership between an Institute of Management Studies and the Small & Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) of Pakistan. The EDC would promote entrepreneurship and small businesses in the NWFP region through various training programs, seminars, networking events, and business competitions. SMEDA would provide technical assistance and resources to support the EDC's operations. The EDC's goals are to increase graduates becoming entrepreneurs, raise awareness of entrepreneurship, and help more residents start small businesses.
Innovation for a circular economy emerging players, business models and key ...Sustainable Brands
1) The document discusses emerging business models, partnerships, and the economics of recycling and recovering materials.
2) It notes that while recycling has value, facilities have operating costs that must be covered to turn a profit. Mixed plastics in particular present challenges.
3) The Closed Loop Fund is highlighted as an approach where brands, cities, recyclers, and others invest in recycling infrastructure projects and interventions to spur the circular economy.
WEF Report - Young Global Leaders Circular Economy Innovation & New Busine...Vikrant Mudaliar
The document discusses the sharing economy and collaborative consumption. It begins with a foreword noting the resource constraints facing the global economy and how the sharing economy offers a model of profound collaboration and consumption focused on access over ownership. The main body of the document then provides context, discusses what the sharing economy is and how it has evolved historically. It outlines different sharing economy models and sectors, how trust and reputation are important, and whether monetary exchanges are necessary. It concludes by discussing crowdfunding and how the sharing economy intersects with concepts like the circular economy.
The document describes a business game called CIRCULAB that is designed to foster creativity and collaboration around circular economy opportunities. The game brings together participants from different departments within a company to generate new business ideas that can reduce environmental impact and create shared value. It provides tools and is facilitated by a network of circular economy experts to help participants think outside the box. The goal is for companies to break down silos, integrate corporate social responsibility, and discover innovative solutions through the workshop format.
GreenBiz 17 Tutorial Slides: "Putting Circular Economy Principles to Work"GreenBiz Group
The Circular Economy presents an incredible opportunity for transformative growth and change, but taking the concept from theory to implementation requires what can be a challenging exercise in rethinking systems. Join this session to explore how to put these principles into practice. Actual business case studies will set the stage for a group brainstorming session on how to apply circular models to various business scenarios. Key concepts to be covered include:
How adopting a Circular Economy mindset can deliver value to your business
The key drivers for a Circular Economy business
How to integrate lifecycle thinking and circular economy
How to select the right metrics and quantify circularity
What Europe’s Circular Package means for your company
GreenBiz 17 In-Depth Tutorials are intensive half-day sessions held prior to the start of the conference. These are designed to offer participants an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of interest and develop tangible knowledge and skills. In addition, attendees will have a greater opportunity to network with their peers in these interactive sessions. Concurrent tutorials will be held the morning of Tuesday, February 14, and are available only to those who purchase an All Access Pass.
TCI 2016 Pilot study business models circular economy TCI Network
This document summarizes the results of a pilot study on business models for the circular economy in the Netherlands. It identifies four key building blocks for circular business models: 1) organizing cycles, 2) revenue models, 3) value creation, and 4) strategy. The study found that participating companies focus on reducing waste and recycling, see opportunities in new revenue streams like pay-per-use models, and view responsible and cooperative behavior as strategic advantages. It concludes that fully realizing the circular economy will require new organizational models and cooperation between companies and other stakeholders.
This document discusses new business models and revenue models for companies in the circular economy. It begins by outlining the need for new industrial models due to population growth, resource scarcity, and volatile commodity prices. It then presents several examples of circular business models including pay-per-use models for lighting and vehicles, and a model where a company earns revenue from the energy savings of high-end appliances. Finally, it proposes a framework for companies to test new circular concepts through small, low-risk trials before rolling out successful ideas more broadly.
A circular business model aims to use resources efficiently and create no waste by keeping materials in continuous use through reuse and recycling. It redefines market growth and value creation to be sustainable. The document explores 10 business model archetypes that enable circularity, including 5 classic circular models of closed-loop recycling, downcycling, upcycling, industrial symbiosis, and collection services and 5 enabling models of product-service systems, lock-in, local loops, modularity, and personalization. The models were developed to inspire Unilever to develop radically different sustainable products and services through market development while decoupling growth from environmental impact.
Circular economy as strategy for sustainable development and business innovationMichael Søgaard Jørgensen
Critical introduction to circular economy and how possiiblities and limitations for application in Danish businesses' strategies are analysed in a Danish research project
World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Sharing Economy Position Paper June...Collaborative Lab
This paper seeks to place the sharing economy on the global agenda for companies, governments, communities and entrepreneurs alike. It is presented by the WEF YGL Sharing Economy Working Group which is part of the Circular Economy Innovation and New Business Models Initiative.
The goal of this paper is to explain what the sharing economy is and why it holds potential, focusing on key principles, drivers, trends and models. It maps out critical factors and conditions required for access-based business models to scale up, and identifies both opportunities and possible challenges to their success. It also embeds the sharing economy within a larger context and movement focused on resource efficiency, sustainability, changing demographics and user behaviors.
The sharing economy represents one of several substantive investigations by the WEF community into new disruptive business models that are impacting industries, value chains and systems around the world. It is intended to serve as an input to future WEF summits, sessions and engagements focused on the future of business, cities, technology, demographic shifts and a variety of sector-specific verticals.
Barriers & drivers towards a circular economySpringtij
This document discusses barriers and drivers towards achieving a circular economy in the Netherlands. It identifies several types of barriers, including institutional, cultural, financial, technological, and regulatory. Specific regulatory barriers mentioned include a lack of harmonized standards and definitions, conflicting regulations between energy/waste policies, and preferential treatment for reuse and repair in policies. The document recommends improving education around circular economy principles, incentivizing new business models, removing subsidies that support linear economies, and ensuring policy tools are coherent and do not create unnecessary administrative burdens. It argues that transitioning to a circular economy will be challenging and last 1-2 generations.
This document summarizes Jen Van Der Meer's talk on circular economy business models. The talk discusses how business models can be designed to achieve more equitable outcomes through a circular economy approach. Popular business models like subscriptions, renting, and pay-per-use models are compared for their potential to enable a circular economy. The talk references Ray Anderson's philosophy of taking the whole industry with you in transitioning to sustainability. Myths about circular economy business models are debunked, emphasizing that they are not always disruptive or better for the environment. It is argued that business models must prioritize people and serve their needs through equitable and joyful outcomes.
Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the scale-up across global supply ...Sustainable Brands
In this report, the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Company, joined forces to reconcile the concept of scaling a circular economy within the reality of a global economy and complex multi-tier supply chains. The key objective is to propose a very specific joint plan of action for industry leaders.
This report sets out to emphasize that the circular economy must hold its promise not merely to the village economy, but also to a globalized economy of nine billion. It presents the concept of circularity as a tangible driver of industrial innovations and value creation for the 21st century global economy.
Schumpeter's theory of entrepreneurship defines the entrepreneur as an innovator who introduces new products, services, production methods, markets or sources of supply. Their innovations disrupt the existing economy and initiate economic development. McClelland's need for achievement theory sees entrepreneurs as driven by a need to achieve and take responsibility for solving problems rather than external incentives like money. Leibenstein's X-efficiency theory argues entrepreneurs improve resource allocation and reduce inefficiencies. Knight's risk bearing theory views profit as the reward entrepreneurs earn for taking on non-insurable risks.
Entrepreneurship has become the hot cake in town nowadays thanks to recession and ever increasing inflation. The primitive economics and psychological theories have the answer to same.
Service-Based Business Models & Circular Strategies for textiles
Circle Economy, September 2015
Helene Smiths, Gwen Cunningham, Jade Wilting, Chloe De Roos Feinberg, Kay van ´t Hot
Esposito tse &_soufani_2018_ introducing a circular economy Nelsio R. de Abreu
This document summarizes the concept of a circular economy as an alternative to the traditional linear "take, make, dispose" economic model. It discusses how the linear model of mass production and consumption is unsustainable given current resource demands and environmental impacts. The circular economy aims to decouple economic growth from resource use by keeping products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times through strategies like designing out waste, building in durability and recyclability, and recovering and regenerating products and materials at end of life. Realizing a circular economy could significantly reduce demand for virgin resources and generate economic benefits by capturing the value retained in products and materials that would otherwise be lost as waste.
This document provides a five-step guide for companies to transition to a circular economy model. It begins with an executive summary that outlines the benefits of a circular economy, including generating $1.8 trillion for the European economy by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The guide then describes each of the five steps: 1) assess the company's current circular practices, 2) integrate circular design principles, 3) build business cases, 4) ensure stakeholder support, and 5) lead by example. The overall objective is to help companies unlock more value while using fewer resources.
The document discusses various topics related to entrepreneurship development including definitions of an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, advantages of being an entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial decision process, characteristics and core competencies of successful entrepreneurs, skills required, classifications of entrepreneurs based on different factors, myths about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial development models, and principles for a successful new venture.
This document discusses store design and layout. It identifies learning outcomes related to the role of store environment in marketing and the importance of design. It then examines factors that contribute to a retailer's image such as quality, price, and location. Various elements of store design are explored, including atmosphere, lighting, music, smell, and temperature. Different types of store layouts - grid, curve, boutique, and guided flows - are described along with considerations for space management and allocation to induce sales and profitability.
This document proposes establishing an Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) as a partnership between an Institute of Management Studies and the Small & Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) of Pakistan. The EDC would promote entrepreneurship and small businesses in the NWFP region through various training programs, seminars, networking events, and business competitions. SMEDA would provide technical assistance and resources to support the EDC's operations. The EDC's goals are to increase graduates becoming entrepreneurs, raise awareness of entrepreneurship, and help more residents start small businesses.
Innovation for a circular economy emerging players, business models and key ...Sustainable Brands
1) The document discusses emerging business models, partnerships, and the economics of recycling and recovering materials.
2) It notes that while recycling has value, facilities have operating costs that must be covered to turn a profit. Mixed plastics in particular present challenges.
3) The Closed Loop Fund is highlighted as an approach where brands, cities, recyclers, and others invest in recycling infrastructure projects and interventions to spur the circular economy.
WEF Report - Young Global Leaders Circular Economy Innovation & New Busine...Vikrant Mudaliar
The document discusses the sharing economy and collaborative consumption. It begins with a foreword noting the resource constraints facing the global economy and how the sharing economy offers a model of profound collaboration and consumption focused on access over ownership. The main body of the document then provides context, discusses what the sharing economy is and how it has evolved historically. It outlines different sharing economy models and sectors, how trust and reputation are important, and whether monetary exchanges are necessary. It concludes by discussing crowdfunding and how the sharing economy intersects with concepts like the circular economy.
The document describes a business game called CIRCULAB that is designed to foster creativity and collaboration around circular economy opportunities. The game brings together participants from different departments within a company to generate new business ideas that can reduce environmental impact and create shared value. It provides tools and is facilitated by a network of circular economy experts to help participants think outside the box. The goal is for companies to break down silos, integrate corporate social responsibility, and discover innovative solutions through the workshop format.
GreenBiz 17 Tutorial Slides: "Putting Circular Economy Principles to Work"GreenBiz Group
The Circular Economy presents an incredible opportunity for transformative growth and change, but taking the concept from theory to implementation requires what can be a challenging exercise in rethinking systems. Join this session to explore how to put these principles into practice. Actual business case studies will set the stage for a group brainstorming session on how to apply circular models to various business scenarios. Key concepts to be covered include:
How adopting a Circular Economy mindset can deliver value to your business
The key drivers for a Circular Economy business
How to integrate lifecycle thinking and circular economy
How to select the right metrics and quantify circularity
What Europe’s Circular Package means for your company
GreenBiz 17 In-Depth Tutorials are intensive half-day sessions held prior to the start of the conference. These are designed to offer participants an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of interest and develop tangible knowledge and skills. In addition, attendees will have a greater opportunity to network with their peers in these interactive sessions. Concurrent tutorials will be held the morning of Tuesday, February 14, and are available only to those who purchase an All Access Pass.
TCI 2016 Pilot study business models circular economy TCI Network
This document summarizes the results of a pilot study on business models for the circular economy in the Netherlands. It identifies four key building blocks for circular business models: 1) organizing cycles, 2) revenue models, 3) value creation, and 4) strategy. The study found that participating companies focus on reducing waste and recycling, see opportunities in new revenue streams like pay-per-use models, and view responsible and cooperative behavior as strategic advantages. It concludes that fully realizing the circular economy will require new organizational models and cooperation between companies and other stakeholders.
This document discusses new business models and revenue models for companies in the circular economy. It begins by outlining the need for new industrial models due to population growth, resource scarcity, and volatile commodity prices. It then presents several examples of circular business models including pay-per-use models for lighting and vehicles, and a model where a company earns revenue from the energy savings of high-end appliances. Finally, it proposes a framework for companies to test new circular concepts through small, low-risk trials before rolling out successful ideas more broadly.
A circular business model aims to use resources efficiently and create no waste by keeping materials in continuous use through reuse and recycling. It redefines market growth and value creation to be sustainable. The document explores 10 business model archetypes that enable circularity, including 5 classic circular models of closed-loop recycling, downcycling, upcycling, industrial symbiosis, and collection services and 5 enabling models of product-service systems, lock-in, local loops, modularity, and personalization. The models were developed to inspire Unilever to develop radically different sustainable products and services through market development while decoupling growth from environmental impact.
Circular economy as strategy for sustainable development and business innovationMichael Søgaard Jørgensen
Critical introduction to circular economy and how possiiblities and limitations for application in Danish businesses' strategies are analysed in a Danish research project
World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Sharing Economy Position Paper June...Collaborative Lab
This paper seeks to place the sharing economy on the global agenda for companies, governments, communities and entrepreneurs alike. It is presented by the WEF YGL Sharing Economy Working Group which is part of the Circular Economy Innovation and New Business Models Initiative.
The goal of this paper is to explain what the sharing economy is and why it holds potential, focusing on key principles, drivers, trends and models. It maps out critical factors and conditions required for access-based business models to scale up, and identifies both opportunities and possible challenges to their success. It also embeds the sharing economy within a larger context and movement focused on resource efficiency, sustainability, changing demographics and user behaviors.
The sharing economy represents one of several substantive investigations by the WEF community into new disruptive business models that are impacting industries, value chains and systems around the world. It is intended to serve as an input to future WEF summits, sessions and engagements focused on the future of business, cities, technology, demographic shifts and a variety of sector-specific verticals.
Barriers & drivers towards a circular economySpringtij
This document discusses barriers and drivers towards achieving a circular economy in the Netherlands. It identifies several types of barriers, including institutional, cultural, financial, technological, and regulatory. Specific regulatory barriers mentioned include a lack of harmonized standards and definitions, conflicting regulations between energy/waste policies, and preferential treatment for reuse and repair in policies. The document recommends improving education around circular economy principles, incentivizing new business models, removing subsidies that support linear economies, and ensuring policy tools are coherent and do not create unnecessary administrative burdens. It argues that transitioning to a circular economy will be challenging and last 1-2 generations.
This document summarizes Jen Van Der Meer's talk on circular economy business models. The talk discusses how business models can be designed to achieve more equitable outcomes through a circular economy approach. Popular business models like subscriptions, renting, and pay-per-use models are compared for their potential to enable a circular economy. The talk references Ray Anderson's philosophy of taking the whole industry with you in transitioning to sustainability. Myths about circular economy business models are debunked, emphasizing that they are not always disruptive or better for the environment. It is argued that business models must prioritize people and serve their needs through equitable and joyful outcomes.
Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the scale-up across global supply ...Sustainable Brands
In this report, the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Company, joined forces to reconcile the concept of scaling a circular economy within the reality of a global economy and complex multi-tier supply chains. The key objective is to propose a very specific joint plan of action for industry leaders.
This report sets out to emphasize that the circular economy must hold its promise not merely to the village economy, but also to a globalized economy of nine billion. It presents the concept of circularity as a tangible driver of industrial innovations and value creation for the 21st century global economy.
Schumpeter's theory of entrepreneurship defines the entrepreneur as an innovator who introduces new products, services, production methods, markets or sources of supply. Their innovations disrupt the existing economy and initiate economic development. McClelland's need for achievement theory sees entrepreneurs as driven by a need to achieve and take responsibility for solving problems rather than external incentives like money. Leibenstein's X-efficiency theory argues entrepreneurs improve resource allocation and reduce inefficiencies. Knight's risk bearing theory views profit as the reward entrepreneurs earn for taking on non-insurable risks.
Entrepreneurship has become the hot cake in town nowadays thanks to recession and ever increasing inflation. The primitive economics and psychological theories have the answer to same.
Service-Based Business Models & Circular Strategies for textiles
Circle Economy, September 2015
Helene Smiths, Gwen Cunningham, Jade Wilting, Chloe De Roos Feinberg, Kay van ´t Hot
Esposito tse &_soufani_2018_ introducing a circular economy Nelsio R. de Abreu
This document summarizes the concept of a circular economy as an alternative to the traditional linear "take, make, dispose" economic model. It discusses how the linear model of mass production and consumption is unsustainable given current resource demands and environmental impacts. The circular economy aims to decouple economic growth from resource use by keeping products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times through strategies like designing out waste, building in durability and recyclability, and recovering and regenerating products and materials at end of life. Realizing a circular economy could significantly reduce demand for virgin resources and generate economic benefits by capturing the value retained in products and materials that would otherwise be lost as waste.
This document provides a five-step guide for companies to transition to a circular economy model. It begins with an executive summary that outlines the benefits of a circular economy, including generating $1.8 trillion for the European economy by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The guide then describes each of the five steps: 1) assess the company's current circular practices, 2) integrate circular design principles, 3) build business cases, 4) ensure stakeholder support, and 5) lead by example. The overall objective is to help companies unlock more value while using fewer resources.
A presentation by prof Walter Stahel at the seminar "Towards a circular economy" organized by Swedish think tank Global Utmaning and Stockholm Resilience Centre at Galleri 3, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, on the 16th of April 2012.
Circular economy - a new paradigm in manufacutringRanjani491
The document discusses the linear "take-make-waste" model of production and consumption that has dominated the last 150 years. This linear model is unsustainable as it depletes natural resources and produces large amounts of waste. The document introduces circular economy as an alternative model that aims to eliminate waste and the use of toxic chemicals, be powered by renewable energy, and design products to be reused and recycled to keep resources in use for as long as possible. It provides examples of companies implementing circular economy principles and argues that the circular model represents significant opportunities for cost savings, risk mitigation, innovation and job creation compared to the linear economy.
Growth within a-circular_economy_vision_for_a_competitive_europe (1)Sustainable Brands
This document provides an overview of a report titled "Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe" published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The report examines how adopting principles of a circular economy could impact economic growth and the environment in Europe. It models potential outcomes for mobility, food systems, and the built environment under current and circular economy scenarios. The report finds that a circular economy may provide significant opportunities for Europe's economy and competitiveness through increased resource productivity and new business models.
Ellen mac arthur foundation towards the circular economy vol.2Glenn Klith Andersen
This report examines the economic opportunities of transitioning from a linear "take-make-dispose" model of production and consumption to a circular economy model, with a focus on fast-moving consumer goods. It finds that a circular economy approach could generate hundreds of billions in material savings annually by recovering more value from resources through reuse and regeneration. Specific opportunities identified include generating $1.5 billion from food waste collection and $1.9-2 billion from cascading beverage processing waste to other industries. Transitioning to reusable packaging like glass bottles could also reduce costs. The report argues that companies adopting circular business models will be rewarded as resource constraints increase pressures on the linear economy.
This document discusses circular economies as an alternative to the current linear "take-make-dispose" economic model. A circular economy aims to eliminate waste and restore environmental functions by keeping resources in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, refurbishment and recycling. It outlines several key characteristics of a circular model, including designing out waste, building resilience through diversity, using renewable energy sources, and thinking in systems and cascades to extract additional value from materials. Several companies exploring circular business models are provided as examples.
M9 CSR - Adaptation to Circular Economy Innovation.pptxcaniceconsulting
This module discusses aligning circular economy innovation with corporate social responsibility. It explains that a circular economy is more sustainable than a linear economy by reducing resource use and waste. Companies can benefit from a circular economy through cost savings, increased competitiveness, and compliance with environmental regulations. The module encourages businesses to join the global effort for a circular economy by implementing its principles like designing durable products and using renewable energy. It provides examples of Irish small and medium enterprises that have adopted circular business models.
The document discusses the concept of a circular economy. It defines a circular economy as an alternative to a linear economy where resources are kept in use for as long as possible, the maximum value is extracted from them while in use, then products and materials are recovered and regenerated at the end of use.
It provides characteristics of a circular economy, including that waste is designed out, diversity provides flexibility, sustainable energy sources power the economy, and full costs are reflected in pricing. Examples are given of companies implementing circular economy practices, such as Veolia reusing materials and Dell using recycled materials. The conclusion states that while the circular economy faces challenges, economies are gradually becoming more circular in terms of both production and consumption.
Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the scale-up across global supp...Yakuzaazero
Prepared in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company
http://www.weforum.org/
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ENV_TowardsCircularEconomy_Report_2014.pdf
How steel is helping to achieve a global circular economy (Author: Clare Broa...POSCO Research Institute
There is an increasing focus on making products last longer, reusing or mending them, or even remanufacturing them. This new concept has been branded a circular economy where the focus is on reduce, reuse, remanufacture and recycle (4Rs). The steel industry is well placed to contribute to a circular economy and is part of the solution in addressing environmental concerns for many products and services. Key properties of steel (strength, durability, magnetic properties) make steel a key enabler of a circular economy. This article outlines how the steel industry is addressing current environmental issues as well as how regulations can be utilized to generate an overall environmental improvement of products and services.
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Circular economy principles aim to maximize the value and use of resources by keeping materials in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, and recycling. Industrial clusters can help implement circular economy practices by facilitating the exchange of byproducts between companies located near each other. In India, existing industrial clusters and manufacturing districts could transition to circular economy models to improve resource efficiency and competitiveness. The government should incentivize circular economy practices through eco-industrial park development and support for clean technologies.
The document discusses circular economy and performance economy models. It defines a circular economy as closed resource loops within a regional economy through reuse and recycling. A performance economy involves selling goods as services by retaining ownership of products and resources. The document outlines several benefits of these models including job creation, reduced emissions and waste, and decoupling economic growth from resource use. Sustainable taxation and framework conditions that do not penalize reuse activities are presented as ways to further encourage circular business models.
This document discusses a study examining economic growth in the EU-15 countries since the 1970s. It presents a generalized production function model that treats capital, labor, and useful energy as primary factors of production, rather than assuming energy is derived from capital and labor. The model is estimated using country-level data from EU-15 nations to analyze how the marginal products of these three factors have impacted economic growth over time on a country-specific basis. The results indicate variable marginal products and suggest different policy implications for capital-labor-energy coordination across EU countries.
This document summarizes a webinar presented by Walter Stahel on the circular economy. It discusses how the current linear economy focuses on maximizing throughput and growth, while a circular economy aims to keep resources in use for longer through reuse, repair, and recycling. A circular economy preserves existing value by managing stocks and flows, substitutes labor for materials, creates local jobs, and reduces environmental impacts through greater efficiency. Remanufacturing products and selling goods as long-lasting services are highlighted as key strategies. Transitioning to a circular model could generate large cost savings for businesses and jobs while decreasing resource use and emissions.
Over the next few decades the number of people living in cities will nearly double. Yet even today many cities lack sufficient clean drinking water, electricity and other basic resources essentially needed to support the exploding populations and stable strengthen economy.
These problems are created by rampant urbanization and are amongst the most important challenges of our times. These problems represent greatest responsibilities for the emerging business models by positioning them to shape the sustainable economic landscape of the future.
Across the world addressing resource scarcity involves either government action or private-sector action and either increasing the resource base or managing the demand by reducing and reutilizing. A vast opportunity exists for the private sector to provide products and services that make the most efficient use of available resources.
Similar to article Walter Stahel on Circular Economy (20)
1) A circular economy sells functional services and performance rather than goods, decoupling economic growth from resource consumption while increasing regional jobs.
2) The business model for a circular economy is based on optimizing the use of existing stock through reuse and remanufacturing in small local loops, rather than prioritizing the production of new goods in large global supply chains.
3) Sustainable taxation policies that do not tax labor and do tax the consumption of non-renewable resources can create incentives for the circular economy by making reuse and remanufacturing more profitable and competitive compared to linear take-make-waste production models.
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This document discusses the circular economy and creating common ground around it. It mentions one planet architecture, systems innovation, process innovation, technical innovation, materials, energy, redesigning for the short and long term. Examples discussed include DESSO's business case, the Venlo C2C lab, the Circle Economy Platform in the Netherlands, and partnerships between innovators and companies like Philips and Steelcase. The document outlines fundamentals of ecology, thermodynamics, and biology that relate to the circular economy. It poses questions about whether to ask inconvenient or innovative questions and preparing for the future instead of old models.
Introduction on the Studytour for Business School in the Netherlands, may 2012
Ellen Macarthur Foundation and One Planet Architecture institute were the organisers
Full-RAG: A modern architecture for hyper-personalizationZilliz
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1. EMF volume 15.05.12, exStockholm 16.04.12
The business angle of a circular economy –
higher competitiveness, higher resource security and material efficiency
Walter R. Stahel
The Product-Life Institute, Geneva. www.product-life.org
walter_stahel@genevaassociation.org
Abstract
The present economy is not sustainable with regard to its per capita material consumption. A
dematerialisation of the economy of industrialised countries can be achieved by a change in
course, from an industrial economy built on throughput to a circular economy built on stock
optimisation, decoupling wealth and welfare from resource consumption while creating more
work. The business models of a circular economy have been known since the mid-1970s and
are now applied in a number of industrial sectors.
1 Introduction
“Previous patterns of growth have brought increased prosperity, but through intensive and
often inefficient use of resources. The role of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services is
largely undervalued, the costs of waste are often not reflected in prices, current markets and
public policies cannot fully deal with competing demands on strategic resources such as
minerals, land, water and biomass. This calls for a coherent and integrated response over a
wide range of policies in order to deal with expected resource constraints and to sustain our
prosperity in the long run.” (EU COM(2011) 571 final)
This statement by the European Commission analyses today’s resource efficiency and policy
shortcomings. But it does not give solutions, it does not address labour as a resource and it
leaves out a number of other challenges.
Economic actors in the circular economy have started to tackle many of these issues in a
bottom-up approach by introducing new private sector business models of the circular
economy, such as ‘re-use, repair and remanufacture instead of replace’, and ‘selling goods as
services’.
This includes an efficient use of labour as a renewable resource with a qualitative edge and
“an economy as if people mattered” (Schumacher 1973).
The multiple advantages of a circular economy have been described decades ago by Stahel
and Reday (1976/1981), and have started to transcend into policy making, as for instance in
the 2008 EU waste directive. However, politicians’ reflexes are still geared to overcome
economic problems by promoting growth in the industrial production economy—witness the
“cash for clunkers” initiatives in 22 countries in 2010—or by focussing on singular issues, such
as environmental solutions. The quest for sustainable (holistic) solutions, which would simul-
taneously address economic, social and environmental issues, is jeopardised by the “silo”
structures of public administrations, academia and many corporations. Stahel (2001) showed
that most sustainable solutions are intersectoral and interdisciplinary and thus contradict
existing regulations, do not fit into academic career structures and demand a ‘new think’.
This paper shows the advantages inherent in the circular economy and argues that the shift to
a circular economy can be accelerated by one simple shift in public policy—adapting the tax
system to the principles of sustainability by not taxing renewable resources including work.
This will bring about a rapid expansion not only of the circular economy for manufactured
1
2. capital (infrastructure, equipment and goods) but equally of all other economic activities based
on stock optimisation and “caring”, such as health services, education, organic agriculture,
producing goods from such locally available renewable materials as leather, wood and wool.
Caring is also the foundation for maintaining our cultural heritage.
2 A Circular Economy is about economics and profit maximization
This section details the circular economy, its focus on stock optimization, and its structure of
three loops of different nature and five principles. It explains why re-use and service-life exten-
sion of goods are the most profitable and resource efficient business models of the circular
economy. From an economics view, maintaining value and performance of stock replaces
value added of flow, and utilization value replaces exchange value as central notion of econo-
mic value.
Before 2012, few studies existed which analysed the economic benefits of a circular economy
on a national or supranational level. In time for the World Economic Forum 2012 in Davos, the
London-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2012) published a report which calculates that a
circular economy (better design and more efficient use of material) could save European
manufacturers US$630 billion a year by 2025. The report produced by consultancy McKinsey,
only covers five sectors that represent a little less than half of the GDP contribution of EU
manufacturing, but still calculates that greater resource efficiency could deliver multi-billion
Euro savings equivalent to 23 percent of current spending on manufacturing inputs.
The following abstract of “The Product-Life Factor” (Stahel 1982) for the Mitchell Prize
Competition 1982 on “The role of the private sector in a sustainable society” is still an
excellent summary of the circular economy:
The extension of the use-life of goods is, first, a sensible point at which to start a gradual
transition towards a sustainable society in which progress is made consistent with the world’s
finite resource base and, second, a strategy consistent with an active and independent role for
the private sector. Product-life, or the period over which products and goods are used,
governs their replacement speed and thus the consumption of natural resources required for
their manufacture and the amount of waste they create. Shortening product-life increases
demand for replacement goods where these can be afforded. Extending product-life optimizes
the total life-span of goods and reduces depletion of natural resources and consequently
waste; it builds on and increases wealth. Compared to fast-replacement, product-life extension
is a substitution of service activities for extractive and manufacturing Industries, and a
replacement of large-scale capital-intensive companies by smaller, labour-intensive, locally
integrated work units. The private sector, whether R&D, manufacturing or finance, will find
innumerable business opportunities in product-life extension activities—Reuse, Repair,
Reconditioning and Recycling. Indeed, while increasing the number of skilled jobs available
and reducing our dependence on strategic materials, such activities will provide the private
sector with fresh impetus to make cheaper goods available as part of a self-replenishing
economy built on a closed-loop pattern which allows a substitution of manpower for energy. In
this way, unemployment and poverty which certainly aggravate the fundamental instability of
the world economy might be substantially reduced. The private sector has, moreover,
resources and skills that uniquely qualify it to initiate this transition towards a sustainable
society where a balanced use of resources and other societal goals are achieved. Potential
disincentives and obstacles can, we believe, be overcome with appropriate education and
fiscal and policy measures. (Stahel, 1982)
A circular economy is about stock optimisation. New metrics to measure changes in the
quantity and quality of stock—wealth in the form of manufactured capital stock, but also of
health, education and skills—are needed to manage stock. We know how much money
governments spend on building schools and employing teachers, but we do not know if as a
result the students are better prepared for life. The stock of buildings in a given country and
2
3. their qualitative conditions (thermal insulation, annual energy consumption) are not known, nor
the residual service-life of infrastructure or technical equipment—which makes a national
stock and thus wealth management difficult.
Turning the linear industrial economy into a loop or circular economy is, by definition, reducing
the economic importance of resource extraction and waste management, and also reducing
the environmental impairment caused by these industrial sectors. This change of focus from a
linear throughput to a stock management opens opportunities in three loops of different
characteristics, which are described in this section and shown graphically in figure 1: (a) a re-
use and remarketing loop for goods, (b) a loop of product-life extension activities of goods,
and (c) a recycling loop for molecules (secondary resources).
A circular economy is characterised by a number of principles which do not exist in the linear
industrial economy, with the exception of principle 5. Policymakers and economic actors of the
manufacturing economy therefore do not know them, nor their impact on the economy:
Principle 1: The smaller the loop (activity-wise and geographically) the more profitable and
resource efficient it is.
Principle 2: Loops have no beginning and no end.
Principle 3: The speed of the circular flows is crucial: the efficiency of managing stock in the
circular economy increases with a decreasing flow speed.
Principle 4: Continued ownership is cost efficient: re-use, repair and remanufacture without a
change of ownership save double transaction costs.
Principle 5: A circular economy needs functioning markets.
Figure 1:
The main loops of a
circular economy
Stahel W.R. and
Reday, G.
(1976/1981)
re-use and
remarketing
3 A Circular Economy is about material and resource sufficiency and efficiency
This section presents new metrics to measure material efficiency, and quantifies the reduc-
tions in material consumption and emissions that can be achieved in the circular economy.
Stahel (1985) showed that many different types of innovation to increase material efficiency
exist in the circular economy, including technical, commercial and ‘utilisation’ innovation.
Technical innovation includes systems solution instead of product innovation (e.g. Plane
Transport Systems).
3
4. A longer utilisation—long life products, re-use and service-life extension of goods and compo-
nents—are one option. A more intensive use of goods is another utilisation innovation to
achieve a higher material efficiency, for instance through shared utilisation (together: public
transport) or serial utilisation of goods (one after another: washing machines in Laundromats
and rental cars). These options need a “new relationship with goods” and have extensively
been discussed in the early 1990s (IFG 1993) but are only now finding a real interest on both
the supply and demand side, for example in car sharing initiatives.
Two distinctively different types of resource efficiency govern the circular economy: loop 1 in
figure 1 is about resource sufficiency in the re-use and service-life extension of manufactured
capital, loop 2 is about material efficiency in recycling materials (molecules).
The strategies of loop 1 are product specific—re-refining engine oil, solvents and other
products with a catalytic function need a different approach from the service-life extension
activities for buildings or mobile durable goods. The latter’s resource efficiency can be
improved by modular system design, component standardisation and other eco-design
(design for environment) approaches which are now known and well documented.
The strategies of loop 2 are material specific—metals, ceramic materials and plastic use
processes of physical and chemical recycling often derived from manufacturing processes, as
well as new processes such as the depolymerisation of polymers. Materials with a low
price/weight ratio, such as brick and concrete waste from demolishing buildings, are best
crushed, using mobile equipment, for re-use as recycling concrete on-site for new
constructions.
All materials come with a multiple backpack (rucksack) of mining waste (Schmidt-Bleek 1993)
and environmental impairment. These backpacks differ for each material and are highest for
rare metals such as gold (with a backpack of 500,000), lowest for plastics (with a backpack of
0.1). Manufactured capital in the form of infrastructure, buildings, goods and components has
individual accumulated backpacks of all the materials and energies they embed, which have
to be calculated individually.
Manufactured capital contains, in addition to the backpacks of the materials it is made of, the
sum of the embodied energy and GHG emissions as well as the (virtual) water of the
manufacturing steps from basic materials into finished goods and up to the point of sale.
The re-use, remarketing and service-life extension activities in a circular economy preserve
the mining backpacks of water and energy inputs and related GHG emissions in the manufac-
turing chain up to the point of sale, which are embodied in the finished goods. In addition,
they also prevent the environmental impairment of the material recycling and/or waste mana-
gement processes.
Higher resource efficiency also means reduced costs for material and energy procurement, as
well as for waste disposal, waste water treatment and emissions.
4 A Circular Economy is about an intelligent use of human labour—job creation in a
regional economy
This section explains why human labour—work—is different from the other renewable
resources: creative, versatile and adaptable, able to be educated but perishable if unused.
The circular economy needs workers familiar with past technologies and thus offers jobs for
“silver workers”.
“Roughly three quarters of all industrial energy consumption is associated with the extraction
or production of basic materials like steel and cement, while only about one quarter is used in
the transformation of raw material into finished goods such as machines and buildings. The
converse is true of labour, about three times as much being used in the conversion of
4
5. materials to finished products as is required in the production of material.” (Stahel and Reday-
Mulvey 1976/81)
Compared to the traditional manufacturing process, the labour input of the circular economy is
higher as (a) its economies of scale are limited in geographic and volume terms, and (b)
remanufacturing comprises additional steps of dismantling, cleaning and quality control, which
are absent in manufacturing.
No estimations exist on the impact of a circular economy on a national labour market. The
2012 report produced by McKinsey for the London-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation renoun-
ced to give such estimations because the economic models available to McKinsey do not
allow such a calculation.
Yet employment is at the heart of the social pillar of sustainability. Furthermore, substituting
labour for other resources is also an intelligent solution for reasons which are inherent in
human labour—it is the only renewable resource with a qualitative characteristic. Work is the
most versatile and adaptable of all resources, with a strong but perishable qualitative edge: (a)
It is the only resource capable of creativity and with the capacity to produce innovative
solutions, and (b) human skills deteriorate if unused—continuity of work and continued
learning are necessary to maintain skills and upgrade capabilities. A person who has been
unemployed for a few years risks becoming unemployable.
Governments should give priority to human labour in resource use because a barrel of oil or a
ton of coal left in the ground for another decade will not deteriorate, nor will it demand social
welfare, and not taxing labour reduces incentives for black labour in the shadow economy and
thus reduces the costs for governments to monitor and punish abuses.
5 A Circular Economy is about caring
One of the objectives of a circular economy is to preserve the quality, performance and value
of the existing stock, wealth and welfare. This certainly concerns manufactured capital, such
as buildings, infrastructure, equipment and goods is a key criteria if selling performance
(goods as services).
Stock management needs statistics and metrics to measure the variations of wealth due to
variations in the quality of stock. GDP is a flow metric, ignoring if our wealth—the stock—has
increased as a result of the flow. This situation has been compared to a bath tub where only
the inflow of hot and cold water is measured, but the outflow and the water level are ignored.
(Giarini and Stahel, 1989)
And stock management includes people’s skills, education and health, knowledge and know-
how. Preserving culture is also linked to stock, not flow management; maintaining UNESCO
world heritage sites, museums and examples of technological achievements will all profit from
the shift in taxation towards the non-taxation of renewable resources. And caring is a high-
quality world: Stradivari instruments and expensive watches do not live forever by design, but
through periodic remanufacturing, motivated by caring.
Caring is a key characteristics of managing stock—caring for keeping up existing values and
qualities. Most car owners will credit the manufacturer of their vehicle for its continued reliable
functioning, rather than their mechanic who provides the maintenance and repair services. A
change in popular values and beliefs would multiply the perception of caring as a pillar of the
(circular) economy. The fleet of vintage and oldtimer cars in the UK could be a point in case.
5
6. 6 Retained ownership of goods and embodied material provides future resource
security
This section looks at why selling goods as service, or performance, is the most profitable and
resource efficient business model of the circular economy. By focusing on systems solutions,
it internalises the cost of risk and of waste; by retaining the ownership of goods and the
embodied resources, it creates a corporate and national resource security for the future.
Many economists have a problem accepting that this is a discontinuity in traditional economic
business models, and look at the sale of performance as an extension of the aftermarket
(Cohen, M.A. et al 2006).
Economic actors retaining material ownership over the full life of their products gain a future
resource security but accept a liability for the performance of their goods. Such a Performance
Economy (Stahel 2010) is based on the triple objectives of more growth and more jobs in
combination with substantially reduced resource consumption. This triple objective can be
achieved through three new business models: producing performance, selling performance
and maintaining performance over time.
Success is measured using two new metrics in the form of absolute decoupling indicators:
value per weight ($/kg) and labour-input per weight (man-hours/kg).
In the Performance Economy, providing materials services can be achieved, for instance, by
building residential housing without capital. The developer rents all material and equipment
from the manufacturers, say over a period of 50 years, who in return receive a yearly rent,
financed by the rental income from the apartments. As the manufacturers have to give a 50
year guarantee for their material, they will make sure that the most appropriate material is
used and applied correctly (renewable urban space initiative, in: Stahel 2010, p. 156).
Selling performance differs according to the characteristics of products and is widely present
in today’s economy: selling goods as services by operating private and public networks
(railways, telecom, motorways, airports); chemical management services and rent-a-molecule;
energy management and integrated crop management services; rental and operational
leasing of real estate; selling custom-made indoor climate for energy companies; Private
Finance Initiatives (PFI) as a strategy to sell the utilisation of infrastructure according to the
“Consumer Pays Principle”, such as the French and Italian toll motorways; facility manage-
ment of real estate and industrial plants; textile leasing (professional attire, hotel and hospital
linen). These are but a few examples of the business model of selling performance, which
also include rent a wash, rent a molecule and chemical leasing, as well as renting fashionable
consumer goods (taking the waste out of fashion, see websites to rent ladies’ handbags).
Selling performance is the most profitable and most material-efficient business model of the
circular economy, as it is built on exploiting the small loops. It focuses on utilisation optimisa-
tion and exploits resource efficiency as well as sufficiency and prevention options to gain
financial advantages and higher competitiveness. And it can be applied to all types of goods,
see Table 2.2, key business strategies of the Functional Service Economy on the next page.
Water and energy savings as well as waste prevention now become profitable activities that
positively impact the financial bottom line of corporations. Whereas in the industrial economy,
sufficiency and prevention options during the utilisation phase of goods present a loss of
income, and are thus undesirable.
Selling performance, results, utilisation, services instead of goods means that economic actors
a) retain the ownership of goods and embodied resources.
b) internalise the cost of risk and of waste.
By comparison, the industrial economy maximises its profit by externalising the cost of risk
and of waste. After the point of sale, it offers a warranty for a limited period of time and limited
to manufacturing defects.
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7. By internalising the cost of risk and the cost of waste, economic actors selling performance
have an economic incentive to prevent any future liability after the point of sale.
Table 1: Key business strategies of the Performance Economy
Source: Stahel, W.R. (2010) The Performance Economy, p. 102.
Retaining ownership of their goods and embodied resources over the full life of their
products gives corporations in times of rising resource prices (see next section) a high future
resource security and resource price guarantee as well as a competitive cost advantage
against throughput-based competitors, along my motto:
“the goods of today are the resources of tomorrow at yesterday’s prices”.
Buying performance is the-demand side strategy equivalent to selling performance. Buying
goods as services creates the same resource efficiency advantages and can be regarded as a
new green public procurement policy. Buying services instead of hardware is the preferred
procurement option of parts of the U.S. administration, such as NASA and the Pentagon, and
has sparked a number of innovative start-up companies. NASA now buys exclusively orbital
services from companies such as Space-X; the space shuttle was the last NASA-owned and
operated hardware to provide Earth orbit services.
Michelin provides tyre-use services to all parts of the U.S. armed forces: for aircraft tyres, a
fee per landing is charged; vehicle tyres pay a fixed fee per 100 miles. This service of “pay by
the mile” is now also offered to French and U.S. fleet managers of lorries, using a business
model of mobile tyre service workshops to make tyres last as long as safely possible.
http://www.michelintruck.com/michelintruck/services/MichelinFleetSolutions.jsp
7 Policy for material efficiency: the role of sustainable taxation and sustainable
framework conditions
Sustainable framework conditions should treat the circular economy on its own merits, by:
(a) not taxing work—human—labour as a zero-carbon renewable resource,
(b) not charging VAT on such value preservation activities as re-use, repair and remanufac-
turing, with the possible exception of technologic upgrading activities.
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8. Major re-marketing activities, such as flee-markets and ebay, are already de facto
except from VAT, and,
(c) giving carbon credits for the prevention of GHG emissions, not only for their reduction.
The small loops (fig. 1) constitute a prevention of GHG emissions (and waste) but
receive no carbon credits under any of the existing or planned GHG emission
programmes, such as the Kyoto Protocol, which are based on the linear thinking of the
industrial economy: first pollute, then reduce pollution to receive carbon credits!
Sustainable politics should build on simple and convincing principles, such as “do not tax what
you want to foster, punish unwanted effects instead”, and it should promote sustainable
solutions. Ideally, sustainable solutions create self-reinforcing virtuous circles, which
guarantee their longevity.
Not taxing renewable resources including work, and taxing non-renewable ones instead,
creates virtuous self-reinforcing circles, by creating incentives to work more (no penalty for
higher income) and by creating more wealth from less new resource input (increasing caring in
resource use including long-term resource ownership).
Sustainable taxation should reward desired developments and discourage unwanted effects of
activities. In a sustainable economy, taxes on renewable resources including work—human
labour—are counterproductive and should be abandoned. The resulting loss of state revenue
could be compensated by taxing the consumption of non-renewable resources in the form of
materials and energies, and of undesired wastes and emissions. Such a shift in taxation would
promote and reward a circular economy with its local low-carbon and low-resource solutions.
These are inherently more labour-intensive than manufacturing because economies of scale
in a circular economy are limited. Taxes on non-renewable resources could be charged in a
similar way to today’s Value Added Tax (VAT), also for imported goods.
The intelligent use of human labour has traditionally been discouraged through taxation,
whereas the waste of it has been “encouraged” in some industrialised countries through
generous welfare. This shows that the role of work as a renewable resource in the economy
has been misunderstood by policymakers.
Summary
The linear industrial economy is best in overcoming situations of scarcity of food, goods,
shelter. But in a situation of saturated markets, a circular economy is best suited to manage
existing stock. In 1980, the market penetration for durable household goods in France was
already above 90 per cent for all social classes (Stahel, Jackson 1993). In Germany, from
1995 onwards, the number of cars scrapped each year has been roughly the same as the
number of cars newly registered. Continued production in saturated markets constitutes a
substitution of, not an addition to, wealth, at the cost of “intensive and often inefficient use of
resources” (EU COM(2011) 571 final).
For the last 100 years, resource prices for energy and material have constantly decreased;
maintaining ownership of materials to assure access to future resources made little sense. At
the beginning of the 21st century, this trend has changed, and it is expected that resource
prices in the 21st century will constantly increase—a theory formulated by experts at the
European Commission and prominently by the asset manager Jeremy Grantham (2011) who
called it “the big paradigm shift”. Resource security could therefore become a major political
bone of contention; and economic actors maintaining resource ownership will enjoy a certain
guarantee of resource availability and price in the future, at the same time providing resource
security for nations.
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9. A sustainable tax policy of not taxing renewable resources including work constitutes a very
powerful lever to accelerate, boost and generalise the circular economy and its positive
impacts on resource security and regional job creation, while simultaneously reducing GHG
emissions, as summarised in figure 2.
Figure 2:
Sustainable taxation will promote the circular economy which in turn boosts resource security,
regional job creation and the prevention of GHG emission -- Copyright Stahel 2011
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