Circular Economy Practices

IKEA Circular Value Chain Model 🌍 IKEA offers a clear example of how circularity can be embedded across a global value chain. Its approach moves beyond product-level improvements to a systemic shift in how materials are sourced, products are designed, services are structured, and end-of-life is managed. At the design stage, IKEA applies circular principles to ensure that products can be reused, repaired, remanufactured, or recycled. Internal guidelines and evaluation tools help teams integrate these requirements consistently across categories, aiming to extend product life and reduce waste. Materials are a major focus, as they account for a significant share of the company's overall environmental footprint. IKEA is increasing the use of renewable and recycled inputs and testing alternative materials to reduce dependency on virgin resources and fossil-based components. The company is also scaling services that enable customers to participate in circular practices. This includes expanding buy-back programs, resale initiatives, and spare parts availability, as well as improving product designs to simplify disassembly and repair. To support broader change, IKEA is involved in policy dialogue and cross-sector collaboration. Through its partnerships and platforms, the company is contributing to discussions on harmonized standards, recycled material markets, and waste infrastructure. As part of its long-term strategy, IKEA recently committed significant capital through its investment arm to strengthen recycling capabilities across key materials such as plastics, textiles, wood, and mattresses. This aims to address structural barriers and accelerate access to quality secondary materials. These investments are already supporting the development of closed-loop systems in several markets, while also contributing to emissions reductions and supply chain resilience. The focus is on building scalable infrastructure that aligns with IKEA’s circularity and climate goals. The IKEA Circular Value Chain Model reflects a strategic shift from ambition to execution. It provides a practical framework for operationalizing circularity at scale, grounded in product design, material innovation, customer engagement, and long-term investment. #sustainability #business #sustainable #esg

Will Impact globally, EU Packaging Regulation 2025. What should you know? Will it be an opportunity or a challenge? In one year, new packaging policies and regulations will be defined, potentially altering the current ecosystem. Do you understand the key measures and how they might impact or create opportunities for your product? → Global Impact. The upcoming EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), effective in 2025, is crucial for the packaging industry. It mandates recycling labels on packaging and promotes a circular approach for recycling or reusing materials. From 2030, plastic packaging must meet specific recycled material quotas. → Adopted at first reading. Following years of assessments, discussions, stakeholder meetings and intense trilogue consultations, on April 24, 2024, the European Parliament adopted the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) at first reading. → PPWR key measures. > Ensure recyclability by 2030, with "at scale" recycling by 2035. > Promote recycled material use in new plastic packaging by 2030 and 2040. > Require some packaging to be reusable or refillable by 2030 and 2040. > Ban specific packaging to reduce waste. > 15% per capita reduction in packaging waste by 2040 compared to 2018. → Key takeaways for businesses. The new PPWR will significantly impact the European packaging and logistics sector, affecting e-commerce, retailers, and new players like fulfillment service providers. Established Pros and authorized representatives will offer new services. Manufacturers and distributors must thoroughly understand their packaging to avoid sales bans and fines, as packaging will no longer be judged solely on price and logistics. → Packaging waste reduction. PPWR targets packaging waste reduction through bans, weight minimization, and promoting reuse/refill. The most significant impact is expected from reuse/refill initiatives, depending on targets, frequency, weight, and material substitution. PPWR aims for a 15% per capita reduction in EU packaging waste by 2040 compared to 2018. → Shift to recycled plastic. PPWR aims to reduce fossil fuel-based plastic in EU packaging by gradually replacing virgin plastic with recycled content. By 2040, EU plastic packaging should contain 50-65% recycled material, surpassing virgin plastic use. This requires an effective recycling system. Conclusion. The future will focus on sustainability and waste reduction. This presents both opportunities and challenges. It's up to us to leverage it effectively. Here are some curated examples I have searched for you, get inspired for your next success. #beauty #beautypackaging #sustainabilepackaging #packagingreduction #packagingdesign

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

This cube of leftover steel says more about the future of the car industry than most #sustainability reports. Because #circularity in automotive has finally found its ulterior motive. And it is not just about lighter materials or better recycling. It is about redesigning the business model. BMW Group’s new Competence Centre Circularity in Wackersdorf is being built to expand dismantling, sorting and recycling expertise, with commissioning planned for early 2029. Toyota Motor Corporation’s new Circular Factory in the UK is designed to process 10,000 end-of-life vehicles a year, recovering parts and materials for reuse, remanufacturing and recycling. We are moving upstream and downstream at the same time. Upstream, by designing vehicles for disassembly, traceability and material recovery. Downstream, by treating end-of-life vehicles, spare parts, secondary materials and recovery networks as strategic assets, not operational leftovers. The World Economic Forum’s Circular Cars Initiative has been saying this for years: circular value in automotive will not be unlocked by one company optimising one part of the chain. It requires co-innovation, partnership and data transparency across the whole system. That is the shift. The winners in automotive will not just sell more cars. They will build better systems to hold value long after the first sale. #circulareconomy #automotive #systemsintelligence

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

What if we stopped seeing food waste as waste, and started seeing it as a bioeconomy resource? New Zealand’s first national baseline (Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport) estimates that 1.22 million tonnes of food are lost or wasted annually, around 237 kg per person. The largest losses occur across primary production, processing and households. At the same time, the report highlights opportunities to improve data, reduce avoidable waste and find higher-value uses for unavoidable biological side streams. The latest IEA Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme Task 36 case study from Sweden offers valuable lessons. It shows how AI-enabled collection vehicles, smart bins and advanced sensor-based sorting can detect contamination, improve feedstock quality and generate better data for decision-making. Cleaner organic streams can then be converted more effectively into biogas, biofertilisers and other valuable products, rather than being lost to landfill or lower-value treatment. For New Zealand, this points to a clear opportunity: combine waste prevention with smarter collection, separation and processing, creating regional value chains that turn food waste and biological side streams into renewable energy, materials and nutrients. Through the Bioeconomy Science Institute bioenergy and biomanufacturing teams, we are contributing to this transition by developing pathways that transform biological side streams and food waste into valuable bioenergy and biomaterials. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eQ5ys6M3 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ejG7e3ne #Bioeconomy #FoodWaste #ResourceRecovery #Bioenergy #Biomaterials #NewZealand #CircularEconomy

Waste isn’t the problem, it’s the system that treats it like one. In a circular economy, waste is already a resource. The challenge is how to design processes that turn it into value efficiently, locally, and at scale. PINATEX AIELO SL is a great example: a textile made from discarded pineapple leaves, transforming agricultural by-products into a plant-based alternative to leather. No extra land, no additional water, no harm, just smarter use of what’s already there. And it’s not the only one. A growing wave of bio-materials is proving that innovation doesn’t always mean new, sometimes it means used better. Because circularity isn’t a trend, it’s a mindset, one where design begins with waste and regeneration begins with design. 🌿 How else can we rethink waste as a catalyst for innovation in fashion and materials? #CircularEconomy #CircularDesign #BioMaterials #Pinatex #FromWasteToWorth #SustainableInnovation #DesignForChange #RegenerativeDesign #FutureOfMaterials #WasteAsResource

Could some circularity policies go against competitiveness and environment?🤔 Ten years after the first EU circular economy roadmap, we face an uncomfortable truth: Europe's circularity rate has stagnated and recycling capacity in key sectors is declining. The paradox is that this isn't happening despite our policies. It's happening because of them. Take PET plastic. We set ambitious recycled content targets in the Single-Use Plastics Directive to drive investment in recycling infrastructure. The result? Approximately 1 million tonnes of recycling capacity lost or never developed. Why? Because we designed mandates that can be met with cheaper imported recyclate rather than European post-consumer waste. European recyclers can't compete. Facilities close. Collected plastic goes to incineration. Bad for competitiveness, bad for the environment. This forces us to confront what we're actually trying to achieve: - Are we maximizing global circularity metrics—even when that undermines European recycling industries, exports jobs, and results in incinerating perfectly recyclable collected waste? - Or is circularity supposed to be at the core of our industrial policy, creating resilient local value chains and aligning economic with environmental goals? Current policy suggests we've chosen the former while claiming the latter. I understand the legal constraints. WTO rules create real limitations. But when France announces it will implement proximity principles for recycled content in 2026, it shows member states are filling the void left by EU-level creativity. We found WTO-compatible solutions for CBAM, for critical raw materials, for countless other challenges. Why not for circularity? The US Inflation Reduction Act and China's Five-Year Plans show what happens when industrial policy is backed by state apparatus. The EU has detailed regulations but minimal financial commitment and little integration with trade, state aid, or procurement policy. The main problem is that we regulate circularity while continuing to subsidise the linear economy. Unless the EU changes the economic incentives, the market today favours linear over circular products. After ten years, we need honesty about trade-offs between supporting European industry vs. providing cheap inputs, local resilience vs. global efficiency, ambition vs. WTO compliance and real commitment for circularity. If circularity is truly core to EU industrial policy we must design policies that actually build European market for circularity. The current path—ambitious targets, cheap imports, minimal investment—is failing both competitiveness and the environment. What are your ideas on how to fix this? I have elaborated on potential ways to address this challenge in a substack article: https://lnkd.in/eiZs_sT7 #CircularEconomy #EUPolicy #Recycling #Sustainability #IndustrialPolicy #GreenDeal

Circular CMF Development: 4 tools for Advanced Materials Selection 1️⃣ Multi-criteria decision analysis (Ecodesign score) This is a decision-making framework that considers multiple criteria, such as cost, performance, and environmental impact, to rank and prioritize materials. In the final form of a score, critera are firstly identified (e.g. toxicity and health), then weighted, aggregated and ranked, in order to give a comprehensive assessment of each material's suitability for a given application or project. 2️⃣ Material database A circular material database gathers materials and suppliers that complies to relevant standards and certification (ISO, Cradle-to-Cradle...). All materials included in the database undergo rigorous evaluation to ensure alignment with principles of circular economy and sustainable material sourcing. This entails assessing factors such as recyclability, reusability, renewable resource utilization, and absence of hazardous substances. Additionally, the database provides comprehensive information on each material's life cycle attributes, detailing its environmental impact, energy consumption, and end-of-life management options. 3️⃣ Material matrix Materials from the database are visually displayed on a matrix that organizes them based on various performance metrics and sustainability criteria. This matrix allows stakeholders to easily compare and contrast different materials, identifying strengths and weaknesses across multiple dimensions. Each material is represented by a point or marker within the matrix, with its position indicating its performance relative to other materials on each criterion. By visually mapping out the landscape of available materials in this way, the matrix provides a clear and intuitive tool for decision-making. Stakeholders can quickly identify materials that excel in specific areas while considering trade-offs and synergies between different attributes. 4️⃣ Material Innovation Platform A material innovation platform is a dynamic hub where cutting-edge materials, technologies, and research converge to inspire and accelerate sustainable product development. This digital ecosystem serves as a collaborative space for material scientists, designers, engineers, and innovators to explore, discover, and exchange ideas about novel materials and emerging trends. #sustainabledesign

Circ® France is no longer an idea under discussion—it’s a confirmed, government-supported project, backed by industrial partners and aimed squarely at solving one of fashion’s biggest structural challenges: blended textile waste. For years, recycling polycotton has been dismissed as too complex or commercially infeasible to scale. Circ® France changes that. The facility will use hydrothermal processing to separate and recover both polyester and cotton from polycotton blends—an approach that allows both fractions to re-enter the supply chain as high-quality inputs. This is industrial infrastructure, tied to national policy objectives and backed by partners who know how to build and operate large-scale chemical processing plants. It provides a model for what scaling circularity can look like when technology, regulation, and industrial capability align. The implications are broad. Brands will need to rethink their procurement and feedstock planning. Policymakers will need to shift from incentivizing innovation to supporting deployment. And the supply chain—from fiber to garment—will need to adjust to accommodate recycled inputs as a normal part of business, not a niche product line. What was once seen as aspirational is now operational. That changes the starting point for every conversation on circularity from here on out. https://lnkd.in/eT6awiA8