The Future is Circular
Circular Economy is soon going to trigger the next leap in innovations and business opportunities across diverse industries globally. There is a growing urgency due to the increasing stress on our finite resources caused by our current economic linear model of take<make<dispose, coupled with the rise in population and consumption patterns in the coming years. Circular Economy on the other hand, is going to have a tremendous positive impact on the environment, economy, employment and innovation opportunities. Circularity may seem as a constraint for companies that limits their access to certain low-cost materials or calls for re-structuring their value chain differently in a way that seemed unviable. But in recent times companies have started identifying it as an opportunity that unlocks profitable business channels. It is predicted that economic opportunities related to SDGs could be worth up to US$12 trillion and increase employment by up to 380 million jobs by 2030 (Source: Better Business Better World Report, Business & Sustainable Development Commission).
An article by EY, ‘Why Sustainable Development Goals need to be in your business plan’, states —
Investors are increasingly paying attention to environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks when making investment decisions. According to the third EY Investor Survey (2017), weak corporate governance, poor environmental performance, resource scarcity, climate change and human rights risks are most likely to alter investors’ decisions.
This shift is also being driven by policy & regulations as the number of climate change laws have increased by 66% since 2009 (1). At a micro level, the change can also be noticed in our lives when multiple cities like Pune ban plastic and people and businesses find creative ways to adapt to it overnight. So in multiple different ways, we see a greater importance & urgency being placed on circular economy- through companies, agencies and government policies.
To actually change the current linear model of take<make<dispose, we need businesses and economies to change at a systemic level to be able to achieve the defining qualities of Circularity as defined by Ellen MacArthur Foundation — that is, ‘restorative and regenerative by design’. And to achieve this shift, everyone in society has a role to play, across industry verticals, specialisations or roles/titles. Collaboration across countries, industries and functional expertise is going to be more important than ever to build and share strategies and practises.
Service designers are playing and will continue to play a pivotal role in this transition amongst others. Recently an article titled ‘Policy: the circular designer’s weapon’, reminded us of the importance of design in CE’s defining qualities by emphasising on ‘regenerative by design’. The traditional process of designing & engineering products or services is also one of the reasons behind the linear model engrained in our industries. This is because the design process typically does not focus on designing end of life or off-boarding of a product/service and often does not include a systems thinking approach to a design solution. Ideally questions like what happens to the product/packaging after its use, how can it not end up in the landfill or how can companies build/utilise capabilities to be able to close the product loop (to mention only a few) need to be answered as a part of the design process. Service designers do have the power and the tools to design circular solutions and create an ecosystem for a company by solving organisational challenges and facilitating collaboration across silos. This has also been identified by Ideo when they launched their Circular Design Guide in collaboration with Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The UnSchool has also created a toolkit on Circular Systems thinking for Designers along with their other content and classes about Circular Economy.
There are also great examples of businesses out there where one can notice the potential of these circular design tools or strategies in action and its incredible, systemic impact. Saathi pads is an Indian innovative company that manufactures biodegradable and compostable female hygiene products by using alternative materials such as banana fibre and zero-waste productions. By using Saathi pads, a woman is able to save 60kg of sanitary pad waste in her lifetime. Loop is another example of a revolutionary platform created in coalition with major consumer brands to achieve zero waste. Loop aims to tackle waste by taking back used containers of products by companies such as P&G, Nestle, Unilever and treating them at their facilities for reuse. They have partnered with UPS for their initial pilot to solve hurdles for their consumers and design a value chain that is easy and convenient for the consumers to buy into. You can read about their model here.
In November 2018 last year, Xeno Co-lab co-facilitated a workshop about Circular Strategies for Entrepreneurs in collaboration with Infinitive (India partner to DIF 2018, an initiative by Ellen MacArthur Foundation). We plan to continue facilitating similar open workshops in May 2019 in Denmark along with THISFUTURE, a Scandinavian consultancy focused on positive impact and sustainable development. As a part of our initiative to fuel our passion to help designers become more aware of the circular design process and help companies identify strategies to transition towards it, we wanted to share some actionable steps to help companies build a regenerative model through design —
Design products as service experiences
Design for the end-to-end experience for customer experience and circular design
When talking about creating differentiated customer experiences in service design, there has been a great focus on designing products as services or experiences with multiple touch-points. Focusing on the end-to-end experience of a user interaction with a product/service helps designers identify multiple gaps or pain points in the journey that could be addressed by designing additional touch-points for a company to interact with their users. This principle also applies for creating circular design solutions to not just identify the white space in a user journey but also design each touchpoint to achieve circularity. If products and services are designed from an end-to-end experience point of view then designers will be able to address the end of a product/service lifecycle to create a closed-loop system while also delivering on a compelling customer experience for companies.
This can also be achieved by exploring creative models especially for product experiences that go beyond ownership and explore the idea of ‘sharing’ or ‘renting/leasing’. For example, IKEA announced its trial of a furniture leasing model that will potentially reduce the company’s climate footprint by 15% by reusing.
Design for Extended Lifecycle
Principle of modularity to reuse, replace and refurbish to increase the product/service lifecycle
Design products and services with a longer lifecycle by using modularity as a principle. France is the first country in the world with consumer protection law against planned obsolescence of products to discourage practices wherein products are designed to fail at some point so the consumers HAVE TO replace it. Under this law, a pro- consumer group in France, ‘Stop Planned Obsolescence’ filed a lawsuit against Apple after the company admitted to slowing down the software of its older iPhones.
Modularity can be reflected through hardware AND software. Finding ways to replace the different parts of a product or using refurbished parts instead of throwing away the product increases the lifespan of a product and reduces the amount of waste generated. Getting inspired from the mindset of Jugaad to encourage cascading use of products, such as a cotton sari that is used as a sari and then godhadi and then as a cleaning cloth around the house, is also a way to increase the lifespan of a product. However, it needs to be systematically designed & implemented and that will most likely be possible if the responsibility and ownership of the product lifecycle lies with the companies and not the user. Companies need to have the necessary infrastructure and means to facilitate the necessary actions from the users in order to implement this across the value chain.
Conscious Choices
Making mindful and intentional choices of materials and resources across the supply chain
During the design process, it is important to pause and reflect on choices of material or resources that the design solution might require. To preserve the value and utility of materials, designers need to be creative in thinking of materials that are designed to be repurposed. Instead of dealing with challenges at the later stage and figuring out how to sort or recycle or reuse materials, choose materials that are not toxic or can be sorted easily for recycling/reuse or can increase the life span of the product or service without compromising on the efficiency. For example, Adidas has used a version of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to create a create Futurecraft.Loop a 100% recyclable, zero waste trainer from only one material, while other Adidas trainers use 12 materials. The company spent time and resources to modify the plastic so that it could be spun into a yarn and now they can build the entire shoe with one material. For recycling, Adidas washes and ships the shoes to its industrial partner, to melt it and create a shoe again.
Smarter and creative decisions need to be made not just for materials but also across the supply chain to ensure that it is more efficient and reduces negative impact compared to the conventional value chain.
Human-centered Circular Design
Design circular design solutions that are relevant to the user’s needs
Circular economy has clear benefits to the environment and businesses but when it comes to nudging the users to opt for circular design solutions, it needs to address a different set of motivations all together. It is true that consumers today would pay more for sustainable products(2) but it is also true that if the solution does not fit into their lifestyle and is not as convenient as its alternative then it is going to be difficult for consumers to make a switch to circular choices. Tom Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, talks about the challenges of consumer behaviour change in this Fast Company article in reference to designing Loop. What was fascinating is that they started by addressing the question ‘Why did disposability win?’ — why do consumers choose it over other alternatives that may be better for the environment? And then they found ways to address how to create a model for Loop that is as convenient and cheap as disposability.
In the CE workshop that we conducted last year, a few participants asked why would we expect consumers to adopt an alternative that might be expensive and calls for a behaviour change. Our answer to that would be, that we need to design a model that is aligned with their lifestyle and motivations in a way that adds a clear and tangible value. If we are able to build an understanding of this through research and create an experience that adds value over their current experience, adds a purpose, and is convenient, then we make it easier for users to adopt it.
Leveraging Technology for Circular Practices
Advancement in technology has led to a huge potential of opportunities that could help with the transition to circular economy for businesses. There are digital products such as SourceMap that help create transparent supply chains or share knowledge across the value chain. It could also be used to track and monitor the impact of circular solutions over time compared to the costs of negative externalities. Technology like VR or 3D printing may also lead to new kind of manufacturing process that allows for cutting down on material creation or resource consumption. Using technology intentionally and purposefully can unlock opportunities to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Instead of digital transformation being the end-goal, think of why and how you may it in the process to serve real needs and with the goal of designing for circular economy.
Yes, it is true that there’s still a lot to be achieved for all companies to operate in a circular model. To begin with, there’s still a lot of educating that needs to be done for people to really understand what it entails. Companies need to have access to infrastructure that supports circular design solutions such as reverse logistics for recycling. Policy and regulations need to continue to drive and push for decision-making towards circularity. But until then, designers need to work with the early adopters of circular solutions to help them transition and demonstrate the impact for the followers. Designers can lead the transition by offering circular design solutions that are equally effective and reduce the negative outcomes of a linear model. It is important for designers to collaborate effectively and adopt a systems thinking approach to be able to do that. Collaboration between designers and multi-functional teams across the supply chain can help solve some of the current challenges to circular transition. This collaboration can only be facilitated by companies and teams that are open to experimentation, dare to lead the new way of working and are deeply passionate to design truly innovative solutions that have a positive impact on humanity, environment and the economy.
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