Sustainability Stories: Circularity, the new sustainability buzzword?

Sustainability Stories:

What does it actually mean to have a circular product design?

The term ‘Circular Economy’ is being used more and more. Often as a buzzword to strengthen a company’s sustainability story. Time for us to have a closer look at what it actually means to follow a circular economy approach and how it affects product design and business processes.

What is Circular Economy?

Circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste. The materials and components that are used in the manufacturing of a product are reused, redistributed, repaired, refurbished, remanufactured and/or recycled.
The principles of circular economy stand opposite to the present dominant linear economy. The linear economy follows a “take-make-consume-waste” principle in which materials are not recovered.

Circularity vs. Sustainability

Circularity focuses on resource cycles. It looks at the inputs that are used, the outputs that are created and examines how resources are preserved throughout the product life cycle. Sustainability on the other hand more broadly covers topics related to people, the planet and the economy, such as: reduction of inequality, development of renewable energy or natural resource management.

When is a product designed to be circular?

A product is truly circular, if there is no waste created. Meaning that already at the production phase, recycled materials or sustainable biobased materials are used to create the product instead of virgin materials. But product design is only the start and not the entire solution. It also needs a business model that supports processes to prolong the life of a product. Through offering the product through a leasing model, the company stays in control of the product and ensures that the product comes back at the end of the use phase to repair or refurbish it. Through repairs and refurbishments, the product and its core materials are kept as high in value as possible. When the product parts are too damaged to be refurbished, they can be retooled or recycled to create new products. Thus creating a closed loop system in which the materials can essentially be used indefinitely.

Products that are recyclable, but don’t tick any other of the above mentioned boxes, can’t be defined as being circular.

For more information please visit: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

A new Marketing tactic to trick consumers?

You see more and more companies using the word ‘circularity’ or other green claims to strengthen their sustainability story, often without following the circular economy approach themselves and maybe without knowing exactly what ‘being circular’ means.

A recent study by the European Commission and national consumer authorities
found out that 42% of claims that companies made online are false, deceptive or potentially unfair.

‘Circularity’ is not a fashion term, but is often used that way. Distancing ourselves from the current linear economy model is needed, both for consumers and companies. That is why it’s unfortunate the term ‘circularity’ is used way too casually, requiring consumers to question claims in many cases. Not everything that says that it’s circular is circular.

What does Dataflex do?

As an organisation we feel it is our duty to make a positive contribution to society and the environment. Our choices have always been guided by what we feel is ‘the right thing to do’.

We keep working hard on decreasing our impact on the environment. Caring about the environment and people is one of our core company values. Another value is honesty. So no: we are not circular. We don’t claim something we can’t claim, but we have taken and will take many steps to decrease our impact on the environment.

In 2017 we started to calculate the impact of our products from a life cycle perspective and made those results publicly available in form of Ecosheets and EPD’s, compensated our impact and became the first carbon neutral company in our field.

And we’ll never stop looking for new ways to improve. For one thing we keep on designing more sustainable products, like our new locally produced cable guide series that is made from 100% recycled PP. We are rethinking how we produce and package our products. Through our return program used products can be reused, refurbished or recycled through us. Just recently we also started calculating the percentage of circularity for our products, which is specified through the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) by Inside/Inside, an independent comparison website for sustainable interior. More about the latter will follow in an upcoming sustainability story.

There is a lot more to come.

So keep your eyes open and don’t miss our upcoming Sustainability Stories.