The essential business guide for using reverse logistics to drive profits, growth, and sustainability. Long considered a “necessary evil” of doing business, reverse logistics is quickly becoming the key to staying competitive in today’s dynamic marketplace. In Going Circular, RecirQ Global CEO Rich Bulger reveals its potential for boosting revenue, enhancing customer experience, and supporting the circular economy. Urging a strategic shift, Going Circular showcases how integrating reverse logistics in sales, marketing, and customer retention can achieve broader business objectives, including cost reduction and environmental responsibility. It offers practical strategies for minimizing unwanted returns and repurposing products, fostering sustainable business models and market expansion. Comprising seven comprehensive chapters and three “reUse” case studies, this guide redefines reverse logistics as a vital tool for business resilience and success. A must-read for professionals in the field, Going Circular is a call to action for integrating reverse logistics into evolving business strategies, promising a pathway to sustainable transformation and profitability.
The next revolution in business will provide for a sustainable future, from founder, CEO and circular economy expert Ron Gonen Our take-make-waste economy has cost consumers and taxpayers billions while cheating us out of a habitable planet. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Waste-Free World makes a persuasive, forward-looking case for a circular economic model, a “closed-loop” system that wastes no natural resources. Entrepreneur, CEO and sustainability expert Ron Gonen argues that circularity is not only crucial for the planet but holds immense business opportunity. As the founder of an investment firm focused on the circular economy, Gonen reveals brilliant innovations emerging worldwide— “smart” packaging, robotics that optimize recycling, nutrient rich fabrics, technologies that convert food waste into energy for your home, and many more. Drawing on his experience in technology, business, and city government and interviews with leading entrepreneurs and top companies, he introduces a vital and growing movement. The Waste-Free World invites us all to take part in a sustainable and prosperous future where companies foster innovation, investors recognize long term value creation, and consumers can align their values with the products they buy.
At heart, this book aims to inspire fearless innovators committed to spearheading the future of fashion. It is for all of us looking to make a positive impact in an industry that we love and care about. It is increasingly acknowledged that the practice of design is not exclusive to designers, nor is it found only in studios. The materials, garments, services, shows, supply chains and stores that make up the fashion industry all work the way they do because of innumerable design decisions, made by creatives all over the world. Circular design goes far beyond rethinking single products or services, it has the potential to redefine how the entire fashion system operates. It's a chance for anyone in the fashion industry - regardless of job title - to support the shift to a circular economy where, by design, waste and pollution are eliminated, products and materials are circulated, and nature is regenerated. Circular design is a pioneering practice of design. It is the creative opportunity of the coming decade for the creatives, innovators, and pioneers who seek to reshape the fashion industry.
Global consumption of raw materials currently goes beyond the earth's regenerative capacity, but the circular economy offers a more sustainable model which also provides new business opportunities. Mastering the Circular Economy is an introduction to circularity from a business and value chain management perspective. With many reflections and exercises throughout, the book draws a direct link between relevant recent theory and practice and offers students and practitioners a deeper understanding of the topic. It looks at both the macro and micro context of the circular economy, from the government and societal view to the impact of new business models in an individual company. Starting from the corporate imperative of moving from linear to circular business models, Mastering the Circular Economy covers the associated opportunities and challenges for organizations, from regulation and risk to value chain collaboration, reverse logistics and product quality. Part two of the book helps students to pull together everything they've learned and see how the concepts play out in the real world by guiding them through application in the online business simulation game The Blue Connection (free basic access is included with the book). Readers are continuously asked to reflect on the choices they would make in different roles to demonstrate a full understanding of the strategic and operational implications of the circular economy.
Circular Economy Re-imagine the future of economics and society Are you excited about a regenerative, efficient, and waste-free future? You should be! The circular economy is making short work of old-school (and wasteful) ways of thinking. Players in the circular economy are re-imagining business processes and material lifecycles to reduce waste, improve efficiency, and make their families’ futures brighter and more prosperous. You’ll learn to transform the way you live and work and feel great about being part of the solution to many of the world’s energy and environmental problems. Inside... Why Take-Make-Waste is outdated Finding opportunity in ecology The 6 R’s of circular economies Rethinking material lifecycles Turn trash into treasure Creating careers in circularity Why circular ideas are healthier Make, use, reuse, repair and recycle
The EU is currently engaged in two transformations that could change our economy and society for the better. If managed well, and in unison, the circular economy and the digital revolution could help the EU address its greatest challenge: to build a sustainable, green economy that is competitive on the global stage. Digitalisation will not automatically lead to greater sustainability. Nor is the inclusion of cutting-edge technologies in the circular economy a given. But with the right encouragement and incentives from the EU, data and digitally-enabled solutions can accelerate and boost the transition to a sustainable circular economy. They can enhance connectivity and information sharing; make business models, products and processes more circular; and empower citizens and consumers to contribute to the transition. They can be used to improve different segments of the circular economy, including design, production, consumption, reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and overall waste management and recycling. Combining the circular and digital agendas carries enormous potential. It would be a shame to waste it.
Waste to Wealth proves that 'green' and 'growth' need not be binary alternatives. The book examines five new business models that provide circular growth from deploying sustainable resources to the sharing economy before setting out what business leaders need to do to implement the models successfully.
In concomitance with the growing developments around the circular economy concept in the region, the resource recovery and recycling of industrial production residues is increasingly being envisaged in the European Union and its member states. The role of the recycling industry has become ever important in this context. The shredding industry is based on shredding discarded products such as end-of-life vehicles, and municipal white goods, and subsequent retrieval of (primarily) metals. Shredder fines (or fines) is a heterogeneous fine-granular production residue of this industry, which is currently disposed of. Shredder fines presents, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future, several challenges that need to be addressed. It creates a disposal problem given the shrinking landfill availability and incurs handling costs to the shredding industry. Furthermore, it reduces our resources efficiency in general. This thesis aims to contribute knowledge on the challenges of facilitating the valorisation of shredder fines in the context of Sweden. In doing so, the current situation concerning fines and its management was investigated by addressing the research questions; 1) What is the resource potential of fines generated at the studied shredding plant, and 2) Why is the current disposal-oriented management of shredder fines sustained in Sweden. There, a systems perspective was employed, where the research questions were addressed on the material, actor, and institution levels, based on three scientific articles, which are appended. The studied material carries a certain amount of potentially recoverable resources, nevertheless shows a significant need for upgrading pertaining to the user requirements and regulatory standards of different recovery applications. The full recovery of fines requires integrated processes that could simultaneously harness these resource opportunities and resolve the material constraints. When it comes to the current practice of managing fines in Sweden, the utilisation in landfill covering offers the shredding companies a secure outlet for the material, given it is a well-established practice that has evolved over decades of operations and there is still a significant demand for landfill cover materials. Additionally, it provides shredding companies with a legislatively-compliant low-cost disposal option for managing fines. On the other hand, the complex materiality, lack of marketability of secondary raw materials (SRMs), and unfavourable governmental regulation of waste recovery create strategic disincentives for shredding companies in opting for fines valorisation. Fines valorisation calls for change in the well-established current practice of utilising the material in landfill covering. Thus, drastic policy measures such as phasing out landfilling and mandating resource recovery and recycling of fines are required to remove the incentives for fines disposal and compel the shredding industry to seek valorisation alternatives for its management. In order to ensure long-term sustenance, applications based on fines valorisation need favourable and more predictable circumstances and settings on different societal levels. There, secure outlets for potential fines-derived SRMs is one of the essential elements. Governmental interventions to create demand and alleviate valorisation investments via market and financial instruments play a significant role in that regard. The other primary requirement to facilitate fines valorisation in the long term is to set clear market and regulatory playing rules. Established supply and demand structures would enable clear pricing mechanisms for fines-derived SRMs and accurate economic assessments of fines valorisation, thus reducing the investment risk for shredding companies. On the other hand, clear regulatory standards and favourable regulatory practices would reduce the uncertainty of the realisation of valorisation applications and gain trust among actors.
