The urgency of the climate crisis is driving some of Europe’s leading manufacturers to pursue new strategic approaches intended to mitigate the environmental impacts of their products and processes. One such innovation is to adopt a circular business model, whereby a focal company collaborates with its ecosystem partners to create, capture, and deliver sustainable value. The goal: to improve resource efficiency — by extending the life spans of products and parts, for example — to achieve environmental benefits while still meeting profit targets.
ABB, BillerudKorsnäs, Komatsu, LKAB, Metso, Sandvik, Scania, and Volvo are among the major companies that have moved from the traditional, linear model of take-make-dispose to a circular model of make-use-reuse-remakerecycle. For many manufacturers, that means bundling their products with advanced services in order to allow the products to be shared, repaired, upgraded, reused, refurbished, optimized, or recycled.