Circular Business Models
Creating revenue and opportunities
Circular business models define how an organisation creates and delivers value to a wide range of stakeholders while eliminating waste and environmental damage as its materials and products move around the Economy, This can offer new commercial opportunities to generate incremental revenue, transform relationships with existing customers, and attract new customers, at the same time as protecting supply chains against rising costs of prime materials and mitigating resource shortages. Intrinsically linked to Circular Design, examples include dis-assembly, repair remanufacturing refurbishing and remodelling.
WOOL
Promoting Circular Benefits
Wool is currently a low cost, raw material, and its value was further impacted during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a by-product of the livestock industry, which is a significant employer in the UK and contributes £291.4m to the economy. Most sheep breeds have to be sheared to ensure animal welfare standards are met, however, the value of wool is very low. In 2020, UK farmers were receiving between 15-30p per fleece, yet paying more than £1 to have each sheep sheared. By replacing other environmentally damaging materials with wool, currently a farming waste stream, the industry could generate additional revenue and accelerate net zero goals.
Novel uses for wool include its use in packaging (WoolCool), insulation/building materials (Therma fleece, Woolly Shepherd, Havelock wool), compost (Dalefoot Compost). Other innovative uses could look to wool to solve challenges such as clearing up oil spills, flood defences and reinforcing land.
ALUMINIUM
Extending lifetimes to lock in the value
Today, around 7 million tonnes of aluminium is lost globally during the recycling process. This could rise to 17 million tonnes per annum by 2050 if there is no change in current practices. Recycling is a valuable process for secondary materials, however, it does require additional resource for collection systems, processing technology and infrastructure investment. If secondary aluminium is not retained in the economy, it is replaced by primary metal with greenhouse gas emissions on average twenty-five times higher than recycled aluminium.
The challenge is current recycling practice results in material quality being degraded. Whilst, there is potential to optimise sorting and elimination of waste, there is also an opportunity to recover assets earlier in the material flow for re-use in current alloy state in either a new application, to refurbish for resale to a new market.
The concept of sharing assets is not new, but it is experiencing a resurgence with businesses moving products from ownership to service economy, something that many OEMs undertake to ensure they retain the material assets. One of the key benefits of aluminium is its durability and by doubling the lifetime of current state alloys savings could be made in costs associated with primary feedstocks, but also in waste including energy, materials and resources.
CARBON CAPTURE
Defining the opportunity for circular business models
As a relatively new innovation programme, Carbon Capture Utilisation aims to define the opportunity for circular business models taking into account environmental and economic factors of this emerging technology, and will enable the UK to produce chemicals utilising captured waste gases from industrial heartlands, regional clusters and at dispersed sites.
A critical element of this innovation is data from techno-economic analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that will provide assurance to business, government and society that this new pathway is built upon robust methodology and test cases.
Please do make contact if you have an existing evidence base, case studies, or, if you would consider actively participating in this new field of work.
Related Opportunities
Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition: Round 8
Opens: 13/01/2023 Closes: 08/03/2023
UK registered businesses can apply for loans of £100k-£2m for innovative projects with strong commercial potential to significantly improve the UK economy.
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Innovate UK Smart grants: January 2023
Opens: 19/01/2023 Closes: 26/04/2023
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy.
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Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP): 2023 to 2024 Round 1
Opens: 30/01/2023 Closes: 22/03/2023
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) link forward thinking businesses with the UK’s world class knowledge bases to deliver innovation projects led by inspired graduates.
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