Resources
Leonhard Teichert
Program lead at Circular Republic, an UnternehmerTUM project connecting UnternehmerTUM circular economy startups with the industry. Background in industrial philosophy, management, responsibility in science/enginering.
Circular Republic
Circular Republic is Europe’s innovation and collaboration platform for the circular economy. It coordinates projects across companies, transforms organizations from within, and acts as a voice in industry, politics, and media.
They focus on enterprise-startup cooperations to bring the high implementation speeds of (UnternehmerTUM) startups to the capital of industry.
Why Circular Economy
Materials are kept in loop by using less, using longer, and using again.
- Current linear economy: Take → Make → Waste
- Finite resources, environmental degradation, social inequality
- Circular economy: restorative and regenerative by design.
- Aim: Keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times
- Benefits: Reduces resource consumption, minimizes waste, fosters innovation, creates economic opportunities
In our current economy, we keep increasing material consumption and waste
Examples: Carsharing. Private vehicle are idle 95% of the time – carsharing changes this.
Positive Side-Effects
- A circular economy is often more resilient, and more sustainable.
- These are EU targets, particularly in light of the supply chain crises of the past decades.
10 Circular Strategies
There are 10 circular strategies to implement circular economy principles:
- R0 — Refuse: Avoid the use of materials or products that are not necessary.
- R1 — Rethink: Redesign products and processes to minimize resource use and waste.
- R2 — Reduce: Use fewer materials and resources in production and consumption.
- R3 — Reuse: Use products or components multiple times before discarding them.
- R4 — Repair: Fix products to extend their lifespan.
- R5 — Refurbish: Restore products to a good condition for reuse.
- R6 — Remanufacture: Rebuild products using reused, repaired, and new parts.
- R7 — Repurpose: Use products or materials for a different purpose than originally intended.
- R8 — Recycling: Process materials to create new products.
- R9 — Recover: Extract energy or materials from waste that cannot be recycled.
R8 — Recycling
Recycling can be part of the circular economy, however, it’s the least favorable option. When materials are recycled, the original product is destroyed — loosing value.
Circularity as Business Opportunity
Various companies have already identified circularity as a business opportunity:
- In Production, BMW or Frosch supplay and use renewable, recycled, or recyclable materials to minimize waste.
- In Distribution, companies like Spotify, Philips, Rolls Royce (power by the hour) offer products as a service, rather than posession, ensuring maintenance and reverse logistics.
- In Usage, platforms like Share Now, Too Good To Go, BlaBlaCar promote sharing and reduce waste.
- In Disposal, ebay, Bosch, or Patagonia, employ strategies to prolong the product lifespan through repair, refurbishment, and resale.
- In Collection & Recycling, e.g. Remondis captures the value and energy of materials after they’ve been used.
- Circularity Enablers enable/support companies adopting practices. Includes SAP, DHL, encory.
Current Ecosystem in Europe
- European funding currently makes up 48% of global circular economy investments, with more than 2500 CE startups.
- In relative venture numbers (to population), scandinavian and baltic countries are leading the way.
- Most ventures fucos on bio-degradable inputs – almost none on automated disassembly.
There aren’t many companies working on reuseing critical raw materials (e.g. lithium), but much capital is available.