Business case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within the same industry

Using closed loop recycled materials

Buildings are where we live, work and play, and also where we store machinery and goods for later consumption. Buildings are but one component of the greater built environment which includes urban infrastructure such as roads, bridges and utilities. 
Current construction techniques have buildings consuming the bulk of materials globally. With increasing urbanisation and therefore demand for buildings of every kind, we drastically need to re-imagine how we design, utilise and decommission buildings.

BUILDINGS

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Urban Opportunities

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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Denmark

Maersk Line, a Danish international container shipping company, is the world's largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity.

Maersk Line

Maersk Line, a Danish container shipping company, is exploring design options for optimal recycling of materials through developing a cradle-to-cradle passport for their ships. They aim to eliminate waste from Triple-E vessels at end-of-life by tracking and defining the materials used in each ship, ultimately giving greater value and reusability to a variety of components. Instead of mining for new resources, the company will seek to fulfil their needs by using their own products as material-banks. The project—while simple enough in theory—may face hurdles in its implementation, as each ship weighs 60 thousand tonnes and comprises five grades of steel, copper, plastic, wood, glass and other minerals. While it faced initial barriers in terms of stakeholder acceptance, the project received internal acceptance after the benefits—financial and environmental—were made clear. Maersk remains confident that the passports they develop will set a new standard for the shipping industry, eventually eliminating waste and even providing resources for other uses.

Maersk Line: Cradle-to-cradle passport for ships 

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

The shipping industry is currently reliant on two commodities in particular – fuel and steel. And with steel comprising roughly 98% of the volume of a container ship like the Triple-E, a reliable supply of low-cost steel is extremely important for Maersk Line. As a result, the company is now exploring how to prepare ships for quality recycling already in the design phase, and is developing a Cradle to Cradle Passport as the first step on this journey.Currently, when the tradeoffs between maintenance and technological improvements are no longer practical or viable, and a Maersk ship is decommissioned, it is taken to a shipbreaking yard in China. Here, the vessel undergoes a safe and certified recycling procedure. However, due to scale of the product and the vast number of different component suppliers, until now it hasn’t been possible to identify different material types and grades during this traditional disassembly process, so the mixed recyclate loses the quality, properties and value of its previous state. Steel that had been found in seven different grades becomes a low-grade, low-price material.In response to volatility in both steel and fuel prices, Maersk Line have developed a Cradle to Cradle Passport in parallel with the construction of 20 new Triple-E ships, the first of which will be delivered in June 2013. The Passport, a first for the shipping industry, will comprise an online database to create a detailed inventory that can be used to identify and recycle the components to a higher quality than is currently possible.By creating a resource that is flexible, manageable, and can be maintained throughout the 30-year lifetime of a ship, Maersk Line gains an improved understanding of the composition of the vessel that enters the recycling yard. As a result, the materials – including the 60,000 tonnes of steel per ship – can be sorted and processed more effectively, maintaining their inherent properties and hopefully commanding a better price when re-sold.“Ultimately, this is not just about shipping; it is about how we manage steel as a resource globally.- Jacob Sterling, Maersk LineThis project does not only stand to offer significant benefit to Maersk Line, but has wider influence on the way steel recycling is perceived and dealt with globally, explains Head of Environment & CSR Jacob Sterling. With such huge dependencies on fuel and steel prices, reducing the reliance on iron ore is crucial. Increasing the quality of the recycled steel decreases the amount of virgin iron ore required in manufacturing new vessels, so by leading on the improvement of the scrap metal market, Maersk Line begins to mitigate significant steel input costs. The vision is to be able to manufacture a new hull from old, but in the meantime, this process will make the company more resilient to fluctuating steel prices. In addition, the sale of higher quality scrap metal that is not re-used in Maersk Line vessels can be a source of revenue, offering a hedge against rising steel and fuel costs.This is a positive step for new builds, but what of the 600-odd container ships Maersk Line currently has in service? Sterling suggests that some of principles of the Cradle to Cradle Passport could be applied to these vessels, by pulling together strands of existing data. A lot of information exists that describes what the ships are made of but this information doesn’t usually make it to the scrapyard. Moreover, the process of repair, maintenance and upgrade over the 30-year lifetime of a ship can mean that the vessel that enters the shipbreaking yard can differ from that on the engineer’s blueprints. However, Maersk Line is exploring whether they can generate more end-of-life value from within this system, and early signs suggest that 60-70% of the volume of materials in an existing ship could be documented.Those familiar with the Cradle to Cradle philosophy will be aware that emphasis is placed on materials choice and product design. However, this hasn’t been a priority for Maersk Line at this stage. Sterling sees understanding the materials currently used in the shipping industry as an essential step before thinking about substituting materials or re-thinking design. Not only will the Cradle to Cradle Passport enable more useful disassembly and recycling information to be fed back to engineers at the planning and design phase, but if successful, this process will also have a large and vital effect on the way in which steel is arranged globally due to the scale of material under discussion.“The turning point in stakeholder engagement came when our plans went from conceptual to very practical.- Jacob Sterling, MaerskThe success of the project has depended on stakeholder engagement and understanding, and this was one of the early barriers that Sterling and his team faced. There was a perception that the Cradle to Cradle Passport meant redesigning the entire ship, using new technologies or alternative materials, requiring significant research and R&D investment. However, when key parties were made aware of the gains that could be realised simply taking the practical step of recording the composition of the ship, the initiative received greater internal enthusiasm.The team behind the Cradle to Cradle Passport knows that there are real technical challenges still to come, but that this process is vital in beginning to build resilience into an increasingly vulnerable linear business model.

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 Maersk 

Maersk Line provide trade and transport solutions, for which a reliable supply of low-cost steel is extremely important. They are exploring how to design for recycling through developing a Cradle-to-Cradle Passport (material database). This way Maersk can gain greater control over the materials they use and at the end-of-use cycle reuse materials by ultimately making new ships from old materials.