Product Circularity Assessment

Introduction

Throughout this tool you will have encountered suggestions to help you structure your thinking around product circularity. What is the best way to get started and build momentum?

Our recommendation is to conduct internal workshops with various stakeholders and collaboratively identify the most feasible product circularity strategies for your products. You may also want to perform a Product Circularity Assessment (PCA) starter project. Here’s a plan for how to go about that (and there is more detail in the Form #1).

Identify a Team of Relevant Stakeholders

Assign a project manager that will lead the PCA starter project. Once a project manager has been assigned, using the project phases below, form a cross-functional team by identifying relevant stakeholders involved in the decision-making process in design, R&D or other business functions within the organisation that could benefit from the PCA starter (e.g., marketing, supply chain management, procurement, etc).

While the PCA starter is primarily intended for those responsible for design decisions in design, it may also be of interest to other business functions that wish to learn more about lifecycle thinking (LCT) and product circularity (PC), and the relationship between LCT and PC.

PCA Starter Project Phases

Phase 0: Introductory meeting or workshop to present the objectives of the PCA, methodology and discuss company aims and desired outcomes.

Phase 1: Complete form # 1 with high level product/company information. This will support the Goal and Scope definition to be completed also within Phase 1. An example of questions that could be answered during this stage include: What is the purpose for conducting the assessment?

Phase 2: Using the non-exhaustive list of predefined potential sustainability topics as a prompt, complete form # 2 (Inventory). This form includes the Bill of Materials and life cycle key issues, actual and potential sustainability impacts of the product across the lifecycle, and PC key issues.

Phase 3: Once form #1 and #2 have been completed and analysed by the project team, a meeting can be scheduled to discuss the information provided and begin developing guidance on the selection of feasible PC strategies.

Phase 4: consists in the completion of form #3 to qualitatively evaluate the different PC scenarios vis a vis their environmental, economic, and social impacts. This phase assists in assessing the significance of potential impacts associated with relevant PC strategies and helps prioritise design improvements.

Phase 5: The final phase of the PCA starter consists in the production of a PC report that contains a qualitative assessment of environmental, economic, and social impacts related to different PC strategies (form #4), recommendations for potential design improvements and guidance on how to integrate the PCA into LCT and PC.

Intermediate and Advanced users can use form #5 to prepare data for use within The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Circular Transition Indicators (CTI) and The Ellen MacArthur Foundation Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) tools

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