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Business Strategy

Going round in circles isn’t always a bad thing

The concept of a ‘circular economy’ has become more and more mainstream in recent years as businesses and governments come to terms with the problems of resource depletion, waste and environmental pollution. New legislation to incentivise resource efficiency, recycling and waste reduction is on the horizon - Anne Campion, Manufacturing Lead at the Hub explores what it means for manufacturers?

What is this circular economy thing, anyway?

If you have even a passing interest in sustainability, you’ve probably heard of the circular economy. It’s a simple, but potentially revolutionary concept that’s already making waves across the global economy in sectors as diverse as aeroplane engines, fashion textiles and plastic packaging.

In a nutshell, the circular economy is a profound shift away from the traditional ‘take-make-use-throwaway’ economic model. You can think of this model as a flat line with a beginning, a middle and an end. Raw materials are extracted, manufactured into products, consumed, and then thrown in the bin. This linear approach to business is hugely inefficient, requiring ever-increasing consumption of raw materials that are disposed of at end-of-life, wasting valuable resources and often damaging and degrading the environment in the process.

A circular approach to business aims to reverse and prevent these problems by designing waste out of the system. Instead of being thrown away at end-of-life, in a circular economy products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible through repair, reuse and recycling. The goal is to ‘close the loop’ on the linear flat line economy, creating a revolving cycle of materials and resources.

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The circular economy is a profound shift away from the traditional 'take-make-use-throwaway' economic model.

In response to the public outcry over plastic pollution, businesses and governments are coming together to transform the plastics supply chain.

Why now?

The idea isn’t new - it’s been around for some time under various names such as ‘cradle-to-cradle’ design or the ‘performance economy’. In fact, the circular economy is all around us in living systems - nothing is wasted in nature.

Circular thinking in business has been accelerating rapidly in recent years because of the solutions it presents to many of the planet’s most pressing problems. Today’s plastic waste crisis is a perfect example. In response to the public outcry over the impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, businesses and governments are coming together to transform the plastics supply chain by ensuring that packaging material is recyclable, reusable or replaced with a sustainable alternative; has higher recycled content; and is fed back into the cycle at end-of-life. UK government is bringing in new legislation to eliminate plastic waste, while the EU has already passed its own legislation to enforce stricter recycling regimes in member states. This is the circular economy in motion.

What’s the opportunity for manufacturers?

The shift to a circular economy is an ideal opportunity for manufacturers to boost efficiency, maximise cost savings and reach into new revenue streams. Manufacturers of the future will focus on designing products for durability and treating waste as a valuable resource that can be re-used or sold into other markets.

It is thought that the switch to circular, resource efficient business models in key sectors in the UK could benefit the economy by £80 billion. There are also huge environmental gains up for grabs: research shows that simply keeping materials and goods in use for longer is far more effective at reducing emissions than even the most exciting green technologies.

Remanufacturing also presents a huge opportunity for the sector, said to be worth 300EUROS billion to the European economy. This has proven to be a successful business model for Salford based E&E Potts. The firm remanufacture diesel engines for the transport industry, and has won new contracts with major providers of passenger transport. Demand is so high for their service that they recently invested in expanding their factory. 

E&E Potts remanufacture diesel engines and have successfully won contracts with passenger transport providers.

Budenberg factory in Irlim, Salford

Budenberg reduced their power bills by £1,000 every month.

One of the biggest opportunities presented by the circular economy is the potential for businesses to diversify from selling products into selling services. By selling the service a product provides, rather than the product itself, manufacturers ‘close the loop’ by retaining control of the full product lifecycle. A famous example is Rolls-Royce’s TotalCare® ‘power-by-hour’ model for aeroplane engines. Rolls-Royce actively manages its engines throughout their lifecycle and airlines pay a fixed price per flying hour for the service - rewarding reliability and efficiency in the process. This shift towards ‘servitisation’ is spreading far beyond aerospace and is even gaining traction in the fashion industry.

How to get started

Even if diversifying into selling a service isn’t right for you, there are many simpler ways to take steps towards a more circular business model.

1. Reduce power consumption
The Hub's Resource Efficiency team recently worked with Budenberg to help them save £1,000 a month on power bills by investing in an Airflow compressor, which was suitable for their rented premises. This has helped the business to cut their carbon footprint by around 30 tonnes of CO2 each year. Even the best manufacturing firms can benefit from understanding how they can drive these costs down and I urge everyone to get in touch with the team for a free assessment.

2. Remove waste from your operation
The manufacturing team worked with Pure Fabs to introduce Lean manufacturing techniques - including Value Add and the 8 wastes. By helping the team understand how to identify waste in the business, they created a common language to eliminate these costly mistakes. This helped the business to reduce waste by 7%. You can download a free factsheet on how to do this from the Manufacturing Network.

3. Consider circular products, processes or services
Understanding how to develop your business strategy to meet the circular economy agenda can be daunting. In Greater Manchester, manufacturers can call upon excellent support from both our dedicated manufacturing team and our specialist eco-innovation service to identify opportunities for circular products, processes or services.

Get in touch for fully-funded support to eliminate waste, improve efficiency or to introduce new products or services

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Anne Campion

Anne Campion, Head of Manufacturing

Anne leads GC Business Growth Hub’s Manufacturing and Sustainability & Net Zero services, with a passion for embedding sustainability and operational efficiency within businesses. 

Anne has a wealth of experience supporting businesses to increase productivity, reduce costs, achieve operational excellence, sustain resource efficiencies, utilise advanced manufacturing techniques and advanced materials, and prepare for digital technology adoption. 

She is a highly experienced operational and programme manager, with over 20 years’ experience leading programmes at The Manufacturing Institute prior to joining the Business Growth Hub in 2016.  Anne has an MSc in Management and has significant experience of working with the public, private and academic sectors.  

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