4.10 Case Theta 89
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customer groups. New customers who are not necessarily interested in an outdoor brand
but are interested in the green lifestyle, LOHAS etc.” (see Appendix: German Quote 47).
Aside from this positive effect, the organization suffered from higher pricesfor recycled material compared to virgin resources. The organization estimates
the prices to be approximately 10-15 percent higher than usual. In particular, the
growing popularity of recycled resources has led to an increase in prices over the
last few years, as the following quote shows: “Due to the hype for recycled resources,
which arose a few years ago, recycled resources are usually more expensive. Unfortu-
nately, it is a fairy tale when people say that recycled resources and resulting products
have to be less expensive. Maybe we will get there someday, in 10 years maybe” (see
Appendix: German Quote 48).
The commitment to circular economy has had positive as well as negative impactsfor case Eta. The commitment of the organization is a first step within the bigger
picture of moving the economy towards circularity. However, achieving this big
picture is a social challenge which requires collaboration of several stakeholders,
such as governments, organizations, and customers.
4.10 Case Theta
4.10 Case Theta
4.10.1 The Company’s Circular Economy Approach
The organization in case Theta operates in four industries: agribusiness, sugar &
bioenergy, food & ingredients and fertilizer. The organization’s product portfo-
lio contains bottled vegetable oil, margarines, flours, bakery products and even
electricity. The implementation of the circular economy concept was initiated in
- Hence, when the interview was conducted the organization was at the very
beginning of its transformation process.
The first circular economy approach chosen by the organization is resourcerecovery. The company is able to use leftovers as new input in the production
process. For this purpose, the organization embarked on two joint ventures with
organizations which possess the required skills to transform these leftovers into
valuable output. By doing so, the organization was able to increase the amount
of output with the same amount of input. The objective was to diversify outputs
thereby creating additional income streams which provides the organization with
more security in case one commodity underperforms.
The organization also engaged in the circular economy approach via circularsupplies on process level and produces electricity and uses renewable energy in