Exploratory Study on Circular Economy Approaches A Comparative Analysis of Theory and Practice

90 4 Case Description and Within-Case Analysis

its production. The organization owns and operates eight sugarcane mills in Brazil

which generate electricity by burning bagasse, a fibrous by-product of sugarcane

processing. The electricity generated is used for the company-own production whilst

the surplus is sent to the national power grid. The rate of self-produced power is

approximately 63 percent (not all sites are connected to and can be supplied by

company-own energy sources). In 2012, 93 percent of the energy consumed came

from renewable energy sources.

The table below illustrates how the circular economy approaches chosen by

the organization in case Theta can be categorized according to the framework

underlying this thesis.

Table 14 Overview of circular economy approach of case Theta

Innovation Type Circular Economy Approach Organization

Theta

Product

Innovation

(Changes the

product)

Circular Supplies (e.g. creation of products which

are fully circulatable)

Resource recovery (e.g. creation of new products to

use up leftovers from the production line)

x

Remanufacturing (e.g. implementation of new

products which can be built from the reusable parts

of the original product)

Process

Innovation

(Changes the

process)

Circular Supplies (e.g. use of renewable energy for

the production line)

x

Organizational

Innovation

(Changes or adds

a business model)

Sharing Platform (e.g. enable customers to extend

the use of their products)

Product as a Service (e.g. sell the products access,

internalize the lifecycle management)

Product Life Extension (e.g. gather used products

and resell them if possible, replace certain parts of

the product)

4.10.2 Motivation to engage in Circular Economy

Concerning its motivation to engage in circular economy, the interviewee stated:

“The motivation was to minimize costs.” The organization produces commodities

and in this market prices are usually set. This means the only leverage organizations

have to maximize profit is either reducing their input costs or trying to achieve more