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

2.3 Circular Economy 17

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To summarize, the three main commonalities for concepts in a collaborative

economy can be identified as follows: (I) A shift of power away from institutions

towards networks of individual actors (II) main drivers are technological innovation,

shifting values, economic realities and environmental pressure and (III) innovative

and efficient product utilization (Botsman 2013).

Restorative Economy also named ‘regenerative economy’ describes the need

to develop a new relationship between the natural and the business system. This

relationship should be one that is restorative instead of degrading and where the

economy should imitate the efficient practices of nature. Drawing inspiration

from nature reflects the idea of designing products in a way that includes their

deconstruction and also by-products which occur during the production process.

This means, that the current way of producing products and throwing them away

at the end of their lifecycles has to change. Moreover, products should be seen as

source of material for new products. In addition, production should no longer rely

on finite fossil fuels but on renewable sun-powered energy sources and the purpose

of society should be to increase biodiversity instead of decreasing it (Hawken 1993).

Other nature-inspired design strategies and concepts are:

• ‘Cradle to Cradle’, with its three major principles being (I) waste is food, (II) use

current solar income and (III) respect diversity (McDonough and Braungart 2002).

Products are designed to last and in a way that they can be disassembled and

refurbished. The concept aims to replace eco-efficiency by eco-effectiveness.

Organizations can get their products cradle-to-cradle certified. Evaluation is

conducted in five categories: (1) material health, (2) material reutilization, (3)

renewable energy and carbon management, (4) water stewardship and (5) social

fairness (Llorach-Massana et al. 2015)

• ‘Biomimcry’, ‘biomimetics’, ‘bio-inspired design’ and ‘bionics’. This concept

suggests that product developers should integrate knowledge perceived from

nature into the design (Montana-Hoyos 2010). This means nature should be the

inspiration for forms, processes and systems (Pauw et al. 2014). In this concept

an integral part of the trajectory to a more sustainable product, is to include

the system level which was a result of one of the rare studies on the application

of biomimicry on product design (Reap et al. 2005).

• ‘Natural Capitalism’ is a concept that values natural capital and human-made

capital equally and outlines benefits for shareholders and future generations in

making resources more productive (Kuo and Hsiao 2008). Four major changes

in current business practices are required for the realization of that concept: