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

86 4 Case Description and Within-Case Analysis

Table 13 Overview of circular economy approach of case Eta

Innovation Type Circular Economy Approach Organization

Eta

Product

Innovation

Circular Supplies (e.g. creation of products which

are fully recyclable)

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

use up left-overs 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

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

the production line)

x

Organizational

Innovation

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)

x

The first approach chosen for the implementation of the circular economy concept

is resource recovery. The organization decided to use recycled resources in their

products. In the context of implementing a company-own certificate to rate products

by their eco-friendliness, the material used in the products has been closely recon-

sidered. The result is that a high amount of recycled material (especially polyester)

is used in the production. After terminating their reusable clothing line with a

closed-loop production system, due to a lack of customers returning clothes, the

organization now concentrates on buying recycled material from special suppliers.

Besides recycled polyester and polyamide the organization works with reused PET

bottles which are used in the manufacturing process of their production partners.

Through this process no new fossil oil resources are necessary and approximately

50 percent fewer energy in the production process and approximately 50 percent

lesser CO 2 emissions are required.

As a second approach to circular economy, the organization chose the business

model of circular supplies on process level. The organization uses renewable

energy for its production. Since 2009, the energy supply of case Eta is 100 percent

from renewable energy sources.