This is the third step of our 5-step plan to circularity. Catch up on step 1 and step 2 first.It is amazing to see such an explosion of interest in sustainability within the fashion industry. Over the past few years, the number of individuals and companies involved in the conversation is growing, and the level of knowledge is broader and deeper than ever. That's a really big deal -- it's a signal that industry transformation, seen for so long as a mere speck on the distant horizon, is getting closer. Take-back programmes are currently a hot topic, because getting clothing back from the consumer is critical to actually closing the loop and achieving circularity in the textile industry. Increasing the amount of used clothing collected is also high on the Global Fashion Agenda. Not surprisingly, the take-back discussion is focused around what can be done to reclaim more of the 20M tonnes of post consumer textiles that are landfilled across Europe and the US every year. In order to actually return the non-rewearable garments to the beginning of the supply chain, however, we must also understand how the system behind collection works. First, here is a high level overview of collection methods (options vary by location)Drop items into a public collection bin, donate them to a charity shop, use a brand / retailer in-store bin, or arrange for a residential pick up. Online second hand shops and other web-based re-commerce platforms or initiatives, like the Next Closet, will often send a prepaid shipping package to send items to their facility for sorting and resale.Garment leasing programmes such as MUD or Filippa K and libraries like LENA the Fashion Library own the items their customers wear, ensuring the return of these items once they are out of fashion or no longer wearable. These innovative business models have take-back built right in.Today the vast majority of used garment collections happen through bins operated by municipalities, private collectors, or non-profits and in-store donations at charity shops. Curbside programmes offering a home pick up service are also growing in popularity in some regions, and many brands and retailers are implementing in-store bins serviced by a textile collector / sorter. As time goes on, leasing and library models, as well as other digitally enabled collections models, are likely to increase.Next, let's clarify an incredibly important factorOnce used items are collected, real-life human beings evaluate, sort, and re-distribute them. This costs money, because any sustainable system must include fair pay and good working conditions for those who keep it running. Even charities, who essentially get items for free and may have low cost labor, incur expenses in handling items and putting them back into the hands of people who will use them again. Keep in mind, regardless of whether the organisations who manage used clothing collection systems are for or non-profit, they cannot consistently lose money and remain operational.This is the point where an understanding of how the system works becomes really critical, because a take-back initiative that enables closed loop (or circular) textiles must balance waste reduction and profitability. In other words, it cannot collect vastly more than it can sell, or it will eventually collapse. This makes creating sustainable take-back programmes tricky, because we must define and utilise the most effective methods of collection AND create more demand for the collected items.Data is the answerAn effective problem-solver knows identifying the problem and collecting and analyzing data must come before generating solutions. In order to build an effective, balanced take-back system, we must learn more about consumer behaviour and effective textile collection methods. We must also figure out exactly what is in the items that are collected so we can develop end markets to absorb the influx of them when collection rates increase.There has been some research done on the second hand industry by groups in the Nordics, France, UK, and the US. Unfortunately, the data sets either don't address collection and consumer behaviour, or they aren't comparable to one another. We need more clarity on what collection methods yield the highest number of garments per capita and how this varies between regions. We must also investigate what types of messaging, incentives, and other behaviours influence the decision to participate in a traditional collection system and / or brand sponsored take-back programme. This information will be extremely useful to plan, launch, and steer an effective textile collection model.The other half of the knowledge gap is understanding what is actually in the items that get collected. When it comes to recycling the non-rewearable stuff, or "recycling grade", most of the value depends upon the types of fibres, location of the goods, and how much work it will take to transform these materials into feedstocks for recycling technologies. This information is key to building up end markets for collected items and making take-back profitable. It's also a double bonus, because the data will help brands design new products for cyclability. Wrapping it upIncreasing used textile collections is not as easy as flipping a switch. However, doing some homework, becoming a project collaborator, and understanding the need for balance between waste reduction and profitability will truly accelerate our transition away from today's linear, wasteful system. It will also help you define the right take-back programme as your company strives to achieve its sustainability commitments. What you can do right nowBefore launching a new take-back initiative or refining an existing one, do some homework. Dig into the habits and interests of your own customers. Join a collaborative project focused on post consumer textile data collection. Understand your company's requirements and resources for launching and maintaining a take-back programme. Contact companies who manage take-back programmes, communicate the importance of collecting materials data, and see who is interested in working with you at this level to build a sustainable programme for the long term.This research will give you a lot of fantastic insight and information to prepare you to take the next steps to take-back. We strongly recommend collaborating with post consumer textile experts to analyse this data, probe a little deeper, and understand how your specific needs fit within the current and future systems. This will help you define a solution that is the best fit for your own resources, goals, and the future of the industry.[hr]
We’ll dig deeper into take-back systems at Beyond Green 2017. Until then, let us help you do your homework:
[cta link="http://circle-economy.com/beyondgreen2017"] Get involved with Beyond Green 2017[/cta]
Or sign up for our Textiles newsletter and get access to our “Top 10 questions to ask before starting a take-back initiative” worksheet!
Circle Economy is delighted to announce a new partnership with Fashion for Good, the global initiative to make all fashion good. Through this partnership, Circle Economy and Fashion for Good will work together to encourage the widespread adoption and implementation of circular principles, strategies and technologies in the fashion industry. Fashion for Good, an initiative launched with an initial grant by founding partner C&A Foundation, convenes brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organisations, innovators and funders, united in their shared ambition to make all fashion good. By reimagining the way fashion is designed, made, used and reused, Fashion for Good focuses on sustainability and redesigning the global supply chainFashion for Good has six complementary programmes:
We look forward to the collaboration ahead!
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Together with our strategic partners, we develop game-changing, circular solutions that have the potential to transform entire industries. Through this pioneering work, we develop practical insights, tools and frameworks, that open up new opportunities to scale up and accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.
[cta link="http://www.circle-economy.com/work-with-us/strategic-partnerships/"]Join us[/cta]
On July 14th, Circle Economy opened its doors for another edition of Open Office Hours and welcomed circular fashion and textiles enthusiasts for a tour of what the Circle Textiles team has been working on over the past few months.
We're here to 1. Be merry 2. Put our finger on the pulse 3. Share our work! #openofficehours pic.twitter.com/tEeozWw4Ff
— Circle Economy (@circleeconomy) July 14, 2017
As circularity gains new ground, our team of textiles experts continue to work hard on ensuring the missing link to close the loop in fashion is accounted for. Brands can source recycled content, design for cyclability, and collect and resell used garments, but without the right infrastructure and technology in place, the majority of our clothing will inevitably end up landfilled or incinerated. This is where our work comes in: from Beyond Green and Fibersort to Circle Market, our Circle Textiles Programme is constantly pioneering and investing in the projects that will move the textiles industry beyond the why and get down to the nitty-gritty of how to make circularity a reality in fashion. Learn more about the Circle Textiles programme.
Beyond Green 2017 will dig deeper into our 5-step plan to circularity. [cta link="http://circle-economy.com/beyondgreen2017"]Why not join us?[/cta]
This is the second step of our 5-step plan to circularity. Read step 1 here.Designers are often seen as being at the helm when it comes to driving sustainable change in the fashion Industry. And it's no wonder why, when an estimated 80% of a product's environmental and economic impact is determined at the design stage. But with great power comes great responsibility, and we must ensure that designers have both in equal measure. In order to inform and empower designers to effectively drive this change and enable a circular fashion industry, we’re expanding on two of the design principles we believe are critical in moving past the concept of waste.
After WW2, the bid to encourage ‘consumption as a way of life’ triggered a unanimous drive toward mass-produced, disposable goods, and new levels of hyperconsumption were made possible through the twin methods of planned and perceived obsolescence. Today, both strategies continue to be adopted by the fashion industry, and with success: between 2000 and 2014, for example, consumers have increased yearly consumption by 60%, but use their clothing for about half as long. The first cornerstone in beating planned and perceived obsolescence is to design garments that last: extending the life of clothes by an extra nine months of active use alone would reduce carbon, water, and waste footprints by around 20–30% each. Physical DurabilityWhether it is using high quality materials, finishings, and construction, or ensuring that style and fit are timeless and not trend-sensitive - physical durability is all about designing and constructing a garment so that it can resist damage and wear, and serve a long and useful life. In the past, this was common practice (who can forget these infamous unbreakable stockings from the 1950s!) but now it is a novelty and a niche, with a few pioneering souls pushing durability to the max. Emotional Durability That said, durability this is not all about quality - emotional durability plays an important role too. After all, why is it that we cling so dearly to the 80s denim our mother gave us, or the sweater we bought during college years? Research posits that by designing garments that engage and delight the consumer over time, such as Patagonia's pre-loved Worn Wear collection, our heightened emotional attachment to and satisfaction with them can ultimately save them from landfill. Mythbuster:Some scientists and design experts are questioning whether longer garment lives are always necessarily a good thing. A new school of thought, trialed by Filippa K and Mistra Fashion Futures, is pushing for fashion to adopt appropriate lifecycles. The groundbreaking research is debunking the notion that 'slow fashion' is always preferable to ‘fast fashion’. When designed with intent, could a short-cycle, hyper-recyclable garment be the future of fashion?
While designing for long life is a basic and critical principle, the unavoidable truth is that all garments will eventually be disposed of by the consumer. And what then? All good things must come to an end, and good design will plan for this inevitable moment of disposal. The extension of a long-life garment, is a garment that is built to have multiple lives. Design for Repair and RedesignWhile the repair and reuse of garments is often tackled through the business model itself - e.g. Mud Jeans’ jean leasing scheme or the LENA library - clever design and the application of disassembly and modularity principles can further optimise such strategies. Conducting research and user testing to assess where the damage is likely to occur in a garment allows us to design in such a way that product parts can be easily replaced, upgraded, or fixed. Design for Recycling At present, many design approaches to recycling are ‘reactive’ as they attempt to work with existing waste streams at the point of disposal. Designers need to adopt a more ‘pro-active’ systems-based approach that identifies potential barriers to recycling at the outset and in doing so ‘design out’ complicating factors. In order for this to happen in practice, manufacturers and designers must first understand the processes that occur at a product’s end-of-life, so that they can ensure their products have effective ‘inbuilt’ recycling routes and can be easily (and fully) incorporated back into the material cycle. Basic guidelines include the use of mono fibre and mono material for ease of recycling (Kate Goldsworthy’s collection is a great example!), the elimination of hazardous toxins, dyestuffs, and coatings, and the elimination of heavy hardware and/or electronics. Of course, designing for cyclability is context-dependent and should be flexible, as technology is in constant development. Therefore, it is critical that designers foster active and ongoing relationships with the recovery solution providers themselves, to move beyond 'guesstimate' principles and co-develop dynamic and comprehensive design guidelines that match the input material requirements of available and advancing recycling technologies. Mythbuster: Unfortunately, just because a garment is technically'recyclable' does not mean that it will be practically recycled. No matter how much care is put into the design, after a garment ‘made for recycling’ has reached end of use, to expect it to get back to a producer with the recycling capabilities needed to actually turn it back into usable fibres is currently unrealistic. Approximately 75% of post-consumer textiles are never even collected and from the 20% that is collected most is sold on for re-use or downcycling. Keep an eye out for step 5 in the series, where we will explain what is needed to overcome this leak in the system. Here’s what you can do to get started!
We will dig deeper into our 5-step plan at Beyond Green 2017. [cta link="http://circle-economy.com/beyondgreen2017"]Stay in the loop[/cta]
Jump to the full conversation.The circular economy holds enormous promise for the fashion and textiles industry to revamp its current systems and move away from unsustainable practices. But while the ‘why’ of circularity is increasingly understood, the ‘how’ is still largely unanswered. What’s holding back the supply chain from moving beyond intent to action? What are the barriers to circularity, and what can brands, designers, and consumers already do to get started?On June 21st, The Next Closet, Loop.a.life, and Stating the Obvious joined our Circle Textiles team (Gwen Cunningham, Traci Kinden and Jade Wilting) on Twitter to discuss both the current state and the future of circular textiles. Here are insights from our conversation.
There are many ways to go about sourcing circular materials. You can start with giving materials a second life by using recycled materials or mono-materials whenever possible, sourcing excess rolled from traders/jobbers, or using manufacturers’ offcuts for small runs!
A1: 1 option is to focus on giving used materials a new life by sourcing recycled materials like @RecoverUpcycled cotton or RPET #circlechat
— Stating The Obvious (@Helene_STO) June 21, 2017
A1a: Check out @ReverseResourcs to use manufacturers' offcuts and rolled goods #circlechat
— REvolveWaste (@REvolveWaste) June 21, 2017
Dig deeper into the topic here.
Some companies are already leading the way. The Next Closet, for example, operates as a reselling platform to give luxury clothes a second, extended life; Loop.a.life transforms post-consumer garments into beautifully designed, high value products; Mud Jeans is making important strides in designing for disassembly and cyclability; Kate Goldsworthy only uses mono materials in her collections; and Filippa K and Mistra Fashion’s Circular Design Speeds initiative is challenging designers to use constraints as a springboard for circularity.
A2: @KusagaAthletic is doing great work. #circlechat https://t.co/GZXje6TCZJ
— costrike (@costrike) June 21, 2017
A2a: @mudjeansNL is a nice example of Design for Cyclability. Labels printed on fabric and working on screw on/off buttons. #circlechat
— Stating The Obvious (@Helene_STO) June 21, 2017
yes and aside from @thenextcloset let us not forget @LENAlibrary where you can borrow/exchange clothes like a library. Love it! #circlechat
— Stating The Obvious (@Helene_STO) June 21, 2017
Know of any others? Tweet us!
Designing for circular fashion is not without its hurdles. The number of constraints designers have to work around, coupled with a lack of understanding of just how much of an impact they have on the end of life of a garment, and a mismatch between what designers intend for a garment’s disposal and what consumers actually do with it, all make designing for circular fashion seem borderline impossible.However, with the right training and tools, we can empower designers so they find inspiration rather than frustration in these constraints and make informed decisions to design for a more circular fashion industry.
A3. Designers' freedom seems to be a recurring barrier in the research - If it's not in the brief... @circleeconomy #circlechat
— Rhiannon (@_rhiannonhunt) June 21, 2017
A3a No zippers, no buttons, no lurex, no elastan, etc, etc, etc. #circlechat
— Loopalife (@loopalife) June 21, 2017
A3 Getting an education in sustainable design is critical @AMFI #circlechat
— Gwen Cunningham (@Gwenhams) June 21, 2017
Reasons abound for brands to invest in take-back schemes: they foster brand value and loyalty; they allow brands to retain control over precious resources by turning consumers into suppliers; and they provide great alternatives to fashion-conscious consumers not quite ready to shop second-hand. Perhaps more importantly, they help raise awareness and shed light on just how much textiles waste we continue to dispose of around the clock.And it can be done. Patagonia, ever the environmental champion, has been ahead of the game for a while with their Worn Wear initiative, but fast-fashion giants like H&M and Zara are also starting to pull their weight.
A4 Leasing models give brands control of resources for the long term. Hello sustainability, good bye resource scarcity. #circlechat
— Jade (@notjaded) June 21, 2017
A4 long lasting relationship with the consumer. Clothing as service #circlechat
— Ricardo Weigend Rdz (@RichoWeigend) June 21, 2017
A4 Fosters brand value and loyalty. Your consumer is now your supplier & missing link in the chain! #circlechat
— Gwen Cunningham (@Gwenhams) June 21, 2017
A4 Used goods can become secure inputs for new materials @mudjeansNL #circlechat
— REvolveWaste (@REvolveWaste) June 21, 2017
Learn more about our post-consumer textile waste problem.
Consumers are currently both unaware and unable to gain proper access to education and information about the impact of their consumption choices. Sustainable fashion brands have also done a poor job at marketing to them, focusing on the niche rather than the mainstream and often missing the mark with the eco-fashion value proposition. But clothes are incredibly personal, and getting consumers to be part of the transition to a circular fashion industry requires us not only to inform and admonish them, but attract them and reel them in.
A6 Circular fashion can be sexy and exciting: communicate it can have a positive impact on consumer @circleeconomy #circlechat
— Orange Fiber (@OrangeFiber) June 21, 2017
A6 lack of education, information and accessibility. Unattractive marketing for consumers. Movement not yet as big as it should #circlechat
— Ricardo Weigend Rdz (@RichoWeigend) June 21, 2017
Totally agree! Even the fair fashion industry must be consumer oriented! We should also act on consumers to close the gap #circlechat
— Massimiliano Böhm (@Massimiliano982) June 22, 2017
Check out the @AMFI Hello Goodbuy activist group for constant inspiration! https://t.co/jnmEhrlBFM
— Gwen Cunningham (@Gwenhams) June 21, 2017
For all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together – for take-back schemes to serve their purpose, for consumers to get on board, and for designers to make the right decisions – we still need to build the right infrastructure to support our current, disjointed efforts. This both includes the physical infrastructure needed to close the loop, but also the research, resources, and incentives needed to drive change.
A4a: Take back schemes need an effective recycling infrastructure. Few high-end brands have invested in this. We fill the gap. #circlechat
— The Next Closet (@thenextcloset) June 21, 2017
We're taking a break for the summer but #circlechat will be back in September! We’ll also be releasing the full calendar for the next few months soon. [cta link="http://circle-economy.com/twitter-chat-signup"]Sign up to get it here.[/cta]
Do you have a suggestion for a topic? Let us know!
Look back on the full conversation here.
Circle Economy is excited to launch the Beta version of our Knowledge Hub!Throughout the past 5 years, we have discovered countless inspiring and innovative case studies, articles, and reports that highlight the circular economy in practice. Now we want to share them with you!Our ambition is to make the Knowledge Hub a go-to source for circular economy knowledge. By bringing together information that is currently spread across various organisations and industries, we hope to bring all of the insights, best practices, and research on the circular economy to one place.We invite you to search, discover, and request features and additional content you wish to see included to help us grow this open-source hub.Join us in co-developing the Knowledge Hub to create a community of collaboration and knowledge-sharing to make the circular economy a reality![cta link="http://www.circle-economy.com/knowledge-hub" ]Get Access[/cta]
Matthieu Bardout (Circle Economy), Jelmer Hoogzaad (Shifting Paradigms)A transition to the circular economy requires significant investment into research, developing, piloting and scaling solutions. Given its potential to contribute to climate mitigation efforts, climate finance should be pursued to support the transition. This blog post, the last of the series, provides insights into the way forward.
Climate finance refers to local, national, or transnational financing for climate action, which may be drawn from public, private, and alternative sources of financing. It includes USD 100 billion per year pledged by developed countries under the Copenhagen Accords in 2009 and many other sources of funding that contribute to mitigating or adapting to climate change. Total climate finance was estimated to be approximately USD 927 in 2014.Ideally, climate finance flows would reflect the mitigation potential of available approaches, with some degree of correction for the ease of implementation. That, however, is not the case. Within the broader definition of climate finance, an estimated 31 percent is invested in renewable energy and 36 percent in energy efficiency (own analysis based on UNFCCC). While tackling fossil-based energy use is critical, this limits the funding directed to other promising mitigation approaches. For example, approximately 67 percent of global energy use is linked to material management*, whereas low-carbon materials and dematerialisation strategies are seldom looked at within climate finance.The significant mitigation potential of the circular economy is thus overlooked, despite ambitions to make climate finance more innovative and transformative. Institutional investors should therefore analyse their portfolios to understand how investments cover the circular economy and how these investments also relate to climate finance efforts. For example, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently conducted an analysis of 368 investments made between 2014 and 2016 and found that 80 projects used circular economy measures and another 73 had potential to use circular economy measures. During the same period, 30 to 35 percent percent of the EBRD's investments were also accounted for as climate finance.Further reading: Circular Economy: A key lever in bridging the emissions gap to a 1.5 °C pathway
Risk management is critical to investors, and they cannot ignore the risks associated with climate change and the linear economy. For example, the carbon bubble suggests that fossil fuel companies valued based on the resources they plan to extract may be overvalued, as these resources would exceed the global carbon budget if burnt. This kind of risk is prompting regulators and institutional investors to mandate climate risk reporting, which exposes the vulnerability of fossil investments and can drive climate finance in the right direction.The risks associated with resource scarcity, access, and price volatility are also increasingly felt in a range of other industries such as agrifood or mining. The concept of linear risk, defined as the risk of operating with linear business practices, can also be extended beyond resource-related risks to include market, operational, business, legal, and reputational risks**. 'Linear' companies, for example, are less able to adapt to shifting supply chains, to meet extended producer responsibility requirements, and to connect with a new generation of consumers. As they offer solutions to both linear risks and climate change, circular economy strategies should make it to the front of climate finance pipelines.
We need to evaluate existing public policy and financial instruments to understand if and why they have been (un)successful at supporting the circular economy, and to develop new instruments that can effectively 'push the snowball down the hill'.Front-running countries such as The Netherlands have already demonstrated the importance for public actors to give clear signals in favour of the circular economy. The country’s ambition to become circular by 2050 has prompted a wide range of economic actors - industry, finance, research organisations, etc. - to engage with and rethink their position in a circular economy. This has boosted the country’s position in Europe and helped major companies such as Philips or DSM announce bold circular strategiesThe circular economy also requires continued public support for research and development in order for us to improve both our understanding of material flows and our consumption patterns, and to develop innovative technologies that can overcome the weaknesses of our linear economy. For example, the use of waste-as-a-resource is an important pillar of the circular economy, but behavioral changes and new technologies are still needed to increase recovery and recycling rates. Public support can catalyse both.Furthermore, the circular economy calls for a rethink of how business models respond to society’s functional needs. Product-service systems, for example, can reduce the need for physical assets and mitigate emissions, yet they have less of a track-record and are typically perceived to be riskier by investors. Public finance could therefore have a role in de-risking such investments.
The staggering gap between public and total climate finance, combined with the well-understood need to urgently scale climate finance, highlights the importance for public actors to leverage private sector finance. The circular economy is particularly promising in that respect as it promotes business approaches compatible with sustainable economic, social, and natural capital creation. New business models*** are being tested by front-running businesses of all shapes and sizes: disruptive startups (e.g. Bundles’ ‘washing machine as a service), SMES (e.g; Fairphone’s modular phone) and established multinationals (e.g. Philips’ remanufacturing plant in Best, NL). These new models are increasingly successful and front-running companies are demonstrating that they can add value by following circular principles.For example, many waste management companies seek to use waste as a resource, seeing an opportunity to diversify revenues by adding secondary material sales to conventional waste management activities. Considering that about 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent are emitted from wastewater treatment and municipal solid waste disposal annually, that only 20 percent of global municipal solid waste is recycled, and that 80 percent of wastewater is released untreated into the environment, there is both ample mitigation and commercial potential in avoiding waste and improving the recycling of valuable materials. 5. Implement new metricsSetting new carbon metrics will improve our understanding and measurement of the mitigation potential of the circular economy, and will help direct climate finance effectively. Using consumption-based rather than territorial accounting can broaden the scope of mitigation action and better reflect the actual contributions of different countries. Indeed, although territorial accounting is more straight-forward, the commitments under the Paris Agreement do not currently add up to a reduction level in line with the 2°C target.Governments, companies and investors need to broaden their perceived span of influence beyond factory gates and national borders, as our economies have become too integrated and supply chains too international for any other approach. This is something the green climate fund already recognises in its call for transformational impact, and this is where consolidating and implementing new metrics will prove critical, as climate finance turns to investing in low-carbon options rather than focusing on making traditional industries more efficient. Under a consumption-based accounting scheme, governments may understandably fear a dramatic increase in the scope of their responsibility. The voluntary nature of the Paris Agreement, however, is favourable in this respect as it promotes collaboration across value chains and serves as reassurance for signatories to safeguard their interests. *UNDP, "Circular economy strategies for Lao PDR - A metabolic approach to redefine resource efficient and low-carbon development" (forthcoming), a project with Shifting Paradigms, FABRICations and Circle Economy**Circle Economy and its partners will release a paper on linear risk during the course of 2017.*** See for example the five business models proposed by Peter Lacy and Jakob Rutqvist in 'Waste to wealth: the circular economy advantage' (2015): circular supply chains, recovery & recycling, product life extension, sharing platforms and product-as-a-service[hr]
The circular economy features high on public and private agendas and promises to help mitigate climate change. In the past weeks, we have explored how it can add to current climate policies, contribute to the the Paris Agreement and leverage climate finance. There is considerable scope for action and an urgent need to put the circular economy into action. Now is the time to make it a driving force for the ambitious climate action we need!
Thank you for reading! Please contact us for questions & follow-up.
[cta link="http://circle-economy.com/climatechangeseries"]Read the full series[/cta]
In a unique bundle of expertise, Fairphone, PGGM, ING, ABN AMRO, NBA, Allen & Overy, Circularise, MVO NL, Circle Economy and Sustainable Finance Lab will work together in the “Fairphone-as-a-Service Community of Practice” (CoP). The aim is to gain insights into the possibilities of and preconditions for a viable business model that no longer sells smartphones, but offers them as a service instead. The CoP is organized by the Sustainable Finance Lab and Circle Economy within the Netherlands Circulair programme and will run from June to October 2017.Fairphone aims to incentivise the industry to design and commercialise long-lasting, repairable smartphones. In order to accomplish this, product ownership needs to be left in the hands of the manufacturer rather than the customer. Manufacturers can then be responsible for the product, and customers can be assured that their device is both functional and durable.
Photo credit: FairphoneThe CoP is using Fairphone as a springboard to explore how contractual agreements between stakeholders, such as financiers, suppliers, insurers and customers, can enable product-as-a-service business models; what possibilities and opportunities these business models afford, and the scenarios where they are both achievable and financeable. The goal? To practically apply the service model to Fairphone business customers.Participating organisations bring together cross-disciplinary knowledge and expertise: from lawyers, insurers, bankers and accountants, to software developers, business economists, academics, and other experts in the field of the circular economy. Their combined efforts will be exploring the challenges, roadblocks and opportunities that lie ahead. The learnings will be documented and published in a white paper for other businesses, the financial sector, governments, and other interested parties to learn from. The ultimate goal is to practically apply the service model to Fairphone’s business to business customers.The CoP members actively contribute to the development of new business models that can bring the circular economy closer.Learn more about Fairphone's goals and ambitions here.
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Interested in learning more about the outcomes of this Community of Practice?
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