Project description
A circular economy solutions for sustainability
The transition to a sustainable future is an achievable goal. By championing circular economy principles, it is possible to pave the way for a world where sustainability and innovation go hand in hand. In this context, the EU-funded CIRC4Life project aims to create a sustainable ecosystem from the ground up, encompassing every step of the value and supply chains. CIRC4Life has identified three key business models to achieve its goals. The first, co-creation of products/services, aims to bridge the gap between end-users and manufacturers. The second is the model of sustainable consumption. The last model is collaborative recycling and reusing of end-of-life products. The project’s scope extends to the electrical and electronic products sector, as well as the farming and agri-foods sector.
Objective
This project aims to develop and implement a circular economy approach for sustainable products and services through their value and supply chains. Three new circular economy business models will be developed including (i) co-creation of products and services, (ii) sustainable consumption, and (iii) collaborative recycling and reuse.
The Co-creation of Products/Services model will bring end-users closer to the design and manufacturing phases by identifying consumer preferences via Big-data online mining product reviews and evaluating product specifications and prototypes via Living Lab to customise the end-user requirements. Benefited from the co-creation features, sets of sustainable production methods will be implemented and new products/services will be created.
The Sustainable Consumption model will develop a method to calculate the eco-points of products based on the outcome of FP7 myEcoCost project, assess product environment footprints (PEF), provide a traceability solution to monitor product’s sustainability along the value chain, and support end-users and stakeholders to actively implement the circular economy via awareness raising and knowledge sharing activities.
The Collaborative Recycling/Reuse model will develop a system for stakeholders to interact with each other to facilitate the use/reuse of end-of-life products and reduce waste, and implement the eco-credits awarding scheme to encourage people to recycle/reuse.
This project will be demonstrated at a large scale in electrical and electronic products and farming/agri-foods sectors, provide an effective means to communicate with wide communities to disseminate the project outcome, and involve a large number of stakeholders along value and supply chains throughout the project lifetime, including end-users, producers, researchers and civil society.
An ICT platform will be developed to support the development, implementation, demonstration, communication and dissemination.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil society
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
NG1 4FQ Nottingham
United Kingdom