Circular economy ideas offer companies the chance to grow revenue and reduce environmental impacts, but finding the opportunities that are commercially viable and deliver environmental improvements is difficult.
Reports on the circular economy have produced different estimates of the potential value in the circular economy. Early analysis by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation suggests it could be worth €1.8 trillion for Europe as a whole. A more conservative approach for the UK identified £1.7 billion of value from a less ambitious changes for the UK.
PwC has developed a Circular Economy Solutions Toolkit to help companies find, analyse and implement propositions in their businesses. There are different circular economy solutions available. Most common approaches include options to extend product life through better maintenance and service, reuse and remanufacture.
In their report Corporate Sustainability Lessons Learned Going circular: Towards 100% reuse and recycling, PwC have brought together their experiences of implementing their sustainability strategy, in order to allow others to learn from their successes – and mistakes.
The PwC strategy includes actions to alleviate pressure on materials, water and the climate. Having gone ‘zero to landfill’ in 2012, they are now working towards an aspirational goal to reuse or recycle 100% of their waste by 2017, as well as exploring fully ‘circular economy’ solutions, in the longer term. This Lessons Learned report, first published in November 2015, is part of a new PwC series focusing on their ‘going circular’ experience. This second edition is updated to reflect new solutions introduced over the past few months, and better data.
Download the full report: http://www.pwc.co.uk/assets/pdf/pwc-going-circular-second-edition.pdf
