V I EWPO I NT “Enterprises need to reconstruct their vision of sustainability, by imbibing the principles of circularity across key business functions” Building a sustainable and equitable future Practices of circularity can enable enterprises to maximise their revenue opportunities, save on costs and streamline the business S ANKAR KONDURU : I NFOS Y S Sustainability and circularity are no longer topics reserved for the boardroom. Practices of circularity be obscure for enterprises, with the circular economy proving challenging to define. Attempts by enterprises to navigate a customised road map for themselves can also be daunting. With a ‘takemake-dispose’ approach, we – as humans – are inducing turbulence in the system by depleting natural resources and filling it with waste. This linear economy must change in terms of our consumption and management of waste. That is where the circular economy comes in, with a clear focus on preservation and optimisation of natural resources. To build a circular economy, we need to transition to a system where waste or pollution is a design flaw and not a by-product; materials and products will be in use for perpetuity rather than being discarded as waste; and the environment is not only protected, but also enhanced. So far, enterprises have adopted the standard triple ‘R’ approach to sustainability – reduce, reuse, recycle. But this piecemeal approach to sustainability may not yield intended results for the world at large. Enterprises need to reconstruct their vision of sustainability, by imbibing the principles of circularity across key business functions like research and development, product development and design, operations, supply chain, and branding. Measuring enterprise-level circularity is as important, if not more so than strategy itself, for it to translate to desirable outcomes. To measure effectiveness of their strategies around circularity, enterprises can adopt from various established frameworks, including cradle-to-cradle, which defines the ‘circular design’ of products; the life cycle assessment and material circularity indicator, that is proposed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation; or circular transition indicators that have been proposed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Enterprises can maximise their revenue opportunities and ensure cost savings by adhering to circularity principles. One way they can achieve this is through maximising the use of (and revenue from) underutilised assets via sharing platforms such as Airbnb, Lyft and Zipcar. The product-as-service model – where an enterprise retains ownership of an item and makes revenue by offering services around the item – is another potential monetary stream, as well as extending the life of manufactured products, with revenue coming from a company repairing or remanufacturing products for end users. 74
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