Top 10: Circular Design Strategies
The transition to a circular economy is a critical change.
These strategies can help to avoid the 45% of emissions that won’t be removed by the transition to clean energy and technologies alongside supporting reduction in land, water and other raw material use.
Circular strategies can maximise the climate benefits of climate tech, for instance creating electric vehicle batteries with low or cobalt-free cathodes to reduce mineral demand.
They can also support clean technologies to remain in use longer through repairs, upgrades, refurbishment and remanufacturing.
Further, reducing the costs of materials needed to develop clean technologies through circularity will help to support their adoption around the world.
We’ve ranked 10 of the top circular design strategies and companies pioneering them.
10. Philips’ modular design
CEO: Roy Jakobs
Founded: 1891
Revenue: US$19.9bn (2023)
A modular design approach to product development involves creating independent modules that can be put together for a final product. This can help to prolong the life of equipment through replacing individual modules as opposed to a whole item.
Philips’ ClearVue 650 ultrasound system has a modular design that helps to ensure the tech is compatible with future innovations and make it last longer. Philips also provides preventative maintenance for the device to ensure reliable performance.
9. Dell’s design for disassembly
CEO: Michael Dell
Founded: 1984
Revenue: US$102.3bn (2023)
Dell uses modular design in the creation of its products alongside other strategies that make repairs easier such as standardised fasteners, single access service doors and upgradeability. This can dramatically reduce service time and increase upgradeability.
The company’s Concept Luna, developed in collaboration with Intel, explores design ideas to make components immediately accessible, replaceable and reusable. Dell says if all the design ideas from this concept are realised it could provide an estimated 50% reduction in overall product carbon footprint.
8. BMW’s material passports
CEO: Oliver Zipse
Founded: 1916
Revenue: US$154.8bn (2023)
Digital passports offer a log of the supply chain steps and composition of components used to build products. Unlike traditional physical documentation this data is easily accessible and secure.
BMW uses blockchain technology for its digital product passports, ensuring the details of its products remain secure and untampered. Siemens also supported BMW with a proof-of-concept battery passport ahead of potential regulations making these mandatory. This allows for tracking of batteries from mining raw materials through to recycling.
7. Interface’s biomimicry
CEO: Laurel Hurd
Founded: 1973
Revenue: US$1.2bn (2023)
Biomimicry is a scientific design principle that aims to emulate nature for sustainable solutions. It is used across fields, from medicine and drug delivery to automobile or furnishing design.
Flooring company Interface has used biomimicry to create carpet designs that mimic nature, such as using van der Waals forces to adhere carpet tiles to each other as opposed to the floor. The company also uses non-directional patterns on tiles, inspired by natural environments such as forest floors.
6. Unilever’s circular packaging
CEO: Hein Schumacher
Founded: 1929
Revenue: US$63.8bn (2023)
Unilever’s CIRCLE Alliance is a US$21m private-public initiative with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and EY to tackle plastic pollution.
Rebecca Marmot, Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer, says: “CIRCLE’s collaborative model of enterprise acceleration – delivered through a mix of grant funding and bespoke business support – will help scale both new and existing solutions for packaging circularity, whether that’s driving collection and recycling, or reuse–refill models.
“Crucially, it will support many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs that offer impactful, market-based solutions but are currently too small to work at the scale we need.”
5. Rolls-Royce’s product-as-a-Service
CEO: Tufan Erginbilgic
Founded: 1906
Revenue: US$21bn (2023)
Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a business model that focuses on delivering value through a product’s use instead of by selling the product itself. This allows for a reduced volume of raw materials and energy being used and reduced waste generation.
Rolls-Royce brought its ‘Power-by-the-Hour’ approach into service in 1962 to support its engine on a business jet, offering a complete engine and accessory replacement service on a fixed cost-per-flying-hour basis. This allows for planned and predictable maintenance costs and removes risk from unscheduled maintenance events.
4. Adidas’ regenerative design
CEO: Bjørn Gulden
Founded: 1949
Revenue: US$23.4bn (2023)
Typically, clothing products like shoes are made from materials that mean they can only be downcycled. Regenerative design principles focus on creating systems that mimic or work with the ways natural ecosystems return energy from less to more valuable forms.
Adidas’ FUTURECRAFT.LOOP shoes are designed to be fully recyclable, created using only one material type and no glue. Each component is made from 100% reusable TPU which is spun to yarn, knitted, moulded and clean fused to a midsole.
3. H&M’s digital product passports
CEO: Daniel Ervér
Founded: 1947
Revenue: US$22.5bn (2023)
Starting in 2024, the European Union (EU) will implement a new regulation requiring nearly all products sold in the EU to feature a digital product passport as part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.
This is designed to close the gap between demands for transparency and a lack of reliable product data.
H&M is investing in AI and digital processes to improve supply chain transparency and to increase material efficiency. The tools it invests in support improved planning and accuracy alongside customer centricity.
The company uses digital IDs across its Mens Essentials Collection by implementing QR codes on labels that can be scanned to access detailed information about the piece. This gives customers information on style, allows them to shop and re-order items and provides access to circular services such as resale or recycling.
2. Apple’s circular material selection
CEO: Tim Cook
Founded: 1976
Revenue: US$383.2bn (2023)
In 2017, Apple announced it aims to make all new iPhones, Macs and other products with 100% renewable or recycled materials.
In 2023 the company achieved the implementation of 22% recycled or renewable material in its products. It also sent nearly 13 million devices and accessories to new owners for reuse.
Its machine, called Taz, improves material recovery from traditional electronics recycling to support its recycling partners. The company offers recycling for all Apple devices and devices from Apple owned brands at any Apple Store and online.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives says: “Our rapid pace of innovation is already helping our teams use today’s products to build tomorrow’s, and as our global supply chain transitions to clean power, we are charting a path for other companies to follow.”
1. Caterpillar’s design for remanufacturing
CEO: Jim Umpleby
Founded: 1925
Revenue: US$67.1bn (2023)
Remanufacturing is the rebuilding of a product to its original manufacturing specifications using repaired, reused and new parts to repair or replace old components or devices.
It provides a like-new standard of product through its thorough processes.
Caterpillar is developing new solutions to help create a more sustainable world including world-class salvage techniques to return core parts to the latest performance specifications.
Cat Reman is the name of its remanufactured line of products ranging from electric power solutions to mining equipment.
Cat Reman products generally come with a 12-month Caterpillar warranty, the same as many of its new products, providing consumers with peace of mind over the quality of their purchase.
In 2020, the programme kept 131 million pounds of waste from old products out of landfills.
Andy Jirovec, Resource Industries’ Senior Manager for Product Lifecycle at Caterpillar, says: “Cat Reman gives us sustainable benefits and a broad array of repair options that customers need for their business. It delivers a component to get the machine back up and running as quickly as possible.”
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