Circular trends to keep an eye on

2022-12-15

The ”circular economy queen” of Sweden and circular economy expert at the member network Cradlenet, one of Nordic Sustainability Expos partners, Elin Bergman gives us the latest trends in circular economy and explains the new concepts.

Circular economy is in right now, the interest has increased and many new memebers to the network. Business drives development and many in the industry realize for themselves that they need to rethink. Just a few weeks ago, a 3-day Nordic conference, the Nordic Circular Summit, ended, which attracted thousands of participants, all with the drive to change their operations and find solutions to quickly move forward.

The big talking points at the conference were, among other things, the business model PaaS (Product as a service), regenerative market, i.e. a market that does not do less harm but instead restores or rebuilds nature, as well as the need for a common Nordic vision for circular economy, explains Elin who was the conference's host and moderator.

PaaS means a service-based business model where the company retains ownership of its products and instead only charges when others use them. This business model is considered to contribute to the transition to a circular economy because repairs, upgrades, reuse and recycling become more interesting for companies to invest in. Today there are several interesting companies on the market and interest is growing. Ihopa grannbox, Hyber, Hygglo and 3temp are some examples.

Regenerative is a concept within the circular economy that is most often associated with agriculture. It then involves methods that improve soil health, increase carbon storage or contribute to biological diversity. Talking about regenerative products, on the other hand, is rarer. A large company that already last year came out and told us that they would invest in regenerative products was Stora Enso.

A regenerative product should contribute to rebuilding or restoring ecosystems to a better ecological status than the original state. It can be about having a positive impact linked to a specific challenge such as biodiversity, for example a solution to increase the bee population in a certain area. If you cultivate regeneratively, the carbon storage in the soil increases and you tie up the nutrients at the same time as the soil health itself increases and you also get bigger harvests. It is better than organic farming.

The EU's taxonomy and the CSRD directive, which became law in December, are also a hot topic going forward. Financiers on a broad front will need to understand and offer financing for circular business models, especially as the new law forces companies to report on circular criteria, explains Elin.

In general, the commodity crisis during the pandemic has also led to companies and industries taking more interest in the circular economy, says Elin and gives examples from the meetings industry that requested guidelines for circular business models, when the industry itself felt they needed to rethink. Elin also identifies a great interest in the ecodesign regulation, which is underway. - Companies are starting to prepare for it and are starting to explore circular product design and are looking for actors who can help them with this. But Elin also has a negative insight:
- The weak Swedish environmental and climate policy means that companies feel frustration and uncertainty about what applies in the future. The picture may become clearer when the Government releases its climate and environmental plan in January. But right now it's the companies that are driving the change and are pushing the politicians, says Elin.

As a final touch, Elin mentions the importance of the Nordic countries adopting a common vision for how the countries should become more circular. - Both Finland and Norway are far ahead of Sweden in development and here we as a region need to cooperate in order to move forward faster, which became clear during the Nordic conference and which we are now taking to heart and working on, explains Elin.

And Cradlenet's program content at the Nordic Sustainability Expo in May next year is about Nordic collaboration. - Here we will gather the very best speakers who are sitting on the future solutions that need to be scaled up - a perfect place to get an overview of the latest in sustainability and which will affect your own business in the near future. You simply cannot miss the Nordic Sustainability Expo, concludes Elin Bergman.