What does circular economy mean to you?
Reuse and recycle often come up as the most popular buzzword answers. But a proper focus on the circular economy goes way beyond the itemised bins in your staff canteen.
Most businesses have a genuine, but sometimes vague hope to improve their environmental footprint and embrace a circular philosophy.
But what are the real ground-level changes within a business?
How much can they really influence?
And what could they mean to your future?
For some businesses the change will be an easy transition to improved measures.
For others it will mean difficult, significant change to their entire work practices.
For the worst off, the change will be far too much to ask.
Using market knowledge to optimise a supply chain that minimises your impact.
Informed choices to minimise both transport costs and environmental impact.
Finding the right operations for your relevant product category.
These are focuses worthy of your attention.
But they are surface level.
They are reactive.
Engaging Proactivity
One business insider article estimated 4 million tonnes of retail returns in 2022 ended up in landfill from the US alone. The National Retail Federation put this at $816 billion worth of goods.
Returns are inevitable. Especially with online purchasing. But your used or faulty products don’t have to be resigned to the ever-growing pile in landfill.
Reworking and reselling your overstocks and returns will maximise the lifecycle of your retail goods. Whether it’s selling them as they are, refurbishing them, or setting the right price for them.
A system tailored to your business gives you greater control of your brand reputation and the recovery of lost value. When you choose the right team to back you, established partnerships with global exit channels open a whole new secondary market to your product without compromising the quality of your brand.
The outcome is not only a better environmental footprint and less landfill waste. It’s a focus on the circular economy that is woven through your entire business model.
Circular Side-Effects.
Evolving from linear to a circular focus will make your customer relationships better than ever.
How?
Products designed to be circular do not have an end-of-life. They have an end-of-current-usage loop.
When the future of your business is intertwined with the safe retrieval and reuse of the product itself, you and your customer become a team.
Heightened responsibility and economic incentives for safer disposal methods breed an improved desire that guide your quality control decisions.
The onus of product care so often put upon the consumer or end-user becomes a collective pursuit. A shared goal of improved, reliable longevity
Low cost mass production and poorly made disposable products is the short-term thinking soon to be resigned to the past.
Well made products created to last is the long-term circular thinking destined to be our future.
The Future is Circular.
This World Economic Forum article predicts the circular economy will become dominant by the 2030s.
Climate change concerns, attractive business models, political support and societal pressure all point to the same conclusion.
The transition will be fast.
Like the way bricks and mortar shops struggled to keep up with ecommerce models born into a digital world. Businesses born in a circular environment will have a head start. The model they are built upon will benefit from circular thinking from the outset.
Companies must start adopting circular economy business models now to remain competitive.
The question isn’t whether or not the future is destined to be circular.
It's whether your business can adapt well enough to be a part of it.
If you need support and need an efficient route for your returns please give us a shout, we would love to help
Thank you for reading
by Daryl Bennett
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