Dr. Vikrant Bhakar
Sustainability Technologist, CIRCULÉIRE
Getting started on the journey towards a circular economy can be daunting, and many organisations don’t know where to start. However, there is a five-step process that can help.
CIRCULÉIRE is Ireland’s first circular innovation network, led by Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR). They support the industry on its transition towards circularity, reducing waste and associated emissions through a range of support and advisory services.
Developing action plans for a circular transition
Through CIRCULÉIRE, IMR has developed a unique circular economy (CE) action plan development process which identifies resource impact hotspots and opportunities to implement circularity practices and business models.
Companies go through a five-step process to drive circular implementation: (1) Baseline Survey, (2) Maturity Assessment, (3) Site Assessment, (4) Register of Circular Opportunities and (5) CE Action Plan.
Circular transition in five steps
Step 1 – Baseline Survey: IMR works with organisations to create a baseline of their impacts (across materials, water and energy) and identify impact hotspots which create internal awareness of their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Step 2 – Maturity Assessment: We designed a circular maturity toolkit to support organisations so that they can understand their readiness to embrace circularity. This simple but powerful online tool enables organisations to reflect on key capabilities required to implement circularity (eg. strategy, culture, collaboration, innovation to business models, design and manufacturing, product life extension, digitalisation and targets/KPIs).
Companies go through a five-step process
to drive circular implementation.
Step 3 – Site Assessment:Our expert team conducts an onsite audit of operational processes and practices. Here, we identify production bottlenecks, product and process inefficiencies and potential opportunities to valorise structural waste (raw materials, energy, water, waste, packaging, etc.) to support greater resource productivity and value creation.
Step 4 – Register of Circular Opportunities: Synthesising insights from steps 1–3, we deliver an interactive cross-functional stakeholder workshop to review and prioritise the register of circular-oriented innovation opportunities identified to reduce costs, improve supply-chain resilience and create new value propositions.
Step 5 – CE Action Plan:Building on insights from sectoral best practice research, IMR designs a bespoke circular economy action plan with short-term, medium-term and longer-term circular opportunities and goals to drive organisations’ circular implementation and enable tracking of circularity performance over time.
Support to capture circular advantage
Over 50 members across multiple sectors have engaged with CIRCULÉIRE to drive their circular transition by setting targets and implementing circular economy practices to reduce their carbon emissions and capture a circular advantage.
Come and talk to us at circuleire.ie/ce-toolkits/
