All the products we use have complex supply chains with related environmental and social impacts.
What happens during a product’s production, its use, and after the end of its lifespan counts more now than ever.
Especially when it comes to impacts that harm our planet.
Companies are under increasing pressure to measure and report these impacts, even if outside their direct control.
This includes coordinating sustainability efforts with suppliers and even assessing what happens once the time comes to dispose of a product.
Companies are under increasing pressure to measure and report these impacts, even if outside their direct control.
This includes coordinating sustainability efforts with suppliers and even assessing what happens once the time comes to dispose of a product.
Let’s take a laptop as an example.
Every product we make follows a similar journey across its entire life cycle.
The process all starts with extracting raw materials from our environment, like rare earth metals, minerals like silicon dioxide, and lithium.
These resources are refined into materials and components like glass, plastic, semiconductors, and batteries, which go into the manufacturing process.
All the various components are transported from supplier locations all around the world to be assembled into the final product.
The final product is then transported through various distribution channels and sold on the market.
The laptop is then used by consumers for a certain amount of time. Great!
(More on why that isn’t the end of the story is coming up.)
(More on why that isn’t the end of the story is coming up.)
Value is added along each stage of this process.
These stages all form the “uphill” journey of a product.
These stages all form the “uphill” journey of a product.
A product’s journey uphill has what we call inputs, or the labor and materials required, along with the land, energy, and water usage that went into that laptop.
The outputs, on the other hand, include waste, emissions, and other environmental impacts.
The outputs, on the other hand, include waste, emissions, and other environmental impacts.
Emissions from those inputs and outputs across the value chain fall into three categories: Scope 1,
Emissions from those inputs and outputs across the value chain fall into three categories: Scope 1, Scope 2,
Emissions from those inputs and outputs across the value chain fall into three categories: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3.
For many companies, more than 80% of emissions occur in Scope 3 impacts, particularly purchased goods and materials. This emphasizes the critical need for detailed insights into which products and material hotspots to prioritize to reduce environmental impact.
For many companies, more than 80% of emissions occur in Scope 3 impacts, particularly purchased goods and materials. This emphasizes the critical need for detailed insights into which products and material hotspots to prioritize to reduce environmental impact.
Now, let’s dive into the first section of the value hill.
Take for example how a manufacturing company assess its risks and hotspots:
First, each material used in products has different environmental and social impacts.
For a laptop, hotspots include how lithium mining and processing for batteries is draining water reserves in Argentina and Chile. Cobalt mining is linked to genocide in the DRC.
Assessing the impacts of purchased products and materials identifies such hotspots. Companies can then strategize how to mitigate these impacts. This is best done through a comprehensive material flow analysis (MFA) and impact analysis.
Learn more: Metabolic’s Carbon Footprint Assessment
For a laptop, hotspots include how lithium mining and processing for batteries is draining water reserves in Argentina and Chile. Cobalt mining is linked to genocide in the DRC.
Assessing the impacts of purchased products and materials identifies such hotspots. Companies can then strategize how to mitigate these impacts. This is best done through a comprehensive material flow analysis (MFA) and impact analysis.
Learn more: Metabolic’s Carbon Footprint Assessment
To measure and address the value-chain impacts related to products, organizations have to adhere to comprehensive frameworks designed to help improve their practices. These include:
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the SBTi (Science-Based Targets initiative), and FLAG (forest, land, and agriculture related emissions) and reporting standards like the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board).
Where to start? Data collection and analysis for an impact assessment are the first step to help companies pinpoint what should drive their climate strategy to reduce their overall footprint. Once data for carbon accounting is in place, companies can layer on other supply chain impacts for a more holistic overview of environmental and social risks.
See how this is done in practice: HEMA’s journey to climate neutrality by 2050
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the SBTi (Science-Based Targets initiative), and FLAG (forest, land, and agriculture related emissions) and reporting standards like the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board).
Where to start? Data collection and analysis for an impact assessment are the first step to help companies pinpoint what should drive their climate strategy to reduce their overall footprint. Once data for carbon accounting is in place, companies can layer on other supply chain impacts for a more holistic overview of environmental and social risks.
See how this is done in practice: HEMA’s journey to climate neutrality by 2050
Back to our laptop example.
This graphic demonstrates how data collected from the impact analysis reveals how such hardware and other IT equipment - the technical backbone for many organizations - has their own impact.
Informed purchasing decisions can minimize that impact. One way to do that is working to identify hotspots in the production system of IT equipment, considering its impact for material use, energy use, emissions, land use, and toxicity (see more in the graphic).
In 2022, we provided Rijkswaterstaat a clear handbook with rules and criteria to define their sustainable and circular procurement strategy to minimize these impacts. Click here to read more.
Informed purchasing decisions can minimize that impact. One way to do that is working to identify hotspots in the production system of IT equipment, considering its impact for material use, energy use, emissions, land use, and toxicity (see more in the graphic).
In 2022, we provided Rijkswaterstaat a clear handbook with rules and criteria to define their sustainable and circular procurement strategy to minimize these impacts. Click here to read more.
But sustainable practices and adhering to environmental regulations do not stop at the top of the hill.
Once a product breaks or is no longer needed, the user could throw it away. But once we know the story doesn’t end with a product’s initial lifespan, that no longer makes much sense, does it?
Even when recycling complex products such as laptops, many valuable and
critical materials are lost along the way.
The top of the hill is not where value ends. Downhill, our laptop has an important role, beyond recycling. There are several strategies that can retain this and many other products’ value after its initial lifespan:
Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle and Recover.
Thankfully, these are part of the famous “R strategies,” along with Refuse, Rethink, and Reduce. In addition, Redesign and Regenerate are also crucial interventions to create a truly circular system with reduced impacts.
Placed at different phases of the value chain, these strategies collectively reduce the impact of production and retain the embodied value of products at their highest and best use for as long as possible. It is the circular economy in action.
Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle and Recover.
Thankfully, these are part of the famous “R strategies,” along with Refuse, Rethink, and Reduce. In addition, Redesign and Regenerate are also crucial interventions to create a truly circular system with reduced impacts.
Placed at different phases of the value chain, these strategies collectively reduce the impact of production and retain the embodied value of products at their highest and best use for as long as possible. It is the circular economy in action.
Zooming out at the entire Value Hill, from the first stages of material sourcing going uphill, to the end stages of R strategies downhill, we look at a properly functioning circular system. Notice how the laptop’s components are fed back into the market and how little goes to landfill or incineration.
These products and materials are circulated again without all the harmful impacts associated with upstream production. That's true circularity in action!
Nowadays, producers are also increasingly becoming responsible for what happens to their products at the end of their lifespan (known as Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR). Especially when it comes to products containing scarce materials, electronics in particular, it is important to retain the product at its highest value for as long as possible.
How can you measure the impact saved by doing so?
Metabolic has created a Circular Interventions Impact Calculator based on the Circular Footprint Formula to evaluate the potential impact savings from applying circular strategies across various product categories, including consumer product returns, take-back scenarios, reverse logistics, and waste diversion.
Discover how this tool can be tailored to your specific needs:
Contact us
These products and materials are circulated again without all the harmful impacts associated with upstream production. That's true circularity in action!
Nowadays, producers are also increasingly becoming responsible for what happens to their products at the end of their lifespan (known as Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR). Especially when it comes to products containing scarce materials, electronics in particular, it is important to retain the product at its highest value for as long as possible.
How can you measure the impact saved by doing so?
Metabolic has created a Circular Interventions Impact Calculator based on the Circular Footprint Formula to evaluate the potential impact savings from applying circular strategies across various product categories, including consumer product returns, take-back scenarios, reverse logistics, and waste diversion.
Discover how this tool can be tailored to your specific needs:
Inspired? It’s time to take it further by collaborating with key suppliers across the value chain.
When looking at the end-of-life pathways and trajectories, it’s key to involve producers in conversations with “downstream” partners who collect, sort, and process products and materials for reintegration within the system.
Activities such as stakeholder mapping and visioning workshops overcome common barriers such as siloed thinking. Instead, cross-industry collaboration is absolutely critical for a circular electronics future.
What does this entail? Survey stakeholders, such as electronics producers, users, and recyclers, to assess what would be needed to create a circular and sustainable value chain for electronics.
Check out our work with Responsible Business Alliance!
As described by one electronics producer, “Once we see our downstream as our upstream, we will become a circular value chain.”
When looking at the end-of-life pathways and trajectories, it’s key to involve producers in conversations with “downstream” partners who collect, sort, and process products and materials for reintegration within the system.
Activities such as stakeholder mapping and visioning workshops overcome common barriers such as siloed thinking. Instead, cross-industry collaboration is absolutely critical for a circular electronics future.
What does this entail? Survey stakeholders, such as electronics producers, users, and recyclers, to assess what would be needed to create a circular and sustainable value chain for electronics.
Check out our work with Responsible Business Alliance!
As described by one electronics producer, “Once we see our downstream as our upstream, we will become a circular value chain.”
What’s more, those stakeholders throughout the value chain need to exchange essential data points across the product’s entire lifecycle.
Data is crucial for scaling the circular economy to replace the current linear, extractive system focused mainly on the uphill part of a product’s story.
In order to implement circular strategies, mechanisms like Digital Product Passports can facilitate this. In collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), we’ve mapped out the information that needs to be communicated between different stakeholders for product and material recirculation across different sectors. Read more here.
Data is crucial for scaling the circular economy to replace the current linear, extractive system focused mainly on the uphill part of a product’s story.
In order to implement circular strategies, mechanisms like Digital Product Passports can facilitate this. In collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), we’ve mapped out the information that needs to be communicated between different stakeholders for product and material recirculation across different sectors. Read more here.
Considering the entire value hill is good for the planet, but also good for a business’ future resilience.
Implementing circular solutions is therefore a risk mitigation strategy. In fact, we will only be able to meet society’s surging demand for critical materials when implementing R strategies at scale, with a particular focus on higher R strategies such as Reduce, Reuse, and Repair.
Check out our research on this topic here.
Implementing circular solutions is therefore a risk mitigation strategy. In fact, we will only be able to meet society’s surging demand for critical materials when implementing R strategies at scale, with a particular focus on higher R strategies such as Reduce, Reuse, and Repair.
Check out our research on this topic here.
Everyone has a role to play in making a circular and sustainable future a reality.
Scroll below and connect with us to shape this future together!
Scroll below and connect with us to shape this future together!
