The circular economy model has been proposed as a possible strategy for sustainable development in urban areas, implying that its core principles need to be cascaded down to various sectors, including the energy sector. District heating and cooling systems have great potential to enhance circularity on an urban level due to the establishment of synergies between different sectors, the incorporation of renewable energy sources and high efficiency. Indicator-based frameworks are valuable tools for monitoring the transition toward a circular economy. However, no framework to assess circularity in district heating and cooling systems was found. Thus, this study addresses this gap by reviewing currently available indicators used to assess district heating and cooling systems and understanding to what extent they reflect circular economy principles. For this purpose, 27 papers with 271 indicators were assessed against defined criteria related to the circular economy principles. These criteria included transparency, stakeholder engagement, effective communication, ability to track temporal changes, applicability, alignment with circular economy principles, validity and relevance to sustainable development. Afterwards, 89 indicators were selected and classified based on the 10R principle framework. The assessment revealed that the assessed papers cover a wide range of topics and assessment types and that none of the assessed papers fulfils all of the assessment criteria. Moreover, most of the identified indicators connect to the environmental and economic pillars of sustainable development, and the identified indicators focus primarily on the R principles of Reduce and Recover. This study laid the foundation for further research on the relationship between district heating and cooling systems and the circular economy by identifying the understudied areas and highlighting the need to develop tailored indicators to measure circularity in these systems.

This is a master’s thesis project of 30 credits written with guidance from the Swedish research institute ICT Viktoria and Industrial Ecology at KTH. This thesis is conducted by two students at KTH, one with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Ecology and the other with a background in Energy and Environmental Technology. This study focuses on circular economy linked to the furniture industry in Sweden and how the transition from theoretical to practical concepts can be improved. The methods of this thesis consist of three semi-structured interviews, a survey and an analytical comparative literature review. The interviews, survey and literature review is analyzed with the purpose of finding important criteria relevant for office chairs in circular business models. The interviews are performed face-to-face with three different key persons; an office supply manager, a CEO at a refurbishing company and a product manager. The study focuses on product design within the Swedish furniture industry although some aspects regarding circular business models, logistics and psychological values are included. The results are design criteria for office chairs in circular business models and a design evaluation program for the industry built on these. The program, based on multi criteria analysis, can help reduce the gap between theory and practice of how circular economy should be implemented in the industry. By giving early feedback during the design phase on how well an office chair and a company’s structure meet circular economy criteria the authors hope to ease and speed up this transition. The main characteristics of an office chair designed for circular business models are: Durable Easy to service Adaptable Modular Homogeneous material composition in modules Although the transition to circular business models can be a comprehensive process the authors believe that if furniture manufacturers would integrate circular business models for office chairs into their business structure this would be both economically viable and highly beneficial for their environmental profile which can strengthen their position on the market.

Our society is all the more shifting towards focusing on the impact that we have on the world’s climate and reducing our environmental impact is getting increasingly popular. Amongst efforts to reduce the impact of the products that we use, the field of Circular Design has emerged as a solution that tackles the problem at its roots in a holistic way, aiming to not only reduce the climate impact of products, but to transition our entire society into a sustainable one through the implementation of a Circular Economy. This ideal economic state is structured around ensuring that products are not simply produced, used and then discarded, but instead that the value of products are never lost. This is done by circulating them in different stages, ensuring that they are reused by other people, refurbished to a good condition, remanufactured as a new product, or that their materials are recycled and used in other products. This holistic approach currently seems to be the most viable for transitioning our society into one structured around sustainability.   In the midst of the increasing interest in sustainability, companies are starting the move towards implementing changes with this in mind. In the electric guitar industry, .strandberg* stands out as one of the more well-known brands that is doing just that, by introducing product design changes to their electric guitars with the goal of reducing material waste and moving away from materials that are becoming scarce in the world. This can be seen as a first step towards changing the entire industry, that is currently focusing mostly on constantly manufacturing new products, to one that focuses on the value of existing products and how to maintain this for as long as possible. The electric guitar as a product is one that commonly sees several users during its lifetime already, and those with high degrees of quality and performance, such as .strandberg*’s products, can potentially be used and kept in a functional state indefinitely. As such, introducing Circular Design to this product category stands as a challenge.   During the course of this thesis project, the process of Design Thinking and the skillset of an Industrial Design Engineer has been used to take on this challenge of Circular Design applied to the electric guitar. Current circular products have been analyzed to find success factors, inspiration and knowledge of the implications that Circular Design has on product development. The work included a comprehensive literature review of the field to take part of the existing academic knowledge, contextual and user research to understand the current situation as well as the needs of the relevant user group, idea generation to find innovative solutions, visual prototyping of concepts and the use of evaluative methods to understand how well the solutions would work.   The final results of the project ended up being more theoretical than anticipated, as it was found that .strandberg*’s products in their design already fit many of the criteria for circular products. Instead, a circular business model system (CBMS) was developed, that details a process wherein .strandberg*’s newly produced as well as existing products can circulate through a sequence of users, while also incentivizing these users to take care of their products and ensure that their functional service life is maximized. The CBMS stands as a broader value offering to both .strandberg* as a company and to the users of their products.   Recommendations for future work with the CBMS includes testing alternative material choices with physical prototypes, launching the model at a small scale to investigate its validity and work out eventual problems as well as to build partnerships with actors, either on a small but potentially on a global scale, to be able to implement aspects of the CBMS.

Background: The circular economy has emerged as an alternative to linear approaches to consumption and has the potential to solve the most pressing sustainability issues society faces today. SMEs have a central role in the transition towards a circular economy, as they make up the majority of businesses in Europe. However, the adoption of circular practices has been slower than expected. Researching what is affecting the adoption of these practices could provide answers and insights into how to accelerate this transition.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of organizational climate as a moderator when implementing circular business practices, given its potential to lead to organizational change.  Method: This study follows an interpretive approach through a multiple exploratory case study using two companies. Qualitative semi-structured interviews and observations from the company visits were used as primary data. The empirical data is analyzed through a general coding procedure, where explanation building was used as the approach. The research adds to existing theory through an abductive approach.   Conclusion: By exploring the challenges people face in SMEs, we have found that the organizational climate of the company is a critical factor that can affect the implementation of circular practices. Therefore, we propose that by creating the right climate, organizations could potentially accelerate this transition.

Circular economy is a topic that has gained a lot of attention during the last decades. Even so, there is still a gap of research at the micro-level regarding how circular economy influences financial performance. This paper aims to investigate if circular economy has a positive impact on financial performance indicators. Furthermore, it explores whether the firm size has an impact on the level of circularity as well as if circularity has an impact on financial performance. Using a sample of Swedish companies, this paper applied the framework of 9Rs to enhance the knowledge of the level of circularity.A survey was sent to 239 SMEs within the manufacturing industry in Sweden to gather information about the expected relation between circular economy and the financial performance. Previous research points out that companies struggle to implement circularity since the systems are not yet developed. This paper cannot confirm the reasons behind the low number of companies with adopted circular processes, which could be investigated further by other researchers. However, it was found that most companies are still focusing on sustainability and only a few companies have implemented circularity in their business model. Furthermore, firm size does not have an impact on the level of circularity which could be due to either that the majority of participating companies is classified as small or that most companies are still linear. At last, the analysis results show that circular economy has a positive influence on the financial KPIs sales, return on assets and economic value added and that the higher level of circularity, the greater the impact.

The European Commission adopted the first action plan for the transition to a circular economy in 2015. As a result, the concrete industry’s goal is for all concrete produced in Sweden to be climate neutral by 2045. Cement production is the third-largest carbon dioxide emitter in Sweden and accounts for 90% of concrete’s carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, to lower the climate footprint of concrete, it is necessary to find alternatives to cement. The potential of the use of wood ash in cement as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) has been investigated in several studies. Due to Sweden's nature and wood industry, a comprehensive study has been done to investigate the possibility of using wood ash as an SCM in Sweden based on availability and efficiency. This work aims to investigate the obstacles and driving forces that concrete producers face when transitioning to a circular economy by partially replacing cement with new potential SCMs. The aim is also to investigate the availability of wood ash generated in Sweden and account for the potential to be used as an SCM. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were conducted to determine the obstacles and drivers that concrete producers in Sweden face when converting to a circular economy by partially replacing cement with new potential SCMs. The amount of ash produced in Sweden was estimated based on the value of ash content and the potential annual supply of wood fuels in Sweden. In addition, a literature review was performed to investigate the properties of wood ash. The economic and environmental aspects, as well as the fact that the supply of fly ash and slag is likely to decrease in the future form the main driving forces for concrete producers. The obstacles raised by the correspondents were the availability of SCMs, technical barriers, logistics, and standards. The amount of the annual production of wood ash in Sweden is estimated to be between 851 450 and 1 232 950 tons. The chemical characteristics of wood ash did not meet the requirements according to European standard (EN450-1). However, the reviewed articles indicated a potential for wood ash to be used as a supplementary cementitious material due to the indication of some hydraulic and pozzolanic activities. The combination of fly ash and wood ash in concrete is considered viable due to promising results based on mechanical strength. / EU-kommissionen antog den första handlingsplanen för omställningen till en cirkulär ekonomi 2015. Som ett resultat av detta är betongindustrins mål att all betong som används i Sverige ska vara klimatneutral år 2045. Cementindustrin är den tredje största koldioxidutsläpparen i Sverige och står för 90 % av betongens koldioxidutsläpp. För att sänka betongens klimatavtryck är det nödvändigt att hitta alternativ till cement. Potentialen för användningen av träaska i cement som ett alternativt bindemedel har undersökts i flera studier. Med hänsyn till Sveriges natur- och träindustri har en omfattande studie gjorts för att undersöka möjligheten att använda träaska som alternativ bindemedel i Sverige utifrån tillgänglighet och effektivitet. Arbetet syftar till att undersöka de hinder och drivkrafter som betongföretag möter vidövergången till en cirkulär ekonomi genom att delvis ersätta cement med nya alternativa bindemedel. Syftet är också att undersöka tillgången på träaska som genereras i Sverige och redogöra för potentialen att användas som ett bindemedel. Kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med öppna frågor genomfördes för att fastställa de hinder och drivkrafter som företag inom betongtillverkning i Sverige möter vid en omställning där cement ersätts delvis med nya bindemedel. Mängden aska som produceras i Sverige har uppskattats utifrån värden på askhalt och den potentiella årliga tillgången på trädbränslen i Sverige. Dessutom har en litteraturöversikt genomförts för att undersöka träaskans egenskaper. Drivkrafterna för en omställning till cirkulär ekonomi hos betongindustrier genom delvis ersättning av cement med nya alternativa bindemedel är de ekonomiska och miljömässiga aspekterna samt det faktum att tillgången på flygaska och slagg riskerar att sjunka i framtiden. Hindren som korrespondenterna tog upp var tillgången till alternativa bindemedel, tekniska barriärer, logistik och standarder. Mängden av den årliga produktionen av träaska i Sverige uppskattas mellan 851 450 och 1 232 950 ton. Kemiska egenskaper hos de undersökta träaskorna uppfyller inte kraven enligt europeisk standard (EN450-1). Litteraturöversikten visar dock en potential för träaska att användas som ett alternativt bindemedel till följd av en viss hydraulisk och puzzolanisk aktivitet. Kombinationen av flygaska och träaska i betong anses lönsam på grund av lovande resultat baserade på mekanisk hållfasthet.

Resource efficiency and circular economy (CE) has become increasingly relevant to the Swedish construction company NCC in connection to the plans of demolishing the current head office in Stockholm and building a new head office next to it. NCC wants to investigate how to minimize the negative sustainability implications of bringing down a commercial facility well before its life length has expired, through exploring the possibilities of integrating principles of CE in future planning‐and construction processes. This study seeks to understand how the Swedish construction company NCC could work with decision-making for CE in order to keep their materials in the loop. As the concept of CE is broad there are many options for working with its principles. However, the construction industry is relatively new to these and a list of priorities would therefore be helpful in such an initial phase, as focusing on all would be inefficient and rather daunting. Thus, this study suggests a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as a tool for decision-making and prioritizing between various approaches to CE. Together with NCC, an MCDA was performed where three different options for working with CE were analysed (Waste as Resource, Circular Design and Circular Business Models). In a focus group, 17 criteria that were relevant to NCC were developed as a basis for analysing the options. These were then defined, scored and weighted to reveal a most preferable option. The MCDA showed that the most preferable approach to CE for NCC is working with circular design, i.e. Design for Deconstruction (DfD), followed closely by measures to increase the rate of reuse and recycling of already existing construction- and demolition waste. However, the sensitivity analysis revealed that if economic criteria received a higher weight, increased reuse and recycling is the most preferable option. MCDA was deemed a helpful decision-making tool for CE principles. While the scoring and weighting is subjective and it is challenging to quantify the criteria, the strength lies in bringing a new and innovative topic on the agenda by gathering key decision-makers in focus groups to discuss and learn. A preliminary study to this thesis was conducted at NCC (Tabrizi, 2015) with the aim of conducting a survey of good examples with regard to development of commercial properties that are designed for flexibility and deconstruction during refurbishment and end‐of‐life. It showed that the challenges relate to the hesitant perception of secondary material, design and construction limitations, the need for material documentation, organization and logistics as well as creating sustainable business models. Key success factors for overcoming these challenges for NCC is working towards better communication and promotion of secondary material through information sharing, building up a knowledge base and internal targets, as well as establishing a consistent work methodology for DfD in order to move NCC towards a circular economy.

Background. Between 2012 and 2017 the plastic supply in Sweden increased by almost 400000 metric tons. In 2017, the hospitals in Sweden contributed to 4550 metric tons of plastic waste, disposable gloves counted for 2100 metric tons, which is 358 million disposable gloves. The majority made in other countries than Sweden, which is not only contributing to a considerable waste stream but also vulnerability when the system is dependent on continuous material supplies. Aim and Purpose. The research aim has been to understand the challenges and opportunities of needs relating to plastic waste flows from the health care sector. From the needs, choose an area to develop an innovative solution that changes the current waste flow into value for the health care sector in Sweden. Method. For this thesis, the researcher has used the Design Research Methodology and the MSPI innovation process. Design Research Methodology has been used to find and validate crucial information about the problem, by the usage of literature research and Unstructured interviews within the research area. MSPI was iteratively used with DRM to design the intended support as well as building the actual support. Results. The final prototype proves that circularity for plastic materials in hospitals is reachable. The Needfinding highlights the need for circularity, regarding both an effective use of the material and the health care’s readiness levels where access to Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) is crucial, especially in times of crisis. Conclusions. During the time of crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been clear that changes regarding preparedness and access to PPE needs improvement. Circularity is one way of achieving greater control of the material flow, which affects the hospital's level of independence. The development has proven one way of making the flow of disposable gloves circular by developing an inhouse recycling machine. This thesis work is just one angle of approach towards circularity and more efficient usage of material. To prove the concept in a hospital environment, future development is required. / Bakgrund. Mellan åren 2012 och 2017 har plastförsörjningen i Sverige ökat med nästan 400 000 ton. Under 2017 bidrog sjukhusen i Sverige till 4550 ton plastavfall varav engångshandskar bidrog med 2100 ton, vilket motsvarar 358 miljoner engångshandskar. Majoriteten är tillverkade i andra länder än Sverige, vilket inte bara bidrar till en stor avfallsström, utan också sårbarhet när systemet är beroende av kontinuerlig materialförsörjning. Syfte och Mål. Forskningens syfte har varit att förstå utmaningarna och möjligheterna med plastavfallsflöden från vårdsektorn. Från behoven väljs ett område för att utveckla en innovativ lösning som stöder cirkularitet inom hälso-sjukvården i Sverige. Metod. Denna avhandling har genomförts med hjälp av DRM- och MSPI-innovationsprocess. DRM, Design Research Methodology, har använts för att hitta och validera avgörande information kring problemet och har också gett akademisk trovärdighet. Detta har gjorts med litteraturforskning och ostrukturerade intervjuer inom forskningsområdet. MSPI har använts tillsammans med DRM på iterativt sätt för att utforma det avsedda stödet och bygga det faktiska stödet. Resultat. Projektets prototyp bevisar att cirkularitet för plastmaterial på sjukhus kan nås. Behovsundersökningen visar på behovet av cirkularitet, både när det gäller materiell effektivitet och beredskapsnivåer på sjukhus där tillgången till personlig skyddsutrustning är avgörande. Speciellt i kristider. Slutsatser. Under kristiden, covid-19-pandemin, har det varit tydligt att förändringar avseende beredskap och tillgång till personlig skyddsutrustning måste göras. Cirkularitet är ett sätt att uppnå större kontroll över materialflödet som påverkar sjukhusens självständighetsnivå. Projektet har visat ett sätt att göra flödet av engångshandskar cirkulärt genom att utveckla ett system för remanufacturing. Detta är bara en inställningsvinkel mot cirkularitet och en mer effektiv användning av material. För att bevisa konceptet i en riktig sjukhusmiljö krävs vidareutveckling.

The concept of the Circular Economy (CE) is proposed as a viable solution to the over-exploitation of natural resources with an economic and environmental backing. Although more commonly used in the context of non-renewable industrial materials and processes, there is a growing need to include these concepts into renewable materials that have technical functions. This thesis will discuss the concepts of CE in the context of the wooden furniture sector and how the inclusion of Value Retention Processes (VRPs) and other CE practices result in quantifiable environmental and economic benefits. Companies that are involved in these VRPs are consulted through a questionnaire. This is to better understand the process and limits of their implementations. The issue of furniture waste is highlighted to demonstrate the need for circularity in this industry and how it fits within the context of CE. A case study is conducted utilizing three comparable furniture products to populate the data needed to utilize an established CE model showcasing their quantifiable benefits (IRP, 2018). This research will lead to a basis for continued research, improvements to current CE models, and suggestions for best practices that can be implemented by industry stakeholders and consumers. The results of the company questionnaire showcase that a viable VRP market exists for the wooden furniture industry, with “Reuse” being the most utilized by consumers. The outputs of the CE model revealed that the inclusion of VRPs results in significant decreases in environmental impacts when compared with new product manufacturing.

Background:           Today’s fashion industry is one of the most wasteful and polluting industries, which contributes to a global concern. A transition from a linear to a circular approach is needed, in which consumers play a key role. Clothing rental subscription is among the sustainable business models that aim to reduce the production and disposal of clothes by increasing their utilization and extending their lifetime. Based on the attitude-intention relation from the Theory of Planned Behavior and on current literature, we develop a theoretical framework. Purpose:                  The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of perceived sustainability, perceived enjoyment, perceived financial risk, perceived performance risk, fashion leadership, psychological ownership and perceived convenience on consumers’ attitudes towards clothing rental subscription services and their intentions to engage in this circular fashion business model. Method:                  To fulfill the purpose, we conducted a quantitative study. Primary data was collected through online questionnaires, resulting in 282 responses from German females. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify the influences of the above-mentioned factors on attitude and on intention. Lastly, a linear regression analysis was used to test attitude’s influence on intention. Conclusion:               The results show that consumers’ attitudes towards clothing rental subscription are positively influenced by the perceived sustainability and perceived enjoyment of the business model, and negatively influenced by perceived financial risk and perceived performance risk. Their intentions to participate in clothing rental subscription were shown to be positively influenced by perceived enjoyment and attitude, while negatively influenced by perceived financial risk. Focusing on one clothing rental business model, we contribute to research in the field and provide valuable implications for practitioners.