This thesis investigates the challenges and opportunities for waste management and circular innovation in the context of sustainable development in Zanzibar, with a specific focus on the relevance of youth circular entrepreneurship. Addressing the low integration of stakeholders, inadequate technical support for young innovators, and challenges in leveraging funding, this study aims to provide insights and recommendations to enhance circularity and waste management systems on the islands. Through a comprehensive literature review, qualitative interviews, and analysis of relevant policies and initiatives, the research uncovers the complex dynamics within Zanzibar's waste management value chain. The findings underscore the urgent need for improved stakeholder collaboration, emphasizing the active participation of government agencies, businesses, communities, civil society organizations, and youth entrepreneurs to drive sustainable practices. The study highlights the crucial role of youth circular entrepreneurship in fostering innovation and driving the transition to a circular economy. It identifies the limited technical support, resources, and infrastructure available to young innovators as key barriers, underscoring the necessity of capacity-building programs, mentorship initiatives, and tailored support mechanisms to empower and enable youth entrepreneurs to contribute to waste management and circular innovation. Furthermore, the research reveals the challenges associated with funding and investment for circular initiatives. It emphasizes the significance of climate finance, public-private partnerships, and the mobilization of international funding sources to overcome financial constraints and create an enabling environment for youth circular entrepreneurship. Based on the analysis, this thesis proposes a range of strategies to enhance circularity in Zanzibar, with a particular emphasis on engaging and empowering youth. These strategies encompass stakeholder collaboration, policy development, education and awareness campaigns targeted at youth, technological advancements, and the establishment of financial mechanisms to support youth-led circular innovation. By addressing the identified challenges and capitalizing on the opportunities, Zanzibar can foster a circular economy that not only addresses environmental concerns but also unlocks economic opportunities, resource efficiency, and community well-being. This research contributes to the knowledge base on waste management and circular innovation in Zanzibar, providing a foundation for future research and action toward sustainable development, with a specific focus on youth circular entrepreneurship.

The construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, therefore, scientists, the industry and governments are pushing  for a transition to a Circular Economy (CE) within the industry to address this issue. This study explores the barriers to CE transition within the construction industry, examining how these barriers are perceived by practitioners and contrasting them with academic perspectives in the literature. The barriers identified in the literature were categorized via industrial transition theory based on the regime actors of the Multi-level perspective on transition framework by Geels & Schot (2007) and then aggregated via subcategories based on similarities in barrier definition presented in the literature. By interviewing 8 respondents, 28 barriers to CE transition were found within the categories and subcategories of data coding. The findings revealed that the industry is cautious about CE, which is impeding the drive for transition and affecting further perception and awareness of the concept. Furthermore, it is crucial to investigate barriers individually and how they are interconnected to others, as they collectively contribute to the low and slow progress of industrial transition toward CE in the construction industry.

As more companies in the resource-intensive fashion industry start their transition journeys towards circular business models (CBMs), driven by social and regulatory pressures, understanding how companies navigate this transformative process is crucial. This thesis contributes to prevailing research by analysing the challenges faced by linear companies in the fashion industry when adopting more circular models through various initiatives, dividing them by the CBM they apply, and considering their corresponding solutions to these challenges. By interviewing nine companies and four industry experts, we investigated the CBMs: product life extension, circular supplies, resource recovery, and product-as-a-service. Our findings indicate some common challenges include uncertain market demands, high costs and complex logistics, which caused profitability concerns and impeded companies’ transitions. Meanwhile, some challenges were CBM or company-specific. Companies employing circular supplies and resource recovery models faced cost considerations related to material price and availability, while product life extension models struggled with material access and limitations within the organisation or network. Significant market challenges were observed for the product-as-a-service model. To cope with these challenges, companies maintained small-scale CBMs and/or gradually scaled them based on changing circumstances or built collaborative networks within the value chain. Strengthening internal human capital was another coping strategy.

No description available.

Repairing is one of the alternative business alternatives at the end-of-life phase of clothing, that is seen to be a potential solution for the biggest challenge that the fashion industry faces today - waste. The purpose of this research is to extend our collective understanding of consumers’ value in clothes that lead to their willingness to keep a garment in use for longer. It then identifies how brands could adapt their strategy based on this understanding to better involve consumers to promote the use of clothes repair. A quantitative research design was applied using a consumer survey. The survey questions were designed according to the subjects that emerged from the literature review to answer the presented research questions. The most significant cognitive factors affecting consumers’ repair attitude and behaviour arising from the findings are emotional attachment, product properties such as quality, fashion leadership, subjective norms and awareness of the environmental impact of repair. Demographic factors of age, gender and income group moderate the impact of these factors and are useful to narrow down the strategy for the brand’s target consumers. The communication, cost, service convenience and service quality are determined to be the dominant factors in the strategy for brands offering repair service.

Bygg- och fastighetssektorn står idag för en femtedel av Sveriges klimatutsläpp. Målet från branschen är att dessa utsläpp ska minska och att branschen ska nå ett nettonollutsläpp av växthusgaser till år 2045. För att uppfylla detta mål så ses en övergång till cirkulär ekonomi och återbruk som en viktig del. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka vilka möjligheter och utmaningar som finns för återbruk av byggmaterialmaterial vid ändring av en byggnad samt hur bygglovskraven påverkar detta. Syftet är även att studera om det finns något som skulle underlätta för återbruk vid ändring av byggnad. Metoden som använts för att undersöka detta syfte är en litteraturstudie samt kvalitativa intervjuer med olika aktörer inom bygg- och fastighetsbranschen. Studien visar att det både finns möjligheter och utmaningar med återbruk. Där de främsta möjligheterna är att byta användningsområde för materialet eller att överdimensionera. De främsta utmaningarna som studien visar är att det saknas praxis och riktlinjer för att verifiera kvaliteten på materialet, en ökad tidsåtgång vid arbete med återbruk och brist på företag som är specialiserade på återbruk av byggmaterial. Studien visar även att de tekniska egenskapskraven påverkar återbruk men att det är lättare med återbruk vid ändring i jämförelse med vid nyproduktion då det tas hänsyn till ändringens omfattning och byggnadens förutsättningar. För att underlätta återbruk så önskas produktdeklarationer där teknisk livslängd och vägledning för återbruk finns med samt praxis och vägledning i Boverkets Byggregler. För att dra slutsatsen av vilka praxis och regler som ska tillämpas i Boverkets Byggregler behövs dock fortsatta studier där det tas hänsyn till även andra faktorer än återbruk. / Building and real estate sector currently accounts for a fifth of Sweden’s emissions. The goal is to reduce these emissions and for the sector to achieve climate neutrality 2045. To meet this goal, a transition to circular economy and recycling is seen as an important part. The purpose of this report is to examine what opportunities and challenges that exist for the reuse of building materials when changing a building and how the building permit requirements affect this. The purpose is also to study whether there is anything that would facilitate reuse when changing a building. The method used to investigate this purpose is a literature study and qualitative interviews with various actors in the construction and real estate sector. The study shows that there are both opportunities and challenges with reuse of building materials. Where the main possibilities are to change the area of use of the material or to oversize. The main challenges that the study shows are the lack of practice and guidelines for verifying the quality of the material, an increased time spent working with re-use of building materials and a lack of companies that specialize in reuse of building materials. The study also shows that the technical property requirements affect re-use, but that re-use is easier in the event of a change compared with new production, as the extent of the change and the building's conditions are considered. To facilitate re-use, product declarations are required where technical service life and guidance for recycling are included, as well as practice and guidance in Boverkets Byggregler. To draw the conclusion of which practices and rules are to be applied in the Boverkets Byggrelger however, further studies are needed where factors other than recycling are also taken into consideration. / <p>2022-06-28</p>

Background: In recent years, the amount of textile waste increased rapidly due to the fast-fashion phenomena with an increasing clothing production and a declining customer usage. Not only that one truck of clothing getting landfilled or burned every second, but also the textile production impacts the environment due to the vast amount of water, material, chemical, and energy usage. This so-called linear “take-make-waste” approach contributes significantly to the current climate crisis. One possible solution represents the circular economy to encounter the linear approach by providing concepts for recovering materials. However, to our state of knowledge, the implementation of such Circular Economy (CE) approaches is far away from their urgent necessity. Literature papers from the last years conclude with a collaboration call between all industry actors for enhancing the waste recovery stream (WRS). Since digital platforms tackled the collaboration challenge of Circular Economy in other industries, we contemplated it as an adequate digital technology tool for overcoming Textile, Apparel and Clothing (TAC) industry collaboration challenge to further strengthening the WRS. Purpose: The study aims to investigate if and how digital platforms strengthen the TAC industry's WRS. For this purpose, we shed light on different challenges within the industry-wide network, analyzed current platform functionalities, and matched challenges and functionalities to answer the research question.  Method: The study adopts an inductive qualitative approach to explore the phenomenon of digital platforms and their potential as an enabler for the textile WRS. Thereby, we took a relativism view regarding our ontological position and followed a social constructionist's epistemology. For the data collection, we used semi-structured interviews and identified potential participants with criterion and snowball sampling. In total, we conducted 14-semistructured interviews with industry actors, platform providers, and experts. For our data analysis, we oriented ourselves on the Gioia Method, an articulated grounded theory approach. Conclusion: Resulting from our findings, we identified (1) four major challenge groups that go beyond the collaboration challenge and encompass the challenge of lack of knowledge, organization of WRS, and value chain structure. Further, we outlined (2) five platform functionalities, i.e., connecting, informing, visualizing, monitoring, and consulting. By matching challenges and functionalities, we analyzed (3) the extent to which DP can strengthen WR. We concluded that many industry challenges are tackled or partly tackled by the DP functionalities. However, within some of the sub-challenges as well as the overall challenge of the value chain structure, DPs reach their limitation in strengthening the WRS. In addition, we offer (4) an overall framework of DP for the WR stream, summarized how the DP tackles the industry-wide challenges by displaying the functionalities and associated value drivers. Lastly, we provide (5) the baseline for future platform functionalities by outlining actors’ expectations and platform providers’ planned functionalities arisen by our finding.

The world’s linear economic system, operating under the make-use-dispose philosophy, creates heavy environmental issues such as resource depletion and exuberant waste creation. One industry that is strongly affiliated with these issues is the construction industry. Responsible for around 25% of global waste creation, the industry is in need of changing and circular initiatives such as waste-to-resource ones offer pathways to such a change towards sustainability. For the materialization of these initiatives, inter-organizational collaboration is an effective tool that needs to be strengthened within the industry. It has shown its ability to create sustainable business models that are more aligned with the principles of the circular economy, yet, further research into collaborative value creation is needed.   Therefore, this thesis investigates the processes of value creation in inter-organizational collaboration as well as how the value created can help facilitate waste-to-resource initiatives within the construction industry. A theoretical framework based on the Stakeholder Value Creation model and Collaborative Value Creation framework is being used to analyze empirical material stemming from semi-structured expert interviews with representatives of the construction industry. Based on the findings, the framework is adjusted by including additional value creating collaborative processes and enabling forces for the creation of waste-to-resource initiatives. Ultimately, this thesis lays out the processes creating value in inter-organizational collaboration within the construction industry as well as the waste-to-resource initiative enablers stemming from the different types of collaborative value. This is contributing to the theoretical knowledge of collaboration and value creation as well as allowing for practical application.

The construction and real estate industry is one of Sweden's largest consumers of energy andraw materials. According to figures from Boverket, the building industry was responsible for21% of Sweden's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. If Sweden is to fulfil its commitmentsunder the Paris Agreement and at the same time achieve the climate goals for the 2030 Agenda,resourceefficient measures are required immediately. The transition to circular economy can bea vital step in this necessary change. In circular economy, it is crucial to eliminate waste andpollutants which can be achieved by increasing efficiency and maintaining products andmaterials in a circular cycle. The aim of this study is to examine which strategies can be applied to implementing circulareconomy in the construction industry and what opportunities and obstacles they entail. I havealso investigated whether life-cycle assessment can be an effective tool for this implementation.To answer these questions, interviews have been carried through with researchers and businessrepresentatives who have extensive knowledge of sustainable construction and who arecommitted to finding solutions to combat climate change in the construction industry. Anextensive literature study has also been performed. The results indicate that there are several opportunities and sought-after measures with thecircular economy concept, of which the most significant one is its potential to increase resourceefficiency and thereby generate climate benefits. Strategies for the implementation of CEinclude methods such as circular procurement, design for deconstruction, material passports,upcycling and reversible building design. New smart business models can also generate newrevenues and create more employment opportunities. Challenges highlighted in the study are above all lack of financial incentives. For instance, inmost cases, it is at present more profitable to buy virgin than secondary materials. The lack ofspace for intermediate storage of materials to be reused is also a challenge. There is often a lackof knowledge with suppliers and customers. In addition, there are several legal issues regardingthe division of responsibilities and finally the need of more efficient policy instruments.

This Master’s thesis was done with the research group Green Leap at KTH. Green Leap is working for engaging design in sustainable development to act as a catalyst for change. A project that Green Leap has worked with is Ett bilfritt år, where families exchanged their cars for lightweight electric vehicles for a year and the changes in their behaviours were studied. The project resulted in positive experiences of the electric cargo bikes in the everyday life without owning a car. This master thesis became a concept study to investigate different possibilities of providing electric cargo bikes as a service. Research were carried out on how existing cargo bike services were conducted and user studies were conducted to get the understanding of who the users of cargo bikes were and how their needs and behaviours looked like. Through further insights from a variety of actors, five different possibilities were identified for services for the electric cargobikes. By comparing the possibilities of the various services, there was an opportunity of designing the same cargo bike for three of the services. The common hardware had a business opportunity for establishing a common platform for different purposes. Different hardware concepts were also developed during the project to facilitate the sharing of the cargo bikes. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Carge e-bike as a service, Marcus Steenberg, KTH Green Leap, www.ettbilfrittar.se/cargo / Detta examensarbete är ett arbete utfört för forskningsgruppen Green Leap på KTH. Forskningsgruppen arbetar med att engagera design i hållbar utveckling för att verka som en katalysator för förändring. Ett projekt som Green Leap har arbetat med är Ett bilfritt år, där familjer bytte ut sina bilar mot lätta elfordon under ett års tid och deras beteendeförändringar studerades. Projektet resulterades i positiva upplevelser av fordonet lådcykel i vardagslivet utan bil. Detta examensarbete blev en konceptstudie för att undersöka olika möjligheter att tillhandahålla lådcykel som en tjänst. Det utfördes undersökningar på hur befintliga lådcykelstjänster var uppbyggda och det utfördes en användarundersökning på vilka användarna av lådcyklar var och hur deras behov och beteende såg ut. Genom ytterligare insikter från en mängd olika aktörer, kartlades fem olika möjligheter på tjänster för lådcykeln. Genom jämförelse av de olika tjänsternas möjligheter sågs en möjlighet att utforma liknande lådcyklar till tre av tjänsterna. Detta hade en affärsmässig möjlighet för att få fram en gemensam plattform för olika ändamål. Det utvecklades även olika förslag på hårdvara för att underlätta delning med en stor variation avbehov. Detta verk är licensierad under en Creative Commons Erkännande 4.0 Internationell license. Föratt ta del av en kopia av licensen besök följande http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Carge e-bike as a service, Marcus Steenberg, KTH Green Leap, www.ettbilfrittar.se/cargo