The furniture industry is a thriving industry in the past decades all over the world. The increase in production and sales of furniture products means that more raw materials are needed and more furniture waste is produced at the same time. Taking into account the unsolved environmental issues, it is necessary to make innovation changes to reduce the waste and overcome the continuously increasing resource consumption. Circular economy draws a wide attention under this situation. As an alternative to replace the traditional linear consumption model, it balances the economic development and environmental concern. Turning waste into a new resource is a profitable opportunity for the furniture industry. However, product recovery in this industry meets obstacles due to the character of the furniture.This study considers discarded bulky furniture products. It focuses on the first step of furniture waste recovery: the collection process. The aim of this research is improving the efficiency of a “many to one” collection process in a reverse logistics system and increasing the recovery level within the hierarchy of options for discarded furniture. By using the soft system methodology, this study explores the current discarded furniture collection situation within Europe and then analyzes each essential element of this collection system. After that, combining with the relevant circular economy theory and information gathered from a case furniture company, we design a new conceptual business process model for discarded furniture collection.In the newly designed model, the collection process is carried out by the individual transport option with sufficient capacity from customer’s home to the furniture store. The new model is based on a collaborative lifestyle information platform. By managing the real-time information, the platform aligns individuals’ transport resources with discarded furniture demand to reduce the transport cost of the collection process. This model aims for optimal use of the available individual resources to complement the transport process. Moreover, this information platform helps to collect information in the early stage to reduce the uncertainty of reverse logistics.

Different factors such as growing environmental awareness due to the increasing negative impact of persistent plastic wastes, the uncontrollable price variations of the raw material and the rapid depletion of  reserves have increased the interest in research regarding polymers derived from renewable sources to replace petroleum-based materials. One of the earth’s most abundant macromolecules is cellulose. The production of cellulose from another resource replaces and reduces the demand from plants, the other resource being cellulose from a bacterial system. Bcaterial cellulose film were produced by fermenting apple waste (apple pomace) from cider production donated by Herrljunga Cider in Herrljunga, Sweden and expired fruit juice, produced by LoveJuice Indonesia, containing a mixture of fruits, mainly apple. As inoculum for the fermentations two different Kombucha cultures were used. To optimize the fermentation conditions, factors such as nitrogen source, sugar content, temperature, pH, surface area, sterilization of the substrate, culture condition and fermentation time was varied to obtain the desired result. The bacterial cellulose films were dried at 50-70 °C in an oven, air-dried or freeze-dried to evaluate the impact of drying technique on the final material. The behavior of the microorganism during fermentation was monitored by sampling and observation. The consumption rate of carbohydrates was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The properties of the obtained biofilms were analyzed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), tensile testing and determination of cellulose content in the obtained biofilms. Two different sugar concentrations (35 g/l and 70 g/l) and three different caffeine concentrations (0 g/l, 150 g/l and 225 g/l) as nitrogen source were investigated to determine the best condition. A control batch of conventional (black tea and 70 g/l table sugar) Kombucha was used as reference. The highest tensile strength (50 MPa) and thermal stability was observed in the biofilms with the highest yield that had been dried in oven. The biofilms obtained by fermenting apple pomace from the cider industry showed the highest tensile strength and highest thermal stability in comparison to fermenting expired fruit juice. The biofilm obtained by fermenting apple waste(sugar concentration 70 g/l) in combination with sterilizing the substrate without adding any nitrogen source, dried in an oven and purified using 0,1 M NaOH resulted in the highest tensile strength, highest thermal stability and the purest biofilm from a visual aspect. The highest yield was observed in the fermentation of apple pomace (sugar concentration 70 g/l) from the cider industry without sterilization of the initial media with an addition of nitrogen of approximately 450 mg/l). The optimal fermentation period was observed to be 14-15 days, at 25-28 °C under static conditions using a glass vessel with a diameter of 20 cm and an initial pH of 5,5.

This thesis is about Circular Economy and sustainability through a retailer’s perspective. There has also been a focus on researching and trying to find out if the size of the retailer matters in a sustainability perspective and to achieve a Circular Economy. The research that has been made is done with a deductive approach and a qualitative method. Interviews have been held over a timeframe of a week in May 2020. Because of the pandemic, Covid-19, all of the interviews were held over telephone or email to ensure safety for all respondents, including the safety for the authors. The theory chapter has been conducted through peer-reviewed articles and literature. This chapter has then been divided into smaller parts chapters, as Circular Economy, Sustainability and Supply chain, and Triple bottom line. After the theory chapter the method in how the research have been done and why specific methods have been preferred over others. Following chapter is the empirical findings bundled together with analysis, each interview comes first separately and divided in the same way as the theory and are then compared in an analysis. The conclusion is that retailers need to continue working to become more sustainable. A way for retailers to present their work towards Circular Economy and sustainability is to be transparent and will reach consumers’ which can lead to higher reliability. There is a difference between larger and smaller retailers, it is in how the larger retailers have worked more towards incorporate Circular Economy model and sustainability in comparison to the smaller retailers.

Textilindustrin utgör idag 37% av den totala industrin i Europa, en industri som klassas som en utav de mest miljöförstörande av alla industrier där den år 2015 släppte ut 1.2 miljarder ton koldioxid. En utav anledningarna till detta är de många miljöfarliga processer som ingår i den textila värdekedjan från en jungfruresurs till ett färdigt plagg. Dessa processer består av en extrem vattenanvändning som gör att 50% av det vattnet som använts inte kan återanvändas, utvinning och upptagning av olja, transporter världen över med båt, bilar och flygplan samt användning av ej förnybar energi i produktion. Trender kommer och går snabbare än vanligt i dagens modebransch och konsumenterna önskar att haka på dessa trender och shoppar allt mer. Att ett plagg då går igenom alla dessa miljöförstörande processer som skadar vår miljö för att användas en kort tid av en konsument och sen kasseras för att en ny trend har vuxit fram och nya plagg skall inhandlas. Textilföretag idag har insett att en förändring i hur de produktutvecklar måste ske för att minska miljöpåverkan som textilindustrin gör idag. Detta arbete består av en litteraturstudie samt en observation av ett fallföretaget. Litteraturstudien behandlar ämnet cirkulär ekonomi och dess sub-koncept. Observationen av fallföretaget består av intervjuer med utvalda personer i nyckelroller hos fallföretaget samt en undersökning av fallföretagets designunderlag. Resultatet visar hur fallföretaget produktutvecklar idag som senare jämförs i diskussionen där även de åtgärder som fallföretaget bör göra för att produktutveckla efter en cirkulär modell presenteras. / The textile industry today accounts for 37% of the total industry in Europe, an industry which is classified as one of the most environmentally damaging of all industries where in 2015 it released 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. One of the reasons for this is the many environmentally hazardous processes that are part of the textile value chain from a maiden resource to a finished garment. These processes consist of an extreme use of water which means that 50% of the water used cannot be reused, extraction and uptake of oil, transports worldwide by boat, cars and aircraft and the use of non-renewable energy in production. Trends come and go faster than usual in today's fashion industry and consumers want to follow these trends and as a result, shop ever more. That a garment then goes through all these environmentally destructive processes that damage our environment for being used for a short time by a consumer and then discarded for a new trend has emerged and new garments have to be purchased. Textile companies today have realized that a change in how they develop products must be done to reduce the environmental impact that the textile industry is doing today. This work consists of a literature study and an observation of a case company. The literature study deals with the topic of circular economy and its sub-concept. The observation of the case company consists of interviews with selected persons in key roles of the case company and an examination of the case company´s tech-packs. The result shows how the case company is developing products today, which are later compared in the discussion where also the measures that the case company should take to product develop by a circular model.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore suitable end-of-life strategies for fashion retailers of custom-made products after they have been returned by the customer, by analysing and evaluating these strategies, and how to implement and conclude the viability of these. Method: The study follows an abductive explorative case study method. The exploratory design is structured as follows; a literature review is carried out, followed by interviews for collecting empirical data, which is analysed with the help of a conceptual framework. Thereafter, secondary data is collected to create an overview of the real-world context in the form of end-of-life strategies implemented by fashion retailers. Finally, the case was tested within a new proposed framework. Findings: The findings demonstrate the importance of the core values of the companies and inherent to that, the product characteristics and design in the decision-making of a suitable end-of-life strategy. For that reason, a second phase of data collection based on secondary data was implemented and juxtaposed the first finding from the interviews. The main insight this paper shows is that resell “as it is”, which is a common end-of-life strategy for regular fashion retailers, is a conflicting strategy for retailers of custom-made clothing. Introducing an adapted version of the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool as a conceptual framework gave a better insight in how to approach and analyse suitable end-of-life strategies and shows the relation between these parameters. Originality: It is difficult according to the findings of this study to conclude a generalisable, one-size-fits-all end-of-life strategy for returned custom-made products. However, the introduction of an adapted version of the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool can serve a purpose for all fashion retailers in this transformation process and which is not limited to fashion retailers of mass customised clothing.

Jordens resurser används flitigt av människan och bidrar bland annat till samhällsutvecklingar. Men användandet bidrar också till utsläpp av växthusgaser, global uppvärmning och vattenanvändning. För att minska det ekologiska fotavtrycket och resursanvändningen har städer och aktörer börjat utveckla industriell symbios som är ett samarbete där en restprodukt från ett företag blir en resurs till ett annat företag. Den här samhällsutveckling påvisar en samhällsövergång för att utveckla och sammanföra ekonomin, miljön och samhället. Studien undersöker om transition management som styrningsstrategi kan appliceras i etableringen av industriell symbios i Malmö hamnområde. För att svara på frågan behövdes en delfrågeställning som löd: Hur har processen av projektet, delad energi är dubbel energi, gått till i Malmö stad hamnområde? Delad energi är dubbel energi är ett projekt som utvecklat industriell symbios i Malmö stad. Projektet påbörjades 2015 och avslutades under 2019 där 12 aktörer varit delaktiga. Fyra intervjuer genomfördes med personer delaktiga i projektet på ett eller annat sätt. I analysen sammanställdes information från informanterna och på delad energi är dubbel energis hemsida, utifrån transition management-modellen. Vi delade upp analysen i fyra komponenter från modellen som är ​transition-arena​, transition-agenda,​​transition-actiono​ch​transition-adaption​.Idethärarbetetbehandlarvi transition-​processensomövergångentillcirkulärekonomigenomindustriellsymbios. Transition management-modellens syfte är att genom en ​transition gå från ett jämviktsläge till ett annat. / The earth's resources contribute, among other things, to societal developments. But it also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and water use. To reduce the ecological footprint and resource use, cities and actors have begun to develop industrial symbiosis, which is a collaboration where a residual product from one company becomes a resource for another company. This societal development demonstrates a societal transition to develop and bring together economy, the environment and society. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether transition management as a management strategy could have been applicable in the establishment process of industrial symbiosis in the Malmö port area. The main question was whether it would have been possible for the City of Malmö to use the transition management model during the establishment process of industrial symbiosis in the port area. To answer that question, a sub-question was needed: How did the process of the project, ​delad energi är dubbel energi, tok place in the port area of ​​Malmö? ​Delad energi är dubbel energi is the project that has developed industrial symbiosis in the city of Malmö, where we have, among other things, taken part in the project process. The project began in 2015 and ended in 2019 where 12 actors were involved at the beginning. To answer our questions, four interviews were conducted with people who have all been involved in the project in one way or another. The analysis compiled the information we received from the informants and what we found on shared energy is a dual energy website, based on the transition management model. We divided the analysis into four components from the model, which are transition arena, transition agenda, transition action and transition adaptation. In this work, we treat the transition process as the transition to a circular economy through industrial symbiosis. The purpose of the transition management model is to use the specified transition to go from one equilibrium position to another.

Circular economy addresses the environmental crisis and its urge to adapt and reshape economic models towards more sustainability. Recent literature has provided rich knowledge on the concept and important conceptual research. Moreover, consequent existing research about drivers to engage in circular economy focuses on consumers and businesses but it is almost always limited to a commercial context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore motivational factors to involve in a non-commercial context in circular economy. Through a qualitative approach, the single case study of a leisure bank network was conducted in Sweden. The concept of leisure bank is to lend sport and leisure equipment like a library would lend books for free. The findings show that some motivational factors previously identified in a commercial circular economy context also apply to a non-commercial circular economy context. However, this study contributes with the improvement of welfare as one additional driver for non-commercial circular economy engagement. Additionally, the findings revealed unexpectedly positive effects regarding commercial actors who are substantively affected by the network.    In line with this, circular economy has gained widespread interest among scholars and practitioners. This initiative to improve upon business models to cater the contemporary challenging social, economic, and environmental paradigm. Following a lead to expand research in this discipline, an empirical case study of a circular economy network is undertaken. A network based on exchange is identified as an important basis for the case and the study was undertaken following qualitative research in the form of interviews to those involved in the network. By gathering and analysing their insight, the importance of a network structure based on the exchange of resources was identified, finding that the interaction between the participants as a process which creates value in forms that contribute to an increase of welfare.

Die Kreislaufwirtschaft wird von den verschiedensten Seiten als wichtige Strategie für eine nachhaltige Zukunft gefordert und gefördert. Schon seit einiger Zeit setzt sich die Erkenntnis durch, dass eine Bewegung weg von Geschäftsmodellen, die auf Produktverkäufen basieren, hin zum Angebot von Produkt-Dienstleistungssystemen das Implementieren von Kreislaufwirtschaft unterstützen kann. Diese These wurde erneut in der Arbeit der Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland (CEID) diskutiert und in Berichten dieser Initiative dokumentiert. Die Autorin, die auch Mitglied der Circular Economy Initiative war, beleuchtet in diesem Text den Zusammenhang und beschreibt anhand von Ergebnissen aus früheren Forschungs- und Beratungstätigkeiten, wie Produkt-Dienstleistungssysteme (Product-Service Systems, PSS) die Circular Economy unterstützen können und wie diese PSS gestaltet werden können, damit das möglichst nachhaltig, also ökologisch, sozial und ökonomisch vorteilhaft, wirkt. Prozesse, Methoden und Tools für PSS Design und Evaluierung werden vorgestellt und durch Fallbeispiele illustriert.

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Background: The building industry is slowly but progressively shifting from the ‘take-make-dispose’principle of the linear economy towards a circular economy (CE), where waste is minimized and reintroduced to the loop of production. In this way, the loop of materials, energy and waste flows is closed; all for the hopes of saving the environment. Nonetheless, studies show that this is not the main incentivefor which architects and engineers implement CE principles into their projects and businesses but rather because they are interested in the innovative aspect of CE (Alhawari, et al., 2021). Previous research has also shown that there is a positive correlation between this innovation incentive and the growth thata company has experienced over the years (Horbach & Rammer, 2020). Innovation as such allows companies to attain competitiveness and make their presence stronger in the market (Raghuvanshi & Agrawal, 2020). Objectives: The objective is to extend previous studies about innovation being the main incentivedriving the implementation of CE principles in the building industry. Furthermore, the relationship between company growth and the strength of the innovation incentive is studied, as well as the relationship between company growth and the number of CE projects a company has worked on over the last years.  Methodology: The study is based on a quantitative approach for data collection and data analysis. The data comes from 70 architectural and engineering companies operating in various countries of the European Union and is analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U tests through STATA software.  Results: Innovation is proved to be the main incentive, driving the transition towards CE in the building industry; it is also clearly proven that there is a positive correlation between the innovation incentiveand the company growth. Diving deeper into the subject, no correlation was found between the numberof CE projects and the company growth. However, categorizing the companies based on their size and discipline, a positive correlation was found between the number of CE projects and the growth of big architecture companies. All the observations of positive correlation are in line with previous literature. Conclusions: Saving the planet, which is the reason that initiated the CE concept, is not the main incentive. Architects and engineers are innovative by their nature and always aim to follow trends thatallow them to think outside the box to help their business grow and have their name heard. The effect of innovation on the success of a company should be taken into consideration when developing newbusiness models and setting goals, as well as when recruiting new employees. Recommendations for future research: Future research could broaden the geographical area and try to find if there are different outcomes for other parts of the world. Additionally, an understanding of why only big architectural companies showed a correlation between their growth and their number of CE projects could be achieved by studying a larger sample and defining growth by using other factors.