During the use phase of products, a series of obsolescing factors contribute to why a product is disposed of. Currently the visual state of a product is considered primarily in terms of aesthetic obsolescence which is synonymous with influential factors such as changes in fashion or personal preferences in style. The physical condition of a product is not commonly understood within the context of product replacement and the physical changes due to use are not understood fully. The research contributes to and provides original empirical research findings for the current literature on product lifetime extension, material semantics, the circular economy, emotionally durable design and material culture. Through an initial exploratory study (Photographic Analysis (PA) Study) of previously unexplained types of wear and damage that occur on portable electronic devices a taxonomy of damage (TOD) was established which provided the nomenclature for further studies. The second study (Retrospective Assessment (RA) Study) established the attitudes to wear based on the wear type, location, material and the stage during ownership that the wear occurred at. The RA Study highlighted the differences in the attitudinal responses to differing types of wear and damage and identified the differences in the temporal assessments of wear and damage. A third study (Real Time Assessment (RTA) Study) aimed to confirm or repudiate the findings found in the RA Study. The focus during the study was attitudes to the wear and damage in relation to the differences in materials, the location of the wear and the type of wear and damage was also looked at and led to a fuller understanding of how products and materials are perceived during the use phase; a stage of the product lifetime that is not currently well understood in terms of users aesthetic or cosmetic sensibilities. The final study (Semantic Perception of Materials (SPM) Study) focused on the visual and tactile perceptions of materials. The study established attitudinal perceptions of wear and damage of materials with a quantitative research methodology which has produced a better understanding of material semantics within the context of electronic objects. Through the four studies, discussion topics arose and major findings of the doctoral study were drawn out and seen to be interesting enough for further research and study. These discussions include the importance of including cosmetic obsolescence into the lexicon of product obsolescence and product lifetime extension literature, the differences in the perceptions of materials when they are within the context of a product or being assessed as samples, how differing product contexts affect user perceptions of wear and damage on materials and the potential inclusion of a material wear index that could inform the material selection process that goes further than the technical aspects outlined in current material selection tools and literature.

The aim of this study is to analyze how the concept of circular economy is viewed and defined within the Swedish public sector. Discourse analysis was applied to the semi-structured interviews conducted with employees who work with circular economy projects at local, regional and national institutions. The research found that circular economy was perceived as a way to face resource limitations through continuous circulation of materials, which could also foster economic growth decoupled from extraction of finite resource. Actors perceived as important for the transition to a circular economy are: public sector, business, researchers and civil society, who are believed to be motivated by the notion that a circular economy will lead to a more sustainable society. Furthermore, it is assumed that different partners will work together towards the common goal of circular economy. In addition, the circular economy concept seems to offer a different rhetorical way of approaching environmental problems. The implications of this study could be used to deepen understandings of how circular economy could be implemented.

The world’s 7 billion inhabitants depend on chemical fertilizers to meet the growing demand for food. The phosphorus used in fertilizer is sourced from ancient sedimentary deposits of Phosphate Rock (PR), largely in the form of carbonate calcium phosphate, called carbonate apatite, which resembles bone. PR is non-renewable and Canada’s reserves are extremely limited; currently, all 1,400,000 tonnes of phosphorus products used annually are imported. This project investigates a novel method to recycle phosphorus from municipal wastewater in a form that will enable its reuse as a fertilizer, through a reaction with CaCO3 from limestone and waste CO2 (g). This will contribute to the nascent circular nutrient economy within Canada. A review of the current state of phosphorus and nutrient recycling is presented, including a plan for establishing the Canadian Nutrient Platform. A series of inorganic phosphate (PO4-, or Pi) solutions was prepared to simulate the concentrations found in Ottawa’s municipal wastewater, between 2.5-30 mM Pi. These solutions were mixed with CaCO3 solutions that were highly supersaturated through a carbon capture technique. Batch tests successfully reduced the [Pi] and [Ca2+], as measured by colorimetry, and precipitate formed. These results were subsequently repeated in a continuous stirred lab-scale reactor. These precipitation products were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, and carbon coulometry to measure carbonate content. This analysis confirmed the presence of both Pi and CO3 in a bone-like, carbonate apatite. Although other technologies are being explored to recycle phosphorus from wastewater streams, this is the first indication that it may be possible to precipitate a carbonate apatite by mixing two waste streams, municipal waste water and CO2 (g), with cost-effective CaCO3.

Inspired by the implicit beauty Asian paper could create in interior design (Tanizaki 1977), the cultural and historical value it bears, and its sustainable papermaking process, this research intends to apply Asian paper’s aesthetic and sustainable value in luminaire design. This is an exploratory and project-based study, which includes four steps. The first step investigates different types of Asian paper, their characteristics, and their visual qualities when interacting with light. The second step examines what is available in the market with similar materials in case studies. The third step follows the prototype making with the focus on design for the circular economy. The fourth step concludes the study with an in-depth discussion on sustainability, and in particular, the significance of the application of the circular economy in the lighting industry. The objective is to promote Asian paper as a sustainable material, which is beneficial for creating good light for modern interior lighting design.

The lighting industry has not only approached circularity within production of luminaires but also in contemporary time introduced a model of service that uses circular principles, lighting as a service (LaaS). Lighting as a service offers clients a leasing contract of luminaires including maintenance, upgrades and repairs. The concept is yet new and not very established to suit all fields. This thesis is focused on visual aesthetics and functional factors of lighting as a service in relation to clothing retail spaces. Lighting design has an important role for clothing stores' representation of products and customer’s experience which makes a complex relation between retail lighting design aims and lighting as a service to cohere. Methods used in this thesis includes site-visits to evaluate retail lighting qualities of various stores in Stockholm city, two case studies of earlier documented lighting as a service project that’s evaluated through two separate SWOT-analyzes. This to investigate principles of lighting as a service, visual aesthetics and functional factors and the possibility to practice the service in clothing retail spaces. The result is presented in written form and a 3d model made in the software program DIAlux evo.

Copper is a metal that is commonly found in our society's infrastructure, such as cables and wires. In addressing the climate threat, society is facing a major transition towards electrification and digitization, and here copper plays an essential role. Since copper is a main component in the infrastructure, the demand for copper has increased rapidly due to the electrification of, for example, the automotive industry. Even though copper in the earth’s crust is a scarce resource, it can be recycled an infinite number of times without losing its quality. For this reason, meeting future demand partly through secondary copper production is likely to be important. The aim of this study is to investigate what factors influence the secondary refined copper production levels in nine different countries in Europe. Specifically, the study examines how electricity prices, copper scrap prices, primary production of copper, GDP per capita and cost of labor affect the supply of secondary refined copper. The empirical analysis is based on data from nine European countries and over a period of 21 years, 1998 – 2019, thus adopting a panel data approach. The results from the econometric analyses show that all five variables tend to influence the supply of secondary refined copper, some having a more profound effect than the others. For instance, the findings suggest the presence of a low and negative electricity price elasticity of secondary refined supply, while an increase in the copper scrap price appears to have significant deterring impact on secondary refined copper production.

To tackle the current global climate and sustainability challenges, Sweden aims to transition to a circular economy and society. The purpose of this thesisis to explore and gain a better understanding of the current state of theentrepreneurial ecosystem on a national level that supports the transition to acircular economy in Sweden and explore potential collaborative activity between the components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This thesis favours a qualitative approach and an inductive strategy, thus forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.The theoretical framework consists of a conceptual framework based on the two concepts entrepreneurial ecosystem (phenomena) and circular economy (context) which provide a springboard for the thesis. The findings outline that there is no consensus amongst the interviewees concerning the existence of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports the transition to a circular economy in Sweden. Thus, the entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports the transition to acircular economy in Sweden is still in the starting phase and needs to overcome several challenges in order to be able to provide a favourable and supportive entrepreneurial climate to transition to a circular economy in Sweden. This thesis makes a valuable academic contribution to the scarce literature on the topic and has practical relevance by providing a unique overview and understanding of the current state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting the transition to a circular economy in Sweden and the collaborative activity within, which can be further useful to already existing and new components within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as further useful for researchers.

This study is part of a feasibility study conducted by the Sustainability and Resilience Company (su-re.co), and is identified within this report as the sustainability vetting. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of the natural indigo-dyeing process at a small medium enterprise (SME) batik dying community, Ciwaringin Batik, located in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia. Following this, sustainable development strategies (SDS) based on the Circular Economy (CE) RESOLVE Framework will be created for Ciwaringin Batik to further empower the community and provide sustainable business growth initiatives. An iterative qualitative and quantitative data methodology is used when collecting and analyzing production data from Ciwaringin Batik. Data is collected from 9 Ciwaringin Batik craftsmen, who use natural indigo dye during batik production, in Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) format, questionnaires, and through a site-visit to Ciwaringin Batik. Water and indigo consumption data was thoroughly analyzed as it is directly related to a feasibility study conducted by su-re.co and is relevant to their future involvement with Ciwaringin. Current sustainable and “unsustainable” production practices were identified, 10 SDS’s were created following the RESOLVE framework structure, 6 SDS’s were explained and then prioritized regarding implementation feasibility.

Nitrogen recovery from wastewater treatment for fertilizers is a research topic that exists at the intersection of multiple topics important to the future of sustainable society. First, nitrogen recovery from wastewater implies a departure from the current methods of nitrogen mitigation, which involve nitrogen removal by conversion of various aqueous species to inert nitrogen gas. Secondly, by recovering nitrogen from wastewater specifically, there is the opportunity to begin a circular economy where value added products can be obtained from material that has historically been seen as a “waste”. Current wastewater treatment involves nitrogen removal through the biological transformation of aqueous nitrogen species to inert nitrogen gas. This process is energy intensive and risks the production of air pollutants such as N2O as intermediates in the biological transformation. If this nitrogen can be captured in a form that can be reused, a valuable product can be achieved with the potential reduction of both the energy required at the wastewater treatment plant as well as the carbon footprint. Finally, by recovering nitrogen in a form that can be used in agriculture as a fertilizer, additional environmental benefits can be realized by reducing reliance on Haber-Bosch based ammonia production, which is also energy intensive and contributes harmful emissions to the atmosphere. The work described in the following licentiate aims to consider the current status of nitrogen recovery from wastewater for fertilizers as a research topic. Literature was analytically examined to compare different techniques in terms of energy requirements, cost for fertilizer production, market for final fertilizer product, and technological readiness. The most interesting findings from this review were that there seems to be a disconnect between the fertilizer product produced by nitrogen recovery techniques and the market, which will become a challenge if these techniques are implemented at a large scale. The attitude of the farmers with regards to fertilizers from waste was overall positive, with their concerns mainly focused on the performance ability and cost of the product. Additionally, many techniques such as microbial fuel cells and microbial electrolysis cells have been unable to move past the laboratory phase despite being researched for many years. This indicates there are cost and technological barriers that are preventing the further scale up and implementation of these techniques. Energy and cost analyses will be crucial to motivate investment into these processes, and these are missing for many of the techniques found around this topic. To contribute to this field, experimental work was also included to assess the potential for ammonium adsorption from concentrated wastewater for fertilizer production. The experimental work focused on the utilization of the solid product of pyrolysis of sewage sludge (biochar) for adsorption and explored the potential enhancement of the char with various chemical treatments. The char with the best ammonium adsorption performance was found to be using a treatment of HNO3 followed by and NaOH, with an adsorption capacity of 4 mg NH4/g biochar. This char was compared with commercially activated carbon and clinoptilolite for full scale applications. It was found that even with this increased adsorption capacity, the use of chemically enhanced sewage sludge biochar for full scale applications is not realistic. The amount of raw material required for the complete recovery of ammonium from reject water at the municipal wastewater treatment plants exceeds the total amount of sewage sludge generated. Therefore it is recommended that the goal of incorporating sewage sludge biochar with wastewater treatment is to produce a solid fertilizer product loaded with ammonium (which would provide ammonium-N and phosphorus for plant growth, as well as carbon and other minerals for soil amendment) rather than having the goal be complete ammonium recovery from the wastewater stream.

The world is facing a significant depletion of resources. By 2030, our demand will require more than double the resources we are consuming at the moment.  Sustainability is a way of safeguarding that our choices will not negatively impact future generation’s lives due to inadequate resource management. The main problem is that the authorities and the business world do not regard sustainability as a strategic-first business function, rather a collection of disparate solutions. The most crucial question in the discussion about sustainability is how designers, architects, engineers, creators of things, empower the new generations to live in a world of abundance (McDonough & Braungart 2008). It is up to every one of us to build a world that we want to inhabit. Although studies on sustainable innovation practices in large organizations have been located (Bro-Browers, 2010), there is limited academic literature on sustainability in start-ups.  The present thesis aims to show how leadership plays a central role in implementing the sustainability agenda and what traits and styles the CEOs of sustainable start-ups have to possess to drive organizations to success. In this case, success has been defined as the rate of investment attracted by the organization, participation in incubator and accelerator programs, prizes, and all the activities that advance the sustainability agenda.  In order to achieve the research purpose of this study, I conducted a critical literature review of the major leadership theories in the field, coupled with a qualitative research study involving semi-structured interviews administered to ten CEOs of start-ups that develop sustainable services or products. The results were conclusive. CEOs of successful sustainable start-ups displayed the following characteristics: visionary, empowering, tech-savvy, open, acting as coaches and mentors for their organizations, enablers of change, and problem-solvers par excellence. Compared to regular start-ups, the CEOs of sustainable start-ups want to positively impact the world by establishing systems that support the eradication of destructive practices. The business world could use this study’s results as a guide for start-ups and companies that activate in the field of sustainable innovation. Furthermore, it enriches the existing speciality literature since there is little written on leadership in sustainable start-ups.