Engr. Dr. Muhammad Nawaz Iqbal
To build scalable tech based businesses with circular economy principles you need to move away from the take, make, dispose model of linear economy and embrace the regenerative model with minimum waste, reusing resources. In such a model, scale would depend on and be tied to the ability to grow a system or product with little to no increase in environmental impact. This entails thinking of product life cycle from sourcing through end of life management and inserting sustainability as core elements of the business strategy. Product-as-a-service is the backbone of a circular tech business. Rather than selling a product, businesses can keep ownership and offer rights to use that product with subscription or leasing models. While this shift incentivizes the producer to design durable, repairable, and upgradable products, it can reduce incentive for a producer to actively innovate beyond deposits to improve the lifecycle efficiency of embodied energy trade, which is detrimental to the creation of a harmonized, informational market. It also guarantees re-materialization and reuse of materials into infinite loop in support of scalability, without depleting the resources. The monitoring, optimization and tracking of resource flow in a circular system is critical role of digital technology. With the help of IoT sensors, AI and blockchain businesses can track how much a product is being used, anticipate when maintenance is needed, and enable take back schemes. These are data driven approaches that make processes as operations more efficient and scalable by automation of the complex circular processes that would need substantial manual intervention. Tech businesses must design for disassembly and modularity to achieve circular scalability. That implies making hardware and software parts that can be upgraded or substituted as needed, instead of being thrown away. In addition to that, modularity allows for customization for various markets, and by the same token broadening the relevance and usability of the product — a requirement for economical material input, as such on a global scale. Building reverse logistics networks are beneficial for scalable circular tech businesses. These are systems for the return and refurbishment, remanufacture or recycling of products after use. Reverse logistics efficient is needed for keeping normal materials flow and reduce the costs related to collected and processed used goods. Coordination of these flows, in real time, can have a big payoff for the economy and the environment.
This business model requires customer engagement. Educating users on the importance of the value of circular practices and encourage them to participate in recycling/reuse products schemes, help to create a brand loyalty backed up by a community participating in a great cause. The nature of this engagement automatically grows through social sharing, digital feedback systems, and word of mouth in a multiplier effect. Collaborations and partnerships between the circular tech model and industries make it scalable. Businesses can get together and form an ecosystem of suppliers, recyclers, logistic providers, and policy advocates to support the circularity. Interoperability and the reuse of standards and shared platforms help to reduce the duplication and scale multiple firms more efficiently with lower environmental impact. These ventures require the finance models to evolve. Typically, traditional investment structures are built to favor the rapid, linear growth and quick returns. However, circular tech businesses depend on patient capital and metric that reflect resources efficiency over time, social impact, and environmental returns. Green bonds and impact investors are teeming as formidable facilitator in this space. New ideas, scalable and circular in nature, can be enabled in open innovation and co-creation with stakeholders, such as users and policymakers. Business can grow organically and support product relevance and reduce waste by facilitating and supporting a community those crowd sources solutions, that invite user modifications and that supports their repair communities. Another frontier for circular tech businesses is material innovation. For these products to remain environmentally safe at scale, biodegradable plastics, e-waste safe metals, renewable resource alternatives can be integrated into the design process. Similarly, you can use tech based platforms that allow material footprints to showcase compliance with environmental standards as well as ecological customer base. Tackling the scaling challenge of a circular economy can be achieved by means of digital platforms. Building an ecosystem for sustainable consumption can be completed by means of market places for refurbished goods, repair tutorials, peer-to peer sharing and product updates. Moreover, data analytics are offered by these platforms to implement continuous improvement and engagement. Businesses will need to localize circular practices to reduce consumption, if they are to scale globally mitigating regulatory, cultural and infrastructural variations. Businesses can sustain a uniform circular strategy yet adapt to the kinds of inputs it requires through using scalable digital frameworks with modular local inputs. Transparency and accountability embedded in the circular model is the path to scaling. Issuing certifications, conducting life cycle assessments, and environmental reporting can contribute to issuing a credible narrative that works with investors, regulators and customers. This transparency is enabled by technology; the real time flow can be traced and tracked based on the technology. Scalability rarely involves employee training and organizational culture. There is no way for a circular tech business to grow without every team, engineering or marketing, understanding and embracing circular principles. The firm is in the process of training, awarding incentives, and holding internal innovation programs to retain the commitment to sustainability even as the company grows. In the end, turning sustainability into a profit is the most scalable circular tech businesses. The model becomes self reinforcing when environmental and economic incentives set. Circularity is no longer an obstacle to growth – but an engine of growth, sustainable, and resilient in the long term.
