Optimising the environmental impact of circular product scenarios

Optimising the environmental impact of circular product scenarios

Huisman, W.

Bakker, C.A. (mentor)
Flipsen, F.S.J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

Integrated Product Design

2017-04-07

The circular economy framework is made up of many loops and principles. There are different business model archetypes and design principles that can help companies to transition towards the circular economy. For a company with the intention to do so, the question arises what combination of all these aspects is most favourable. In this report, this is explored in the context of Bugaboo. They are Dutch company that produces high quality strollers. Their ambition is to reduce their environmental impact as much as possible and consider a transition towards circularity as an opportunity to do so. They have elaborated ideas on how to shape this transition but are concerned whether their plans will realise the desired results. To find out if they will, four scenarios are created, detailed and evaluated. The first scenario is a linear take, make and dispose scenarios that has little to do with circularity. The second represents the current situation and the third represents the plans of Bugaboo. The fourth scenario closes all loops of the techno cycle. A life cycle analyses adjusted to circular product scenarios is performed to find out which of the scenarios has the lowest environmental impact per functional unit. All scenarios scored better than the linear scenario. But surprisingly, the more circular scenarios had a very similar result to that of the current situation. The analysis of the results revealed that this was caused by high amount of parts that had to be replaced in the refurbishing process. The reason that so many parts need to be replaced in refurbishment is the high quality standard that strollers need to have if they are sold by a company. For 2nd hand consumer to consumer sales the quality demands are much lower. So from an environmental perspective, 2nd hand use should be promoted and stimulated as much as possible. The lifetime of the strollers should be elongated as much as possible. This can be done be stimulating users to recondition the stroller themselves. One example on how to do so is detailed in a product design suggestion. It is a precut adhesive film that fits exactly to the aluminium surfaces of the stroller to cover up any scratches.

circular product scenarios

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:705a3a6d-f58d-4d4c-bbfc-68ace7643f94

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2017 Huisman, W.