The Circular Supermarket Chain

Abstract

The main question of this master thesis is: Which changes have to be made to make the Lidl’s Specification circular, with an emphasis on materials and assembly? To come to an answer, a multitude of steps were taken.

The first step was an assessment of the principles of Circular Economy, the principles which lie at the foundation of the, Technological and Biological cycle. A number of different assessment methods were analysed on their circular implementation, they have been evaluated on five assessment criteria for the Circular Economy. The Material Circularity Indicator and the Disassembly Potential are concluded to be the most effective, especially when used in tandem. The Material Circularity Indicator is used to determine the circularity of a material used in a building component. The Disassembly Potential gives an indication how well a building can be brought back to its original materials, it determines if disassembly or demolition will be most likely. These two methods used for the next step.

This next step is the analysis of the Specification of the Lidl. The 6 S-model of Steward Brand is used in combination with both the MCI and the DP to determine the circularity of the most important components mentioned in the Specification. The components are divided into three categories, sufficient, partially sufficient and insufficient in their circularity.

As the third step, a redesign was made, to change a component from insufficient to sufficient. The roof was chosen as this component. Most of the roof components were partially sufficient, but has a lot of functionalities, which make it a broader applicable example.
In the redesign, two design were evaluated, a technical redesign and a green redesign. The technical design mainly focussed on rematerializing the original roof design so it would receive a higher MCI, the result showed that just changing materials isn’t a sufficient strategy, the design needs to enable disassembly. The green redesign instead focussed on used biological degradable materials, it fully redesigned both the materials and the connecting principles. The green redesign showed which changes were necessary to enable circularity in the Specification.

Each of the steps provided answers to main research question. The result are the following five changes:
•Exchange non-circular materials, materials which can’t be economically recycled at the end of their technical life span, for materials which can be recycled.
•Enable reuse of materials, by removing static constructions methods, making all connections reversable.
•Make dimensions and connections generic.
•Implement the criteria from the Material Circularity Indicator to the Specification for circular materials.
•The development strategy of the Lidl needs to be changed, reusing elements and components instead of employing new ones.
These recommendations are a reasonable first step on a long journey to a circular supermarket chain.