Data Platforms as Tools for Circular Economy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter or book articleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Climate change and other urgent environmental challenges necessitate system-level solutions and quick actions. The linear business models of taking, making and disposing are not sustainable and further contribute to the systemic changes. Our economy needs to adopt circular principles. Data and digitalization can provide the leap forward for the sustainable next generation circular and sustainable business models and solutions. Based on 29 in-depth stakeholder interviews in the battery value chain, we report practical circular economy (CE) data drivers, needs and opportunities, and discuss the role of data platforms and their ecosystems as the new means of circular value creation, as well as challenges in large-scale data utilization. The key drivers for extending data use in CE were customer pull for transparency and sustainability, regulation and compliance, product traceability to manage a sustainable supply chain, and improving product and process sustainability and efficiency. Two shared development topics were identified through the value chain by different stakeholders: side stream management and implementing traceability. Both of these themes require tight collaboration in the ecosystem and through the value chain, and the solutions could be built on data platforms. Overall, based on the findings, the vision and/or know-how for impactful data utilization is yet to be discovered. The role of data, the rules for data use, and the opportunities are still unclear in the field. The current platform initiatives, such as the battery passport, are designed to collect battery data upstream from the user and not include downstream use data collection. We suggest that the market and stakeholders would benefit from use data as a new element. This data would provide benefits for the manufacturers to prolong the product lifecycles, promote safe use and disposal of batteries and enable new business models (lifetime extension, product-as-a-service, recycling). This study proposes the establishment of a battery ecosystem operating on a hybrid platform (supporting innovation and transactions), established around co-creation and based on the Battery Passport data, with low entry barriers for any startups or SMEs, to enable data-driven business.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I
PublisherSpringer
Chapter14
Pages187–201
ISBN (Electronic)978-981-99-3818-6
ISBN (Print)978-981-99-3817-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
MoE publication typeA3 Part of a book or another research book
Event12th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, EcoDesign 2021 - Virtual
Duration: 1 Dec 20213 Dec 2021
http://www.ecodenet.com/ed2021/index.html

Conference

Conference12th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, EcoDesign 2021
Abbreviated titleEcoDesign2021
Period1/12/213/12/21
Internet address

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