Tools for the circular transition

There are many tools and methods for circular business development and design that can help companies make the transition from a linear to a circular business. However, it is not always easy to find the right tool for a specific need. Our experts can help you navigate existing tools and even develop tools that are right for you.

Do you want to explore circular business opportunities? Design a product adapted to circular flows? Or evaluate circular offers? There are a variety of tools to help you along the way. They can provide an introduction or help you dive deeper. Some are exploratory and can open your eyes to new possibilities, while others are more analytical and can make it easier to make decisions during the transition journey.

We offer practical support for working with circular business development and design, supported by tools and methods. We can help you navigate the existing landscape of tools and support you in developing new tools based on your needs. In the past, our experts have been involved in developing several tools for the circular transition. You can read about some of them below.

Circular Coaching Essentials

The Circular Coaching Essentials - Tools for empowering circular businesses toolkit aims to enable design and business coaches to support circular business development. The tools were developed as part of a regional initiative in collaboration with Region Västra Götaland, Circular Hub and nine West Swedish innovation actors. The project was funded by Region Västra Götaland.

The toolkit (partly in Swedish) includes the tools:
• 10 nycklar för samtal om cirkulära möjligheter
• Utmaningar vid cirkulär coaching
• Tools for circular design and business model innovation
• Tools for circular business calculations
• Goda företagsexempel

Find out more about the toolkit and access it at www.ri.se.

Circular Material Palette

The Circular Material Palette helps companies to assess and compare the circularity of different materials from a life cycle perspective. The tool is excel-based and can help companies to assess and create company specific material profiles and compare the assessment result of different materials. An initial database as been created with a set of promising materials, including textiles, leather, bioplastics, cardboard, and construction plastics, all of which have the potential to reduce GHG emissions by more than 50%.

The toolbox includes the tools:
• CMP tool
• Poster
• Circular Palette 1.0

Find out more about the toolbox and access it at www.ri.se.

Toolbox for Future Adaptive Design

The toolbox of Future Adaptive Design includes nine practical tools designed to support circular business development by reducing product-related business risks and designing future-adaptive products with prolonged lifetime. The tools can support companies to: explore and frame key challenges, develop and validate products, services and business models with potential to contribute to prolonged product lifetimes, and anchor and adopt new practices in both the internal and external orgnaisations.

The toolbox includes the tools:
• Circular vision template
• Drivers of product obsolescence
• FAD screening
• TCO analysis
• FAD heatmap
• FAD opportunities canvas and ideation cards
• FAD evaluation matrix
• Lifecycle service planner
• FAD investment analysis

Find out more about the toolbox and access the tools at www.ri.se.

Use2Use Design Toolkit

The Use2Use Design Toolkit can be used to design products and services that make it easier for people to circulate products from use to use. The toolkit includes tools that can help you identify consumption-related design challenges and gain insight into how design can enable people to, for example, rent, borrow or buy second-hand products. There are also tools to ideate and evaluate circular design concepts with the potential to outcompete linear alternatives and help circular business models fly.

The toolkit includes the tools:
• Use2Use thinking activation pack
• Circular journeys exploration pack
• Multiple use-cycles exploration pack
• Circular designs ideation pack
• Circular designs evaluation pack

Find out more about the toolkit and access the tools at www.use2use.se.