Innovative Open Source Website Launches A Revolutionary 'Toolkit' For Businesses Looking To Develop Sustainable Products and Services
New Service Offers Free Help to Businesses to Create A More Sustainable Future.
- (1888PressRelease) August 20, 2013 - Cambridge University has launched a website to revolutionise the way in which businesses create more sustainable products and services. The website supports businesses in developing more environmentally sound decisions which will create new opportunities, save money and attract new customers.
Businesses currently work in a linear economy, meaning that they take materials and make products from them which are then ultimately disposed of and sent to landfill. Living on a finite planet means this is simply unsustainable and wastes huge sums of materials and resources. This waste is a source for companies to create value and improve their green credentials. Jamie Evans and Dr Nancy Bocken from Cambridge University have recognised that companies need help to identify opportunities within their business and have created an online 'toolkit' to address this.
The Circular Economy Toolkit aims to support companies in turning their linear business model into more circular ones. This means that materials can be used and re-used wherever possible. The idea is that materials are treated as a company asset throughout the product lifetime, meaning that value is extracted by the business through more of its life cycles.
As it is difficult for different businesses to visualise how their company would function within a circular economy, the Circular Economy Toolkit provides an insight into how this could be possible. The challenge is broken down in to seven key opportunities; explaining each of them and giving company examples to see how others are already generating profit out of the circular economy.
In addition, the website provides a '5 Minute Assessment Tool' which analyses the products and services sold by a company and gives guidance on potential improvement areas. The other interesting feature is the 'Workshops' section where companies can get involved themselves, by downloading all the materials they need to run their own workshops and start finding opportunities for themselves.
Workshops have already been successfully run and have found up to 26 opportunities in one session, with one example where an opportunity was worth £3-4 million per year.
"It's amazing how many opportunities have been found which are genuine business opportunities" - Jamie Evans
As part of the new launch, 10 'DIY Workshop kits' will be given away to companies who are willing to complete workshops and provide feedback by the 6th September.
The Circular Economy Toolkit has been researched and created by Cambridge masters student Jamie Evans and has been overseen by Dr Nancy Bocken as dissertation supervisor. To find out more about the toolkit, complete a 5 minute opportunity assessment or to run a workshop, visit www.CircularEconomyToolkit.com.
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