Selling light as a service, making new material from plaster residues, … With ‘Expedition Circular’, VITO offers companies support in rolling out circular business experiments. By focusing on a combination of process guidance, substantive expertise and networking, a blueprint is being created that other companies can also use.
Goal Experdition circular: coach companies to help them realise a successful circular business model
Four companies are having studies conducted on how they can develop their circular idea into a business case:
Etap Lighting - offers lighting solutions
HaTwee - distributor of powder coating products
Out Of Use - which recycles and prepares electrical and electronic waste from companies for recycling
More - which aims to make new material from plaster residues
The supporting project partners VITO, Start it @KBC, Agoria and Sirris, together with the companies, draw up a business model and determine which steps are needed to put the new concept on the market.
Etap no longer wants to market light as a product, but as a service. But rolling out such an innovative business model is pioneering work. Together with Etap, Expedition Circular identified the highest priority challenges and how the various barriers could be overcome.
HaTwee is also working on a circular service concept: ‘powder coating as a service’.
More has a process to convert plaster residues from plasterers into new products such as lampshades. The company wants to scale up that process. At the same time, it wants to draw up a business model for plasterers, so that it becomes interesting for them to separately collect plaster residues.
Out of Use wants to further scale up its existing reuse activities by automating the selection of devices for re-use and making this customer-friendly.
Expedition Circular offers the companies a structured approach to experiment and learn from one another, and coaches them in realising a successful circular business model. This know-how will soon find its way to other companies that want to integrate circularity and sustainability into their innovation process.
VITO is working together with three other circular experts in Expedition Circular:
- Technology federations Agoria and Sirris are providing advice on product design and are also at home in the legal aspects
- KBC is responsible for the financial part. Start it @KBC guides the businesses through all the stages that are needed to scale up a concept
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