BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BECAUSE THE FUTURE IS CIRCULAR
The world moves on whether we like it or not. Development is inevitable if the company wants to remain viable. It is worth starting the development in time so that the competitors do not get past you.
Company Development
Eight engineering companies, the Savo Consortium of Schools and Savonia University of Applied Sciences have developed an operating model and tools for SMEs to monitor and report on their environmental impacts. The material created through the co-development process includes the following tools:
- Environmental report card for a machine shop
- Workshop Environmental Meters calculator and its user manual
- Workshop checklist
- Resource-wise processes and practices in the workshop
- Waste accounting table
The material is available: Machine shop tools – Google Drive
Climate SWOT is a lightweight tool to start developing a company’s climate strategy. The tool combines SWOT analysis and product life cycle thinking from a climate action perspective. The tool facilitates the identification of strategic opportunities, product life cycle, regional challenges, industry specificities and innovations.
Instructional video: SWOT -tools
The tool, developed for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, is intended for calculating the emissions impact of energy efficiency projects. The calculator provides information on the change in greenhouse gas emissions and can be used to assess the profitability of energy efficiency investments, both in terms of economic and climate impacts.
Calculation template: Finnish Environment Institute > Calculation tool for measuring reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in energy efficiency projects (syke.fi)
The R2π project has developed a toolkit to guide the development of a company’s circular economy business. This toolkit describes the process of modifying the business model step by step, starting with team building and an assessment of the current business. During the process, several tools familiar from business development are used, such as the Business Model Canvas, SWOT analysis and value chain analysis.
The checklists are aimed at micro and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are not subject to statutory reporting obligations. Eight different checklists are available to help you quickly assess your company’s situation and maintain information on the measures taken. The checklists are available in Excel and PDF formats. The checklists cover energy and water consumption, logistics and mobility, materials and resource efficiency, product lifecycle, environment and water management, staff skills and responsibilities, responsible sourcing and supply chains, environmental risk management, environmental strategy management and legislation.
Sustainability is understood as the responsibility of companies, public administrations and other organisations for the impact of their activities on the surrounding society, stakeholders and the environment. It is also referred to by other terms such as responsible business, social responsibility, corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship. The “First Steps in Corporate Responsibility Reporting” (TEM 2017) reporting toolkit on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s website serves as a tool for starting and monitoring corporate responsibility work. The reporting framework contains the key indicators of corporate responsibility. They allow companies to assess the sustainability of their practices. They can also use the information for communication purposes.
Hackathons are development and innovation events that seek solutions to challenges. They can develop new technical solutions, products or services. In the event, the sponsor describes the challenge and teams build different solutions in a competitive spirit, which are presented to the sponsor after the agreed time. During the hackathon, the teams can also receive sparring from the sponsor or experts. Several universities of applied sciences offer hackathon services. For example, Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences offers a hackathon service focused on the bio- and circular economy.
Check out BioPaavo’s hackathon examples: bioPaavo | Jamk
The City of Helsinki’s circular economy cluster provides pilot environments where companies and research organisations can try out circular economy innovations in practice.
Please have a look: Testbed
Planning and Implementation of Circular Economy Business
Transforming an existing business into a circular economy business starts with the design phase of the change. It is important to involve all the right people from the organization and define their roles in achieving the change.
After building the team and designing the desired change, the current business model is evaluated along with the impact of the desired change. When designing a new business model, it is good to formulate several different options, which are evaluated against each other and compared to the current business model.
Proposition and testing
The new business model is innovated with a value proposition and the necessary value chains. At this stage, it is also important to assess potential ecosystem partners with whom circular economy business can be developed. Overall, designing a new business model requires several design cycles and pilots to find an optimized operating model.
Finally, the new business model is validated by testing its core hypotheses against assumptions. Critical assumptions include customers, the market, problems to be solved, how to increase the customer base, sales channels, partner capabilities, competitors, the operating environment, and finance. Additionally, it is important to assess the costs vs. benefits of the changes and thus understand the priority of different changes.
Implementation
When a new plan required by the change is ready, implementation begins. It is important to measure the progress of the change and the achievement of the goals, especially for the success of the implementation. Choosing and developing the right metrics is important because they strongly guide the organization’s actions.
