CircleTech

Shifting consumer awareness and boosting product brands to adopt sustainability practices are challenging. By incorporating digital technologies into labelling, our solution will show the value of creating a virtual cycle in supply chains. We create a smart service for an effective marketing on sustainable and circular strategies. Through indicators analysis, CircleTech is labeling companies’ products and displaying its results in a website and an app platform. In the moment of purchase, the consumers can scan a readable tag using their smartphones. Thus, having access to technical characteristics, such as components, amount of recycled materials, recycling level, as well as energy, water and carbon footprint of the products life cycle, and other indicators. Using a user-friendly platform and language, CicleTech display the data in a trustable and yet simplified way. So everyone will be able to understand the environmental performance data and make a conscious purchase.

While the problem of global sustainability is clear, shifting consumption behavior and business practices towards sustainable choices, as well as, identifying the right tools to ensure it throughout the products’ life cycles are the real challenges. To fill this gap, brands, retailers and consumers need to engage in scalable and practical sustainable programmes.

The World Economic Forum advocates a passion for corporate responsibility across gender lines and generations, however, few consumers will take the time to fully research a brand before purchasing. So, brands that make sourcing and sustainability information easily accessible on product packaging will win at the point of purchase. On the other hand, companies don’t know how to measure the circularity of their products and are mistrustful regarding data disclosure because of the lack of standards.

Also, the language used to disclouse the sustainable data is usually distant from the user reality. Not all consumers understand what is a "carbon dioxide equivalent" or what means the "joules of energy per liter" used to produce something. The detachment from its application and meaning might alienate the consumers towards the sustainable causes. 

So, CircleTech emerged as a solution to fill theses gaps and to leverage sustainable practices and choices. 

Companies seeking to increase market share through data transparency, reaching the consumer looking for sustainability and traceability in the brands they purchase.

CircleTech will increase the levels of transparency and information sharing and the consumers’ ability to support responsible products and business practices. To do so, we will connect customer and business in an intuitive and accessible way. 

Our scalable, global and impactful solution has the ability to educate consumers and supply chain partners to maintain sustainability throughout the products life-cycle. It will also encourage products, components and materials circularity along the supply chain. The consumer awareness will become a competitive asset for brands, strengthening trust and authenticity for consumer and growing market share. 

Through the use of indicators, CircleTech will analyze the data in a standard way assuring a fair and reliable disclosure of the information. Using block chain, CircleTech will also guarantee the data security, increasing the company reliability to share their data. As a result, the products will be labelled and tagged. This digitalization process creates opportunities for brands to share the investment made downstream, marketing their sutainable products.

Our digital solution can make easier and more convenient for customers and companies to go circular. Since asset tagging can help to extend the use of an asset, increase additional use cycles and help regenerate natural capital. For example: a brand of clothes who has a more sustainable supply chain can show the consumers their data compared to standardized data from linear and unsustainable production.   

Instead of only disclosing the amount of energy used in the life-cycle in languages such "joules/per liter " or "million barrels of oil ", we will make it tangible for the consumer, for example, translating to how many hours of tv this amount would be equivalent to, or how many miles a average car could drive).

The widespread and easy access to our technology allows the connection between consumers and business to leverage products tracking capabilities and the knowledge about how the organizations create and deliver their values. This may enable circular models to achieve competitive prices, quality and convenience. Therefore, our solution will power the circular economy by means of digital solutions and closing the information gap.

The innovation in our solution rest on how we  incorporate digital technologies to increase the levels of transparency, information sharing and the consumer's ability to support responsible products and business practices. This rely on the following elements:

• B2C online platform system
• Products Circularity Indicators: measure the manufacturing processes' performance and communicate the results in an clear and user-focused language
• Digital technologies: easy access to products characteristics and components
• Customer-Brand networking: Integration of different companies and sectors on the same platform, providing data of their product's circularity levels and collecting customer's feedback
• Through the customer's feedback we will boost a behavior design in the entire value chain for a sustainable production and consumption behavior

Readbable tag so customer can access the products' information by their mobile.

AI algorithms and big data to manage the indicators data.

Using Social Network we will analyze the value network structure and patterns.

Blockchain will allow customer to track products all way back to their sources. In doing so, customer will have more information about the products they buy, ensuring transparency and accuracy of data and sustainability sourced labels.

USERS

• No available information regarding product/value chain transparency and/or circularity

• No accessible information on how to enhance the circular/sustainable behavior based on products and services purchased

BRANDS/BUSINESSES

• Reduced information/data on production processes and value chain interactions

• Reduced information/data on post-purchase interaction with users

• Lack of technology to automate and make it easier to create share informations about products/processes/value chain with users and other stakeholders

• Products disconnected from IoT to feed with data

Our solution addresses the problem we have identified because we have developed an app and website platform system according to the collection of feedbacks given by eco-friendly users and companies that are trying to be transparent.

We introduce all the  players necessary for the process to work. We measure the circularity level of prodcusts and value chains; we propose a circular label with different levels of maturity in circular economy; and we developed an app/website platform to share the prodcuts/value chain circularity with users in an user-friendly language. This, together with the moment we are at, in which mindsets are changing and circular economy strategies are been put in practice, are important factors to be able to address the problem in a way that make difference in the business ecosystem.

Busines: Currently we are prototyping, but we expect to attend 10 companies within the next year and rapidly scale to reach 100 companies in the next five years.

Users: We expect to attend 5000 people within the next year and rapidly scale to reach 1 mi people in the next five years.

Within the next year:

1. Measure the amount of recyclable materials used, the water, energy and carbon footprint regarding their life cycle, and the recycling level of products and their components;

2. Create the CircleTech label (environmental performance certification) based on the previous indicators;  

3. Attend at least 10 companies (same or different sectors);

4. Reach 5000 downloads for CicleTech app;

5. Collect end-user data and feedback, generating a report for the companies;

For the next 5 years: 

1. Add other circular indicators, expanding the analyses from products life cycle to business model and business ecosystem;

2. Create different labels based on the company circularity level.

3. Attend at least 100 companies (from all different sectors);

4. Reach 1 million downloads for CicleTech app;

5. Generate reports about the company circularity level and its importance in path towards a full transition to a circular economy;

Products' and value chains' data are the main drivers of our solution. We face some concerns regarding the availability of this information; moreover, how would we use data to feed the main technologies. 

Another barrier is to stimulate users´ engagement and behavior in using our app and website, as well as giving feedback about the products/brands that they are consuming.

As we will scale up our solution, we will need to improve our data analysis and database in order to absorb the enormous amount of data to fed our database and the circularity indicators.

To overcome the barriers, we will evaluate companies that already have an adherence to the circular economy movement, are seeking to provide a better user experience to the customer and have some competitive market fragility. Moreover, with financial support, we will be able to construct an elastic database to allow a consistent growth within the complexity and to provide data security.

Circular Business Model Specialist (1)

Circular Design Strategies Specialist (1)

Circular Indicators Specialist (1)

Innovation Strategies Specialist (1)

Partnership: Ideavus Consulting

We have a multidisciplinary team with specialists in the area of interest. We have the necessary expertise in innovation strategies, circular business models, circular design and circular indicators. Each member of our team have great experience working in circular economy and innovation projects with small and big companies. A team ready for the challenges to come.

Ideavus Consulting, a firm that provides consulting service for innovation and engineering projects. With this partnership, CircleTech has being able to design and deliver a better service, as well being in contact with different companies and sectors. 

• Value proposition: circular economy labelling and visibility for the companies; and easy access to the products' value chain information for the consumer.
• Key customers: companies and consumer with environmental awareness.
• key activities: measurement of products' circular performance through indicators; labelling the companies regarding the circular data; delivery the data in a user-friendly language through website and app.
• distribution: digital platform.
• partners: sales & marketing agencies, software/hardware vendors.
• revenue: B2B (labelling fee and monthly fee for end-user data handling, customer feedback collection and marketing communications).
• cost: app/website development and support, and data collection and analysis.
• positive impacts: deliver transparency and traceability of the value chain, behavior change towards a sustainable consumption, power a circular and sustainable production.

The labelling will be done by levels of maturity in the circularity, so companies will acquire different labels as their process, products and business models are transitioning to a circular economy. Through a continuous labelling for several companies, the money can be reinvested in our platform development and the growth of our team.

First, we are searching for new partners to construct a great network to scale up our solution. We believe that the Solve's network of experts can mentoring us to find areas to improve our solution what will allow the organization to scale.

Second, we need strong cross-sectoral cooperation in getting data to feed our digital platform. Solve will help CircleTech in the development of these connections, boosting the collaborative work.

Third, we need financial support to accelerate our growth. We can make it possible, but without financial, the growth may be slower. Moreover, as we are a technology-dependent solution, Solve can help us to access the most updated technologies in the market.

Unilever, Nestlé, Starbucks and other large chains of companies using short-lived packaging.

CircleTech will invest in the development and improvement of the platform, creating a better user experience and improving the features, as well as studying the market to encourage the adhesion among society members.