Circular Economy in Project Management
In recent years sustainability and waste reduction have been some of the main focuses in manufacturing industries. This is due to the need of decreasing current environmental impacts and securing minimal future impacts. In terms, project management is being considered sustainable if it achieves long-terms benefits [1][1]. This can be problematic for large-scale companies, as they are more difficult to change structurally. However, the long-term benefits can be achieved using Circular Economy. Circular Economy is a method used to mitigate the environmental impacts by using materials much more efficiently [2][2].
Circular Economy is a tool that works alongside the corporate strategy and business development, which is used in project and portfolio management to reduce waste by introducing new methods of reusing, refurbishing, repairing, recycling, leasing, and sharing existing resources that prolongs the products life cycle [3][3]. This gives the company opportunities to reinvent their products so that they can create circular systems that makes it possible for already sold products to be part of a new product. For that reason, Circular Economy should be a crucial part of portfolio management both in regard to the design and planning of new products, but also in the assessment of existing products.
Implementing Circular Economy may both reduce waste, but also improve finance, as fewer raw materials may be needed. This benefit is ideal for competitiveness and securing more reliable sources of acquiring raw material needed for new products.
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Circular Economy
Circular Economy is an approach that moves away from the linear system of producing and consuming, and instead goes towards a circular system of reuse. With linear systems, the materials will go lost after the use of the consumer. However, with this system it is possible to make use of the already mined materials to produce products that gives value to the customer.
Circular Economy Definition
What is a Circular Economy?
Generally we can differentiate Circular Economy in two systems, one being from producer to consumer, and the other being producer to user. This differentiation is important due to the types of circular system that could be implemented. The differentiation between user and consumer depends of the product variants. A consumed product could be food, chemicals or biological products that are not possible to become a new product by its own. A user product is everything that is made of extracted raw materials. This could be electronics, textile, and everyday products.
