The world's leading circular economy network

KTH has joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 (CE100) Network. The CE100 is a collaborative network of businesses, innovators, cities and governments, universities and thought leaders who work together to accelerate adoption of circular economy practices and processes that maximize the use of resources. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an organization that leads in transitioning to a circular economy model by working with the world’s leading and most influential organisations, with transformative potential.

Based on a need for raw material solutions for a European sustainable industry, CE COSP course will train PhD students, as future experts in manufacturing and material science with regards to circular economy. Through CE COSP course, PhD students will develop circular perspective, innovation competence and entrepreneurial mind set focusing on recyclability of raw materials.

Project Objectives

Project Partners

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology (coordinator)
• Scania
• Husqvarna
• Stora Enzo
• Combient Technologies

Project Duration

2020 -2021

Funding Body:

Vinnova (Sweden’s Innovation Agency)

Standardization in the field of Circular Economy

KTH has become a member of the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee (ISO/TC 323) and Swedish Institute for Standards Technical Committee (SIS/TK 616) for Circular Economy standardization.

In 2020, CE@KTH offered PhD course in "Circular Economy and Industrial Systems" for 3^rd time. In total 12 PhD students from 5 different departments of KTH attended the course.

CE@KTH organized first symposium for early career researchers with the theme “Circular Economy for Sustainable Development: understanding the value and impact of the CE on businesses, environment, resources and society” on 27 November 2019 at KTH campus. More than 15 young researchers (PhD students and Postdocs) presented their research related to CE.

The 3^rd co-creation workshop was held on 07 Nov 2019 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, XPRES Glasbur, Brinellvägen 68 where several companies participated.

Project Objectives

The Urban Circularity Assessment Framework (UCAF) project aims to provide an adaptable city level circularity assessment framework that will assist cities in transitioning to a circular economy. This framework will allow cities to measure their level and potential for circularity, and can be tailored to different decision-making contexts and sector specific demands.

Cities across the European Union are taking steps to become more sustainable, and many are choosing to transition towards a circular economy. Alongside ‘Energy Union’ targets and priorities and the EU Urban Agenda, the EU introduced a Circular Economy Package in 2015 which sets out to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy, with among others key areas of action for waste and construction in cities.  

Despite urban circularity becoming a policy priority there is currently no city level assessment framework that addresses both the technical and sociopolitical aspects of transitioning.

This project aims to support cities in adopting circular pathways, thereby reducing waste production, dependency on continued natural resource extraction and effectively alleviating pressures on the environment.

Through bringing together researchers, the private sector and local governments this project will:

1. Co-develop an urban circularity assessment framework, making it possible to measure the level and potential for circularity at city level, which can be tailed to various decision-making contexts and sector specific demands;
2. Identify opportunities for recovery of resources and energy, though the application of the assessment framework to a specific city or region;
3. Map the impact of the transition to a circular economy for business,
   citizens and policy makers, allowing to understand the societal effects of the transition, and uncover any adverse effects of the transition.

Project Partners

Stockholm Environment Institute (coordinator), KTH Royal Institute Technology (INDEK, EGI, SEED), Ragn-Sells Recycling AB, Stockholm Vatten och Avfall AB, Umeå kommun, WSP Sverige AB.

Project Duration

November 2019 - December 2022

Funding Body

Vinnova (Sweden’s Innovation Agency)

Objectives

KTH is a founding member of the Nordic Initiative on Circular Economy (NICE). It is an initiative at Nordic level with the aim to establish and strengthen research and education in circular economy.

The goal is to put together research and education activities related to circular economy held in Nordic countries and develop a common circular economy platform for knowledge sharing, dissemination, and collaboration at Nordic level. In particular, NICE aims to promote education on circular economy and make it part of the national education systems in Nordic countries. To support education on circular economy, NICE aims to develop academic and industry professional courses on circular economy. NICE will promote joint research activities on circular economy in the Nordic region in order to understand the value and impact of circular economy approach on businesses, environment, resources and society. Further, NICE will collect and benchmark best practices and industry/company specific solutions to support implementation of circular economy in the Nordic region.

Core members

The first meeting of the core group was held on Friday, 11 October 2019 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellvägen 68, SE- 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden. The members of the core group include

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

• Linköping University, Sweden

• SITRA, Finalnd

• SINTEF, Norway

About Society

The International Society for the Circular Economy (IS4CE) is an independent international academic society run by and for it's members, with a secretariat based in the University of Exeter in the UK. It was established around a core development group in 2019/20 with KTH as a founding member.

IS4CE is transdisclipinary exercise centred on, but not exclusive to, the potential of the digital revolution to improve our understanding of systems aimed at ‘circularity’ and its fundamental effects on the relationship between people, resources, business and enterprise. This will be especially evidenced in the design of accessible products, services and systems which contribute to an economy* that works long term. This takes in both bio-centric and techno-centric materials pathways** and associated natural, human social and financial capitals.

Key objectives

• continue to refine the contemporary scientific theory and evidence base of circular economy in tandem with the research-education-business nexus;

• provide a network to connect and convene higher education globally to stimulate new research and educational initiatives;

• share significant findings through high quality research publications, conferences and mainstream media

• promote educational offerings to business, government, academics and other stakeholder.

Project objectives

Transition towards circular economy (CE) through implementing Circular Production Systems (CPS) has become inevitable to mitigate challenges of resource scarcity and resource price volatility as well as ensure sustainable development. Furthermore, there is a huge economic potential for the industry to be tapped through high quality value recovery in the form of products or materials by implementing CPS. However, one of the challenges with implementing CPS is to ensure integration and flow of information across the value chains so that right value recovery activities can be performed efficiently to recover value.

Traditionally, information management systems in industry are not designed for value recovery and there is always a risk of breaking information sharing across the value chains and trade levels. Although the manufacturing industry is known to be highly efficient in product data management, the data management systems have rarely been designed to facilitate the circular flow of products or materials. Therefore, the project aims to lay a foundation to develop a digital platform that can enable generating material passports3 to facilitate implementation of CPS. The platform will establish connections between different value chain actors and enable them to share product and material information throughout multiple lifecycles4 of products. Such a platform can also provide support for product compliance, increase transparency across value chains,

The project will assess the applicability of the concept of 'material passport' in the manufacturing industry by involving a cross functional group represented by researchers, manufacturers, software developers and recycling experts

Project Partners

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology (coordinator)
• Mälardalan University
• Significant Svenska AB
• Dometic Group AB
• Circular Business and Engineering Systems AB
• Ragn-Sells AB

Project Duration

June 2019 -December 2019

Funding Body

Production2030 - a strategic innovation program with support from VINNOVA, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas.

Project Objectives:

Project Partners:

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Project Leader:

Dr. Rafael Laurenti

Project Duration:

2019 - 2020

Funding body:

ÅForsk

Project Objectives:

Project Partners:

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Project Leader:

Dr. Rafael Laurenti

Project Duration:

2019 - 2020

Funding body:

ÅForsk

Sharing platforms play a central role in enabling people to share underutilised products. Depending on different consuming and sharing behaviours, however, this is likely to lead to negative rebound effects (e.g. if the savings are used to finance air travel). It has not yet been established what sharing platforms, but also policy-makers, could do to minimise these negative effects.

This project tackles this problem using an inter- and transdisciplinary approach. First, we analyse the motivations, perceptions and spending activities of the users of peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing platforms. Second, we quantify the extent of the rebound effect and the related environmental impacts resulting from the way in which savings are spent. Finally, together with selected sharing platform providers we will develop and test measures to reduce the environmental impact of sharing practices.

In 2019, CE@KTH offered PhD course in "Circular Economy and Industrial Systems" for 2^nd time. More than 20 PhD students, both from within KTH and outside, attended the course.

The 2nd co-creation workshop of the series “Pioneering Circular Economy Innovation in Sweden” was held on 22^nd  January 2019 in Gladan, MMK at Brinnelvägen 85 (floor 3), KTH.

Aim and main expected results

The aim of this project is to explore different stakeholders’ perspective on the transitioning to a circular economy specifically focusing on going from ownership to access based business models and consumption practices. Barriers that inhibit and mechanisms that drive large and mature OEMs and new organisations as well as consumers to transit towards circular and sharing business models and consumption will be identified.

Project partners

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology (coordinator)

• IPD

• Husqvarna Group

• Hygglo

Time frame

December 2018 - March 2020

Funder

Vinnova (Sweden’s Innovation Agency)

CE@KTH Team

Sofia Ritzén, Liridona Sopjani, Johan Arekrans, Rafael Laurenti

 The co-creation workshop “Pioneering Circular Economy Innovation in Sweden” organized by CE@KTH initiative was held on 22^nd November 2018 with several companies from different sectors joined us in XPRES Glasbur, IIP at Brinnelvägen 68, KTH.

Project objectives:

CIS Sotenäs project aims to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of the IS system in Sotenäs by implementing Internet of Things (IoT). Typically, in an IS system wastes from a process is used as raw materials by a different process to create something valuable, for example, wastes from fish processing companies are used by the biogas plant to produce electricity. This means IS systems are capable of closing the loop of resources and wastes, which is one if the centre points in CE. However, in addition to closing the loop of resources and wastes, it is equally important that the loop of information flow among the actors in the IS network is also closed in order create a well-functioning network. Therefore, the objective of this project is to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of the IS network in Sotenäs by closing the loop of information flow through implementing Internet of Things (IoT).

Project Partners:

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology

• Sotenäs Kommun (Project coordinator)

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology

• Machine Recorder AB

• CirBES Circular Business and Engineering Systems AB

• Leröy Sverige AB

• Marenor AB

• Orkla Foods Sverige AB

• Reg Avfallsanläggning i Mellersta Bohuslän AB

• Rena Hav Sverige AB

• Smögenlax Aquaculture AB

• Swedish Algae Factory AB

• West Coast Smolts Sweden AB

• Fiskareföreningen Norden UPA

Project Duration:

July 2018-June 2021

Funding body:

Vinnova, Swedish Energy Agency and Formas under the strategic innovation program IoT Sweden. No. 2018-01516

Project Objectives:

ReCiPSS refers to Resource Efficient Circular Product Service Systems, which is an EU funded project in the Horizon 2020 innovation action. The overarching goal of the project is to demonstrate the implementation of Circular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) in the whitegoods and automotive sector addressing different aspects of the industrial and business environment.

The overarching goal of the project is to demonstrate the implementation of Circular Manufacturing Systems (CMS) addressing different aspects of the industrial and business environment. In doing so, ReCiPSS is working on two large scale demonstrators from whitegoods and automotive sector represented by project partners Gorenje and Bosch. Analyses and discussions about the circular economy are often done from the perspectives of resource scarcity and environmental impact, often neglecting the economic benefits of businesses and consumers. However, as depicted in Figure 1, in ReCiPSS, both demonstrators are taking a systematic approach where the entire value chain i.e. value creation, delivery, use, recovery, and reuse, is the scope of ReCiPSS. It starts with designing appropriate business models, which indicate how the products and supply chains should be designed to satisfy the requirements of the businesses. To demonstrate the implementation of CMS, the ReCiPSS team is developing necessary CE tools and ICT platform as the system enablers.

Project Partners:

• TH Royal Institute of Technology (coordinator)

• TU Delft

• Fraunhofer

• HOMIE

• Masaryk University

• CirBES

• C-ECO

• SIGNIFIKANT

• Striebig Logistique

• PDS VISION

• SIVECO

• Gorenje Group

• BOSCH

Project Duration:

 June 2018 - June 2022

Funding body:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776577-2.

In 2018, CE@KTH offered PhD course in "Circular Economy and Industrial Systems" for the 1^st time. More than 20 PhD students, both from within KTH and outside, attended the course.

The first CE@KTH management meeting was held on 21^st Feb 2017. In this meeting, the board members discussed Circular Economy (CE) from different research perspectives: Production Engineering, Materials Science, Machine design, Energy, Sustainability, and Industrial economics.