Environmental Performance from Circularity in Products : A Case Study on LED Lighting Fixtures

Abstract: The circular economy is promoted by the EU, governments, and businesses all over the world as a concept to reach a sustainable future. The concept is embedded into the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and aims to decouple economic growth and environmental pressure. Many studies have been conducted on the circular economy in recent years but the research on the actual environmental performance of the concept is limited. To move forward with the concept of the circular economy and reach a sustainable future, the environmental performance must be investigated. In this thesis, the environmental impact of circularity in products is investigated by comparing the environmental impact from one circular and one linear product case. To achieve this, the environmental impact and the degree of circularity is calculated with two different methods. The circularity is calculated with a circularity indicator called the Linear Flow Ratio and the environmental impact is assessed with the environmental evaluation technique Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In the LCAs, the cases are compared for different environmental impact categories (e.g. global warming). The product that is investigated is an LED lighting fixture from the company 2P1. The circular case is based on a leasing business model and includes remanufacturing, reuse and recycling. The linear case includes production, sales, use, and disposal. The LCA results show that the environmental impact from the circular case is lower for all environmental impact categories. The environmental impact is almost exclusively from the manufacturing phase (including extraction and production of raw materials) and the use phase. The circularity results from the Linear Flow Ratio show contradicting results, presenting that the degree of circularity is higher for the linear case. By comparing the results to calculations from another circularity indicator (Material Circularity Indicator), it is concluded that a unified framework for circularity measurements is required.