Circular economy for a rock and ore transportation equipment manufacturer - A step towards changes in the business model?

Abstract: Moving towards circular economy is considered as a fundamental way to achieve sustainable development, but practices and tools that can support businesses in implementing this concept are still underdeveloped. Moreover, there is uncertainty about the impact that the adoption of circularity has on the current way of working of a company. With the adoption of aspects of action research on a rock and ore transportation equipment manufacturer, this thesis defines a methodology that could be used to support a firms in implementing circular economy and to delineate the changes needed to adopt it. For the case investigated, it was discovered that circularity is already present, consciously or unconsciously, in several aspects of the way of making business of the company and that opportunities of improvement can bring significant economic and environmental benefits. The implementation of these additional circular actions can be both easy and difficult, therefore minor and incremental changes are needed as well as radical and complex ones. In any case, modifications on the current business model are needed in order to move towards circularity. Despite the limitations of the adopted methodology, it may still be considered as a good starting point for the firm and for practitioners who want to support companies in adopting circular economy. It may also be valuable to academia that can gather some useful data about the real life implementation of this concept.