Circular Economy : Circular Economy Business Models

As reported by SAP Brandvoice, recently, at the SAP Sustainability Summit, a group of leaders shared their advice on how to successfully scale a circular economy business model; this comes inline with previous research from SAP, in which 75 percent of surveyed executives believe sustainability is a key driver behind operational and strategic decisions, and that now is the time to act for first-mover advantage on circular economy business opportunities and meeting global climate change targets.

Amongst global corporations opting for circular economy models is H&M. H&M's strategy supports the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision for a circular economy and covers all parts of their business, products and customer offer, supply chain, and non-commercial goods such as packaging and items used in store interiors, offices and distribution centres.

Similarly, BASF recently opted to move towards a Circular Economy by increasingly using recycled and renewable feedstocks, shaping new material cycles and creating new business models and formally launching a new Circular Economy Program with the goal to by the year 2030, doubling its sales generated with solutions for the circular economy to €17 billion. To achieve this, the company is concentrating on three action areas: circular feedstocks, new material cycles and new business models. As of 2025, BASF aims to process 250,000 metric tons of recycled and waste-based raw materials annually, replacing fossil raw materials.

Already in 2020, Mitsubishi Chemical established a Circular Economy Department. Global in both perspective and scale, the department is to operate across all business domains to propose circular economy-related solutions and develop them into businesses. It will also collaborate actively with customers, business partners, academia, start-ups, and others. This has lead to the acquisition of carbon fiber and plastics recycling companies.