Aligning the commercial and sustainable cases for circularity

The circular economy is considered a sustainable alternative to the long-established take, make and waste mode. With the circular economy, products are designed to last longer, components get reused and second lives are found for materials. From an environmental perspective, it’s an attractive proposition.

Commercially speaking, the question is whether businesses can function with a circular approach while still operating in a system that is built on a linear foundation.

To answer this question, we decided to ask two companies that take different approaches to the same circular end. AJ Products is heavily focused on extending the life of conventional products while BladeBridge is focused on taking material at the end of its useful life for one sector and turning it into something valuable for another.

“Having a circular economy opens up opportunities for the business overall,” says Tanya Cawley, country manager at AJ Products Ireland. “It is not just recycling our products; it is about redesigning furniture that possesses a longer life cycle, and with the introduction of components, our furniture enters another life cycle.”

For AJ Products, the circular journey begins at the manufacturing stage, with wood offcuts turned into pellets that are used as heating fuel or incorporated into other furniture. The business is also constantly focused on expanding the range of components within its products that can remain usable for longer.

“We are very proud of our factories; as with [our facility in] Slovakia, all of the wood cut-offs are either regenerated into pellets to heat the building or are reused in our furniture. The same with our metal design factory, which will use metal cuttings to be recycled for more metal furniture, such as lockers and cabinets,” says Cawley.

“It makes a very strong commercial sense, as it reduces waste and resources whilst adding value to our customers.”

The commercial argument is the meat of the matter for AJ Products. With the company’s own customers having sustainability requirements, being able to provide durable and recyclable materials makes AJ Products an attractive option.

“This circularity makes sense for the business as it combines cost efficiency, value for our customer and offers new relationship opportunities with our customers,” says Cawley.

While AJ Products is focused on the front end of the circular method, BladeBridge comes in at a point where products would normally be at the end of their life.

The business uses decommissioned wind-turbine blades, finding new value for them in other use cases.

“For BladeBridge, the circular economy is really about seeing waste as a resource,” says Angie Nagle, chief executive and co-founder of BladeBridge.

The business keeps large sections of these blades intact and repurposes them into infrastructure. This includes street furniture, shelters, and even bridges. The business has already created public picnic and bike parking shelters in Achill Sound in Mayo and Rathfarnham in Dublin.

“Rather than breaking blades down or sending them for disposal, we look at how we can keep as much of the blade as possible structurally intact and give it a second life,” says Nagle.

The blades looking like blades is at the core of the design philosophy. BladeBridge aims for the past life of these products to be visible in their new use cases.

“What I particularly like about these projects is that we don’t try to disguise where the material came from. You can clearly see that you are sitting or standing underneath a wind turbine blade,” says Nagle.

At the core of both businesses is the recognition that circularity has to make economic sense to move beyond being a nice to have aspect of what they do. For Cawley, value can be created for customers through the reduction in waste.

“This offering develops an improved customer experience and acts as an opportunity to strengthen the partnership with AJ,” she says.

Nagle meanwhile feels her company, as the name suggests, is bridging the needs of two different sectors. The wind industry needs a responsible way to deal with its materials while councils and communities need infrastructure.

“If circular solutions only work when somebody is willing to pay a significant premium for sustainability, it is going to be very difficult to achieve them at scale,” she says.

There’s also an obvious advantage in terms of the total life cost of the materials involved. The blades, in their original use, are already quite expensive. Repurposing them saves money on both sides of the equation.

“Our aim is that customers shouldn’t have to choose between the sustainable option and the commercially sensible option. They should be the same option,” says Nagle.

For the circular economy, the challenge has never really been about proving its sustainability strengths. It has, as the success of AJ Products and BladeBridge has shown, always been in proving the business case that goes alongside it. It is becoming increasingly clear that the environmental and commercial cases are strategically aligned.