Unlock Value Pools with a Circular Economy Mindset
Applying a Nordic circular economy mindset can help companies capture new top-line growth, achieve cost efficiencies, and mitigate supply chain and regulatory risks – all within the boundaries of our planet.
To stay within the safe operating space of our planet, we need to transition from a linear to a circular economy, where products are used and repaired for as long as possible and then deconstructed so that their constituent materials can be used to create new goods of similar value.
Today, 6% of the Nordic region’s economy is circular—meaning that ~6% of resources used for production come from recovered materials. By comparison, the EU average is at ~12% circularity, with an ambition to double the rate by 2030. Reaching this ambition in the Nordics could unlock an annual ~€48 billion economic opportunity by 2030, similar to 3% of the Nordic region’s GDP in 2021.
Many companies, however, struggle to implement circularity and move beyond isolated circular actions with little impact.
CIRCelligence by BCG provides a comprehensive holistic approach that enables businesses to integrate circularity into their core business strategy in a way that delivers economic benefits and also maximizes total societal value.
Five Key Nordic Sectors with Significant Circular Economy Value Capture
The adoption of a circular economy mindset can enable companies to capture significant value pools across industries. However, the nature, maturity, and scale of the value pools are industry specific and vary based on customer sentiment, regulation, technology, and level of competition for scarce resources.
In this section, a sample of specific circular economy trends and value pools are illustrated in five large Nordic sectors: packaging, consumer goods, machinery and industrial goods, metals and mining, and transportation.
