A Circular Economy Toolkit as an Alternative to Improve the Application of PSS Methodologies

Circular Economy (CE) is an alternative to achieve more sustainability and to improve the current economic system through the transformation of the linear and semi-circular flows to circulate ones, keeping products at a higher level of utility and for a longer period of time. Ellen McArthur Foundation (EMF) and IDEO developed a Circular Design Guide (CE toolkit) intended to support companies to apply the circular principles on their own organizations. In this context, some authors noted that the development of a product-service system (PSS) initiative can help in the transition to a CE. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the objectives of the CE Toolkit joint with a PSS methodology already existent in literature. A matrix was applied to analyse the CE toolkit versus the PSS methodology, and a Likert scale was applied to characterize the relation between each stage of the methodology and each objective of the toolkit. The most important findings are related to the absence of CE concepts and its connection to PSS in previously existent methodology, which lacks methods to support the application of it, and lacks the incentive to use recovery techniques as recycling, remanufacturing and reuse of parts on PSS. At the same time, the toolkit lacks some practical aspects of the transition to PSS, such as identifying the competitors and the definition of a very detailed list of equipment and infrastructure required for the business.