Scandere

Securing the supply of raw materials is one of Europe’s biggest challenges. The Commission has identified 30 critical raw materials (CRMs), which are adopted by products in many sectors. Today, most of the products are processed in the “make-sell-use-dispose” paradigm, where original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) intend to sell a higher number of products and lose control of the products after their sales. 

The product-as-a-service (PaaS) model, which provides OEMs with a reverse incentive, is emerging as a promising concept in several sectors and creating a potential for increasing the CRM efficiency by a factor of two or more. However, to raise and upscale the adoption of CRM-efficient PaaS business models, a major challenge is to holistically address the inter-dependent activities occurring in different points both temporally and geographically: product design, remanufacturing, and recycling. Therefore, front runners in European industry and academia, including the need owners and solution providers, will join forces in this project to tackle this challenge taking consumer electrical and electronic equipment as an example.  

The objectives are to  

1. create three demonstrators with improved product designs, leaner remanufacturing, optimized recycling and adapted regulations in a CRMefficient PaaS business model from the three pillars of sustainability using indicators with the lifecycle perspective and 
2. improve knowledge for product design, remanufacturing, and recycling including their interplays among them in a whole CRM-efficient PaaS offering. The major outcomes will showcase three CRM-efficient PaaS offerings with enhanced sustainability as a European model to business leaders and policy makers. 

The major expected impacts are  

• increasing the CRM efficiency and security from the EU’s interest,  
• decoupling economic growth and resource use and  
• improving innovation capacity for further enhancing CRM-efficient PaaS business models. 

Keywords

Product-as-a-service, holistic perspective, systemic design, technology, non-technological framework condition 

• Linköpings Universitet (Sweden)
• Elektrorecykling S.A. (Poland)
• Poznan University of Technology (Poland)
• Compliance and Risks (Ireland)
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium/Flanders)
• Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (France)
• BSH Hausgeräte GmbH (Germany)
• Asociatia ECOTIC (Romania) 

• 36 Months