Samenvatting

The global industrial economy is still predominantly linear, working according to the take-make-waste principle. This has affected the planet to a concerning amount, which is why the European Union signed the Paris Agreement, committing to a 1,5 to 2 degree scenario of global warming. In order to achieve this, the Netherlands and the European Union established the goal of creating a fully circular economy by 2050.
The private sector plays a crucial role in the transition towards a circular economy. As many organisations are unaware of the value creation opportunities behind circular business models, this report aims at revealing circular value creation opportunities by answering the central question: How can smart and circular investments lead to sustainable values for Heerema and KPN?
In order to obtain valuable findings, both companies were interviewed and the interviews were examined in-depth. The research was predominantly concerned with the topics Circular Business Models, Smart Technologies, the Created Value, and Drivers and Barriers of Heerema and KPN.
Six established Circular Business Models were selected and presented for this research project. Heerema mainly made use of extending resource value by reusing steel through an internal marketplace, and circular supplies by replacing Diesel with wind energy and liquified natural gas.
Industry 4.0 can be understood as the interplay of nine smart technologies, which were used in this research. Heerema is barely supporting their sustainable projects with smart technologies. There is one simulation centre of an offshore environment and 3D printing is slowly being introduced. KPN is making use of all of the smart technologies, as their initiatives strongly rely on technical support.
Regarding Drivers of circular business, the Circular Value Driver Framework by PACE (Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy) was used as the main model. The seven ‘key considerations’ 1. Enter new markets, 2. Reduce cost, 3. Reduce risk and future-proof the business, 4. Trigger innovation capacity, 5. Attract and retain talent, 6. Deliver greater customer value, and 7. Align with public expectations. When evaluating the PACE framework, it stood out that reduce risk and future proof the business is by far the strongest driver for the cases studied in this paper. It is argued that this is a result of a still predominantly linear economy. As circular structures increase and financial incentives shift along with increasing consumer demand for sustainable products, drivers such as reduce cost and deliver greater customer value will become increasingly applicable.
Barriers are circumstances that hinder or obstruct the implementation of circular business models. For Heerema, the main barriers are an aversion to risk and therefore change, and the 20th century company culture, which includes an aversion to new technologies. For KPN, the main challenge is the dilemma between performance end energy savings.