Policymakers, businesses and researchers are increasingly recognising the opportunities – and need – to move towards a Circular Economy (CE), whereby disposable products are designed out of the market and brought back in as redesigned/reusable products. This kind of economic transformation needs business innovation and behaviour change.
This project focuses on gaining a better understanding of the characteristics of businesses and business actors, their barriers to innovation and what may help them shift towards adopting CE behaviours and business models.
To understand business barriers from different perspectives we:
In this video, research stream leader, Dr Alexander Saeri gives a short summary of the research and provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the trials.
In conducting this research, we followed The BehaviourWorks Method to gather evidence on the behaviour change approach(es) most likely to work. (See a brief visual summary of the BehaviourWorks Method or a more extensive explanation.)
As business innovation is necessary for transforming our current 'linear economy system' (a take, make, and waste system) into a Circular Economy (CE), we explored research, policies and practices (evidence) around the world to understand the potential barriers of business adoption of CE and interventions that may help its uptake.
Alongside, we conducted a series of interviews with Australian policy-makers and industry stakeholders to better understand these barriers and potential interventions in the Australian context.
In reviewing the evidence on business adoption of CE practices, we found that 'soft' cultural barriers (i.e. perceived demand, organisational inertia and lack of collaborative capacity) were greater barriers for Australian businesses to adopt CE practices than regulation or technology ('hard barriers).
We also found that effective adoption of CE practices first requires a significant change in an industry's ecosystem, so focussing on individual organisations as the unit of behaviour change is insufficient to achieve a transition to CE.
For readers wanting a quick overview of the evidence review (5 minute read)
For readers writing a brief, a policy submission or wanting a summary of practical insights.
For readers needing all the technical detail, including the full methodology.
As no comprehensive CE labelling scheme currently exists in Australia, we sought to understand what circular characteristics a hypothetical CE label should target for maximum behaviour change as a precursor to any labelling scheme exploration in the Australian context.
Building on the Rapid Review, the collaboration identified the following interests to examine the effectiveness of CE labelling within the Australian context:
Overall, our findings show potential for new or expanded schemes assuring CE characteristics. For maximum behaviour change, durability or product lifetime labelling is particularly promising, followed by recyclability. However, price is consistently shown to be the single most important attribute to increasing the likelihood of purchases of products with CE attributes for consumers.
To take a deeper look into our trial findings, and how producers, manufacturers, and policymakers can strengthen eco-labelling schemes to change consumer purchasing behaviour, see our infographic for a quick overview or our initial report for our complete findings.
As it is important to understand what circular characteristics a CE label should target for maximum behaviour change for Australia to progress towards a circular economy, BWA developed an online tool based on our trials to help manufacturers, producers, and policy-makers understand market demand.
Following the trials, we created the Conjoint Analysis Simulator Tools. These allow users to simulate market demand for variations of existing products in the market (i.e. textile, stationery or furniture products) or the introduction of new products (i.e. products that possess CE attributes) using the data we collected from our online choice experiments. There are 8 tools - one for each product tested.
For example, users will be able to compare market demand and the extent of consumers' willingness to pay a price premium for a pair of jeans that are repairable compared to a pair that are not.
WHO CAN THIS TOOL BE USEFUL FOR
Those working in peak bodies can find great use of this tool to explore the potential implications of mandating the improvement of product features. It also provides evidence-based insights into the CE attributes most valued by customers, which future eco-labelling schemes can highlight to promote uptake of consumer purchases in products with circularity features.
The tool can be of great use to manufacturers and producers who are looking to understand consumer preferences and willingness to pay a price premium for various circular attributes.
For example, the tool can be used to indicate what percentage of recycled content must be featured in a product for consumers to be interested in purchasing it, over a product that is cheaper and is not made of recycled material.
Explore how information on circular attributes is likely to influence consumer choice by clicking on the product below
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