(Special session) Current Status and Issues of Asian Resource Circulation from Business Aspects

[2K0201-04-02] Value network as a circular economy business

○Kotaro Shimizu¹ (1. Circular Economy Association/Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd.)

Chairperson: 村上　進亮(東京大学)

Keywords:Circular economy, Value network, Business model, Standardization

Three ISO documents on circular economy were published last year. A standard on vocabulary, principles, and guidance for the implementation of a circular economy (ISO 59004), a standard on guidance on the transition of business models and value networks(ISO 59010), and a standard on measuring and assessing circularity performance (ISO 59020) are opened to the public. These documents explain the fundamental items of a circular economy from the perspective of expected economic growth; however, they do not describe a structure and required processes to create a value network as an actual circular economy business. Existing studies have been deductively done from the concept of a circular economy (top-down approach); however, they have not focused on existing and expected business cases (bottom-up approach).
Circular Economy Association (CEA) has run case studies on expected value networks for industrial sectors. The interim results show new aspects of creating a value network as a circular economy business that existing studies have not considered. This study suggests the reason for differences in the business model structure and required actions in expected value networks as a circular economy business for each industrial sector. Understanding the differences in the structure and actions of the value networks contributes to creating the actual business implementation in a circular economy.