Circular economy in practice: How can products be made more sustainable?

One of the core topics of REHAU's sustainability strategy is the circular economy. Can you briefly explain what that means exactly?

Nina Stolle: Put simply, the circular economy is a changed view of our environment. In the past, people spoke of a linear economy. This stood for the classic throwaway society – you buy a product, you use it and at the end of the product's life you disposed of it. Now people are becoming more aware that our world's resources are finite and we need to be mindful of how we use them. The key question of the circular economy is therefore: How can I keep products in circulation for as long as possible? I can do this by saving resources, recycling or reusing them, or by switching to more environmentally friendly materials. 

That sounds like a big task. How can you put this approach into practice?

Nina Stolle: Almost three years ago, I began to take a closer look at the topic of sustainability in my private life. During my research, I discovered how complex the topic is in all its facets. Do I prefer to buy the regional organic tomatoes in plastic wrap or unpackaged tomatoes from Southern Europe? What difference does it make whether I buy a T-shirt made of organic cotton or regular cotton? Many of these questions I could not answer for myself and therefore often ended up with a guilty conscience. This experience also got me thinking in my professional life: How can I, as a product manager, contribute to making our products more sustainable? For me, one of the most important points is to determine what the components of sustainability are. Once that is defined, products can be assessed and improved based on defined sustainability criteria. And that's how the Circular Scorecard came about.

What is the Circular Scorecard?

Nina Stolle: The Circular Scorecard is an evaluation matrix for colleagues from different areas, for example from product development, logistics or the plants. It is a criteria checklist that we can use to assess and adapt our products according to circular or sustainable aspects in this complex and often not black-and-white world. We provide a guide based on the following four main categories: The energy supply (Circular Energy Supply), the materials used (Circular Product), the manufacturing (Circular Production) and the general environment of the product (Circular Society). For each main category, subordinate criteria have been defined so that a product can be checked for improvement potential.

What basis was used for the criteria?

Nina Stolle: The internationally recognized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and the principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) were used as the basis for developing these categories and criteria. Thus, each criterion and category can be traced back to both specific GRIs and specific SDGs. This was very important to us, as we wanted to develop something that could connect to externally existing baselines.

This project certainly required expertise from different areas. How was the Circular Scorecard developed?

Nina Stolle: The Circular Scorecard was initiated during my time at REHAU New Ventures and developed together with our sustainability officer and a large number of experts from different areas at REHAU. Sustainability is thought of holistically at REHAU. Only when we work together in interdisciplinary teams do we manage to become more sustainable as a whole company. To achieve this, we not only work together across departments, but also often hand in hand with other subgroups, in this case with REHAU Automotive, REHAU New Ventures and Meraxis.

So how is a product made more sustainable with the help of the Circular Scorecard?

Nina Stolle: On the one hand, the Circular Scorecard can be used to evaluate existing products in terms of sustainability and to modify them in a targeted manner. On the other hand, it can also be used as a guide during product development. This is very important because up to 70 percent of the subsequent ecological footprint is already determined in the product design. So, if I determine that there is potential for improvement in the "Circular Product" category, for example, I can work specifically on the defined criteria. In this example, I could work on options for more environmentally friendly packaging or check whether recycled materials can be used for the product or whether their share can be increased, for instance.

Are there already examples of the use of the Circular Scorecard?

Nina Stolle: The Circular Scorecard is already being applied to the first pilot products. In our Furniture Solutions division, for example, we used the Circular Scorecard to evaluate our sustainable RAUKANTEX eco and RAUKANTEX evo edgebands. The active examination of various sustainability criteria led, among other things, to the targeted use of external recyclates, the use of specially certified raw materials, and the calculation of CO2 footprints with the support of experts from sustainability consulting.

Nina, thanks for the interesting insights!