Author Petty Pumsleitner, B.A.
Submission Institute for Integrated Quality Design (IQD)
Thesis Supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erik G. Hansen
Assistant Thesis Supervisor STANDARDS FOR THE Ferdinand Revellio, M.Sc.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY November 2020
Master’s Thesis to confer the academic degree of
Master of Science in the Master’s Program
General Management
JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITY LINZ Altenberger Straße 69 4040 Linz, Austria jku.at DVR 0093696
STATUTORY DECLARATION
I hereby declare under oath that the submitted Master’s Thesis has been written solely by me without any third-party assistance (except for proofreading), information other than provided sources or aids have not been used and those used have been fully documented. Sources for literal, paraphrased and cited quotes have been accurately credited. If I have used the exact words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of someone else, I have enclosed that information in quotation marks. If I have paraphrased the opinions of someone else, I have not enclosed the paraphrase in quotation marks, but I have stated those opinions in my own words and put a reference at the end of it. I agree that the university uses the digital version of this work for an electronic plagiarism check using suitable software, and that for technical reasons my work may be stored in a database.
The submitted document here present is identical to the electronically submitted text document.
St. Peter in der Au, November 2020
______Petty Pumsleitner
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GENDER CLAUSE
In order to enhance the readability of this Master’s Thesis, the masculine form for descriptions and formulations was used. It certainly does not imply any discrimination against the other sex. Women and men should be regarded equal.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Due to the limits of the linear economy with the take-make-waste process, a transition towards Circular Economy is vital. Withal, standardization is one main important means to pave the way for Circular Economy. Standards comprise the latest and commonly agreed knowledge and specifications from technology, science and practical experience and do not just serve for quality control, environmental- and labour protection, they also regulate international trade and promote innovation and higher perception for stakeholders in almost all branches.
For this reason, the Master Thesis elaborates the fundamentals of Circular Economy on the one hand and fundamentals of standardization on the other hand and merges both topics to determine and comprehend standardization for the Circular Economy. Therefore, early and recent developments of Circular Economy are depicted, and different schools of thought are emphasized, such as Cradle-to-Cradle or the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Latter mentioned organization brought up the so-called Butterfly Diagram to constitute how technical and biological nutrients are allocated across the economic cycle, which indicates a closed-loop system to keep materials and products as long as possible in the value chain. Thus, reducing the usage of resources by extending the product life and utilization of materials. This will lead to entire new business models and processes within organizations, which can be supported with profound standards and comprehensive guidelines for a sustainable implementation of Circular Economy.
In order to find conclusive results and appropriate standards, a quantitative and qualitative research approach was chosen (scanning for standards in the internet, action research with unstructured interviews with DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung, ASI Austrian Standards International and QA Quality Austria), which leaded to a comprehensive understanding of the topic and brought up insights from latest projects and activities in the field of standardization for Circular Economy.
The research investigation for this Master Thesis led to findings that are sub-divided into a) quantitative depiction of standards mapped to the Ellen MacArthur Framework – the Butterfly Diagram, b) qualitative depiction of selected standards and guidelines (coverage of more than fifty percent of the categories of the Butterfly Diagram) and c) latest standardization initiatives for Circular Economy.
In conclusion, this Master Thesis provides valuable results to gain elementary knowledge about existing and future standards to lead the transition towards Circular Economy.
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Table of Contents
List of figures ...... VI List of tables ...... VII List of abbreviations ...... VIII 1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1. Research problem and relevance ...... 1 1.2. Research aim and questions ...... 2 1.3. Structure of the Thesis ...... 3 2. Standardization and the Circular Economy ...... 5 2.1. Fundamentals of Circular Economy ...... 5 2.1.1. Early development of Circular Economy ...... 5 2.1.2. From linear to circular loops ...... 6 2.1.3. Recent development of Circular Economy ...... 7 2.1.4. Implementation strategies ...... 9 2.2. Fundamentals of standardization ...... 13 2.2.1. Objectives and key benefits ...... 13 2.2.2. Types of deliverables ...... 15 2.2.3. Organizations for standardization ...... 17 2.2.4. Development process and conformity assessment ...... 21 2.3. Standardization of Circular Economy ...... 24 2.3.1. The European Approach ...... 24 2.3.2. Standardization efforts ...... 27 3. Conceptual framework ...... 33 4. Methodology ...... 35 4.1. Research design ...... 35 4.2. Research method ...... 36 4.2.1. Creation of reference model ...... 36 4.2.2. Data collection ...... 36 4.2.2.1. Quantitative data collection – scanning for standards ...... 36 4.2.2.2. Qualitative data collection – action research ...... 38 4.2.3. Data analysis ...... 41 4.2.4. Data interpretation ...... 43 5. Results ...... 44 5.1. Standards for the Circular Economy ...... 44 5.1.1. Overview of results ...... 44
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5.1.2. Level 1: Total sample ...... 45 5.1.3. Level 2: Selected sample – EMF categories ...... 46 5.1.3.1. EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework – Technical Cycle ...... 46 5.1.3.2. EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework – Biological Cycle ...... 50 5.1.3.3. Comparison with Perinorm and DIN Infopoint ...... 53 5.1.4. Level 3: Selected sample – Coverage of >50% of EMF categories ...... 55 5.2. Circular Economy Standards in Detail and Development Process ...... 56 5.2.1. BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the Circular Economy in organizations ...... 56 5.2.2. XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy – Circular economy project management system – Requirements and Guidelines ...... 58 5.2.3. ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy ...... 59 5.2.3.1. DIN: NA 172-00-14-01 AK ...... 62 5.2.3.2. ASI: Committee 157 Waste Management ...... 64 5.2.4. ISO/DIS 14009:2020 (E) Environmental management systems – Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ...... 64 5.2.5. ETSI TR 103 476:2018 Environmental Engineering (EE); Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics ...... 68 5.2.6. ISO Guide 84:2020 Guidelines for addressing climate change in standards .... 69 5.3. Development process and certification ...... 69 5.4. Standardization initiatives for Circular Economy ...... 70 5.4.1. European Green Deal ...... 70 5.4.2. SABE ...... 72 5.4.3. HARMONI ...... 72 5.4.4. ConCirMy ...... 73 6. Discussion and conclusion ...... 74 6.1. Standards for the Circular Economy ...... 74 6.2. Standards relation to the Ellen MacArthur Framework ...... 75 6.3. Practical implication ...... 78 6.4. Limitations ...... 79 7. Future research ...... 81 References ...... 82 Appendix ...... 94
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List of figures
Figure 1: The "take-make-waste" process of linear economy ...... 5 Figure 2: The self-replenishing system (product-life extension) ...... 6 Figure 3: Linear and circular approaches ...... 6 Figure 4: The Butterfly diagram of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation ...... 11 Figure 5: ISO Standard development process ...... 22 Figure 6: Standardization requirements on EU standards for material efficiency of energy-related products ...... 26 Figure 7: Research design ...... 35 Figure 8: Data analysis - conditions for selection of relevant standards for Master Thesis ...... 42 Figure 9: Findings: Number of findings according to selection criteria visualized with a pyramid 44 Figure 10: Findings: Treemap of allocation of total sample per organization ...... 45 Figure 11: Findings: All standards mapped to EMF Technical Cycle ...... 47 Figure 12: Findings: All standards mapped to EMF Biological Cycle ...... 51 Figure 13: Findings: Ratio of hits from internet (Master Thesis sample) compared to hits from professional standards software ...... 54 Figure 15: BS 8001: excerpt of general information from DIN Infopoint ...... 57 Figure 16: XP X30-901 Circular Economy table of contents ...... 58 Figure 17: XP X30-901: excerpt of general information from DIN Infopoint ...... 59 Figure 18: Benefits of ISO/TC 323 ...... 60 Figure 19: NA 172-00-14-01 AK "Circular Economy" - Mirror Committee of DIN for ISO/TC 323 ...... 63 Figure 20: Participants of ASI Committee 157 ...... 64 Figure 21: ISO/DIS 14009 Table of Contents ...... 65 Figure 22: ISO/DIS 14009 Process to achieve a circular ready design ...... 67
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List of tables
Table 1: Contribution of standards to growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) ...... 14 Table 2: Types and scope of deliverables (overview) ...... 16 Table 3: National institutions for standards (excerpt of ISO members) ...... 18 Table 4: Circular Economy Action Plan 2015 (excerpt) ...... 25 Table 5: Meta-analysis of Circular Economy standards – standardization specifics ...... 33 Table 6: Meta-analysis of Circular Economy standards – Butterfly Diagram categories ...... 34 Table 7: Research Method: Scanning – Search Strings ...... 37 Table 8: Action Research - table of phone calls/ interviews ...... 40 Table 9: Action Research - table of mails ...... 40 Table 10: Data analysis - evaluation system ...... 41 Table 11: Data analysis – Matrix ...... 41 Table 12: Findings Technical Cycle: mining/ materials manufacturing ...... 47 Table 13: Findings Technical Cycle: Maintenance/ repair ...... 48 Table 14: Findings Technical Cycle: Reuse/ redistribute ...... 48 Table 15: Findings Technical Cycle: Refurbish/ remanufacture ...... 49 Table 16: Findings Technical Cycle: Recycle ...... 50 Table 17: Findings Biological Cycle: Extraction of biochemical feedstock ...... 51 Table 18: Findings Biological Cycle: Anaerobic digestion/ composting ...... 52 Table 19: Findings Biological Cycle: Biogas ...... 52 Table 20: Findings Biological Cycle: Restoration ...... 52 Table 21: Findings: Biological Cycle: Farming/ collection ...... 53 Table 22: Findings Biological Cycle: Biochemical feedstock ...... 53 Table 23: Level 3: Selected sample – Coverage of >50% of EMF categories ...... 55 Table 24: Proposed structure of ISO/TC 323 ...... 61 Table 25: ISO/TC 323 working groups ...... 62 Table 26: sub-projects of ISO/TC 323 ...... 63 Table 27: Green Deal headings for standardization support ...... 71
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List of abbreviations
ACEA Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation ANSI American Standards Institute ASI Austrian Standards International – Innovation and Standardization ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials BSI British Standards Institution CE Circular Economy CEN European Committee for Standardization CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization C2C Crade-to-Cradle DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework (also known as Butterfly Diagram) ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute EU European Union GDP Gross Domestic Product GRS Global Recycling Standard IEC International Electrotechnical Commission IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ISO International Standardization Organization ISO/TC International Standardization Organization/Technical Committee ISO/TR International Standardization Organization/Technical Report ISO/TS International Standardization Organization/Technical Specification ITU International Telecommunication NAGUS DIN-Normenausschuss Grundlagen des Umweltschutzes NGO Non-Governmental Organization ÖNORM Österreichische Norm QA Quality Austria RCS Recycled Claim Standard RLES Resource Life-Extending Strategies SAC Standardization Administration of China SDG Sustainable Development Goal UN United Nations VDI Verein Deutscher Ingenieure e.V. WKO Wirtschaftskammer Österreich WTO World Trade Organization
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1. Introduction
1.1. Research problem and relevance
The European commission requests the development of a more restorative economic system due to the limits of linear consumption1. Based on case studies from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, it is shown that there is a potential that manufacturers profit from the integration of Circular Economy. Already with few improvements of resource productivity, benefits are visible in economic, social and environmental areas. However, the Circular Economy goes far beyond increasing the resource productivity. Thus, there is an increasing interest in Circular Economy and the need for a development of circular product design and business models that are innovative, to achieve the transition from the linear economy towards the Circular Economy.2
With changing markets, there is an additional high need in fast transformation through eliminating waste among the entire value chain to gain more efficiency. Withal, the integration of Circular Economy indicates operational and strategic benefits, such as cost savings on material, energy or labour and/or resource independence and decreased supply risk and/or reduction of external risks. Furthermore, the Circular Economy plays a major role for innovation and growth and therefor predicts competitive advantage.3 An important aspect to reach the transition towards circularity is to establish standards for consumers and producers, but most of all for producers, which already starts in the design phase. A study carried out in 2017 already emphasizes that missing standards slow down the progress towards circularity in regard of durability, reusability, repair-ability or upgradeability as well as in recycling. The authors Tecchio at al. emphasize, that standards would facilitate the shift towards usage of sustainable resources in the early stage of product design in a structured way.4
The problem evolves, that various standards are existing to promote Circular Economy, or at least environmental aspects. Nevertheless, there are still some standards missing to cover the full spectrum of the Circular Economy. Withal, it is not clear, which standards are valid for which aspect of the Circular Economy, specifically which part of the Ellen MacArthur Framework. Thus, subsequently leads to an information gap, a) about valid standards for the integration of Circular Economy into the production and administrative processes, b) for consumers to profit from standardized information and c) to serve for science.
1 See (European Commission 2010b) 2 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 2 3 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), pp. 64-68 4 See (Tecchio et al. 2017), p. 1544
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According to a study carried out by DIN, there are numerous economic benefits of standardization in general. One major benefit is the contribution to economic growth. The authors Blind et al. declare that knowledge, created by research and development activities, is useless if not disseminated into the markets, accessible for companies. Thus, standards that comprise this technical knowledge, support companies in making use of it for standardized production.5 Further benefits of standardization, that also show an economic benefit, are specifications for workplace safety that lead to less accidents in production areas and therefore lower sick leaves. Also, environmental specifications support companies in lowering their environmental costs, even receiving public funding for standardized procedures.6 Based on a case study of ISO International Standardization Organization to quantify the economic benefits of standards, it is also shown that standards generate benefits in international operations, innovation and - as stated above – the creation or entering of new markets.7
The latest report from ACEA the Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects also relates to lower or even prevention of technical barriers through standards for businesses as a benefit. The authors of this report Blaskowski and Giegerich refer about Circular Economy and material efficiency and show an influence on standards which reinforces the need of this Master Thesis.8
1.2. Research aim and questions
The primary research objective is to develop a generic, solid and sufficient meta-analysis, displaying the contemporary standards (norms) that encourage standardization, management, controlling and facilitation9 of the Circular Economy.
This meta-analysis will be, above all, a support for organizations to find out which standard is most appropriate to support the implementation of Circular Economy into their business model. The meta-analysis will also have an impact for research, to figure out which aspects need further research, more focus and which fields have the necessity for policies to promote new standards.
For the research it is necessary to distinguish between generic environmental standards (e.g. ISO 14001) and standards explicitly being developed for the Circular Economy aspect. Latter mentioned is the focus of this thesis: standards for the Circular Economy aspect of products and materials. For the international geopolitical scope ISO International Standardization Organization
5 See (Blind, Mangelsdorf, and Jungmittag 2012), p. 4 6 See (Blind et al. 2012), p. 19 7 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2014). Economic Benefits of Standards, p. 9 8 See (Blaszkowski, Solange; Giegerich 2020), p. 19 9 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2015), p. 3
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is considered. For the national geopolitical scope and within the German speaking countries ASI y and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung is considered for qualitative analysis.
The research also focuses on standards that are developed for products, processes and services as well as guidelines developed for organizations to support the implementation of a standard. Furthermore, the research should discover, in which publication status a standard currently is, e.g. if a certain standard is a draft or already released.
To complete the research about standards within the Circular Economy, the process of the standard development will be reviewed. This review will answer the question if there is a difference within the process compared to the general process as defined by ISO for example or if different actors are involved. That gives an additional value-adding insight for the complexity of standardization of Circular Economy.
The main research question is as followed: What are the main existing and future standards directly regulating the concept of Circular Economy?
Following sub-questions for the research evolve:
• How are the standards related to the technical- and biological cycle of the Ellen MacArthur Framework – the ‘Butterfly Diagram’? • Which implementation guidelines exist for Circular Economy standards? • How does the development process of a standard (related to Circular Economy) look like? Who are the actors and which institutions are involved?
1.3. Structure of the Thesis
The Master Thesis consists of three main sections: the theoretical foundation, the explanation of the research method and the presentation of the results. Different chapters and sub-chapters are structured according to a logical path that enables the reader to understand the results and the final discussion.
The first chapter introduces the emerging and fast-growing topic of Circular Economy and focuses on the need for more standardization to sustainably implement Circular Economy into markets and businesses. This leads to the research gap and subsequently the research question and sub- questions, which is the fundamental requirement for this research project.
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Chapter two comprises the theoretical foundation. The chapter is divided on the one hand into the fundamentals of Circular Economy and on the other hand into the fundamentals of standardization. The essence of both separated sub-chapters build on conclusion in the third sub-chapter to better understand the need for this research project. It also gives an outlook for supposed results.
Chapter three describes the conceptual framework for this Master Thesis.
Chapter four defines the methodology for the research project. The sub-chapter of research design gives an overview about the general research approach and frames the research work. The sub- chapter research method gives detailed information and explanation about the utilized methods. As this Master Thesis utilizes different methods (mixed approach) it is necessary to structure them into different sub-chapters. Overall, the research method informs about the creation of the reference model (basis for data analysis), the data collection as well as the data analysis and interpretation.
Chapter five presents the results within three sub-chapters. The first is an overview of the product from the data analysis given by graphics about the most relevant outcome. The second provides an insight of various Circular Economy projects in terms of standardization, which can be seen as a spin-off product from the research investigation. The third sub-chapter depicts in-depth information about selected standards and the development process of Circular Economy standards to complete the answers of the research questions.
Chapter six summarizes the research project and discusses the results by means of comparing the theoretical foundation with the findings.
Chapter seven and eight outlines the limitations of this Master Thesis and suggestions for future research.
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2. Standardization and the Circular Economy
2.1. Fundamentals of Circular Economy
2.1.1. Early development of Circular Economy
Based on Andersen, Circular Economy is an economic system, where resources and waste from an open loop system are transferred into a closed loop system: a circular system.10 With this circularity, resource efficiency should be increased as well as a more balanced relationship between economy, society and environment should be reached.11 Introduced by Pearce and Turner in 1990, Circular Economy banished the open-loop system and opened a completely new approach of understanding the earth as a closed economic system of material flows.12 Thus, Circular Economy replaces the linear process of “take-make-waste”, respectively from resource extraction to production, to distribution, to use and finally to disposal.
Resource Production Distribution Consumption Dispose extraction
take make waste
Figure 1: The "take-make-waste" process of linear economy13
The roots of the Circular Economy are basically described by Walter R. Stahel already in 1980ies named as self-replenishing system and product-life extension as shown in the figure below. The scientist summarizes the overall goal of Circular Economy as the long-term protection of future resources, creation of regional jobs on all skill levels and minimization of environmental deterioration and energy flows. The mechanism consists of four loops: reuse, repair, reconditioning and recycling. Based on Stahel’s assumption, the maximum resource efficiency can be achieved by keeping the loop as small as possible and preferably locally to reduce transport costs, thus reuse the material or product as often as possible (no repair if not broken), no remanufacturing if product can be repaired and no recycling when remanufacturing is possible.14
10 See (Andersen 2007), p. 134 11 See (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016), p. 1 12 See (Su et al. 2013), p. 215 13 Own figure based on (Andersen 2007), p. 134 14 See (Stahel 1984), pp. 73; (Stahel 2010), pp. 179
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Figure 2: The self-replenishing system (product-life extension)15
2.1.2. From linear to circular loops
When it comes to circular business models and the shift from linear to circular loops - as already mentioned above - academia talks about slowing, closing and narrowing the loops. Generally speaking, how the resources flow through the systems. The following figure is a concise illustration of linear and circular approaches to show the reduction of resources-usage.
Figure 3: Linear and circular approaches16
The slowdown of resource flows can be achieved by new product designs, desired to extent the product-life and utilization of the product, through repair i.a. One means to reach product extensions is also seen in standardization and compatibility, as parts of the product can more easily fit to other products. When using less resources to produce the product, then the loops get narrowed. When closing the loop through recycling processes, the circularity is given. The authors
15 (Stahel 1984), p.74 16 (Bocken et al. 2016), p. 309
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also describe this as closing the gap between the post-use and the production. The latter mentioned three approaches are fundamental strategy towards a Circular Economy.17
Latest researches already deal with the implementation of new Circular Economy business models, which also reveals the challenge, that the reduce- and recycle loop is much easier to implement, but when it comes to fully implement reuse- and upcycling loops it seems to be almost impossible so far.18
2.1.3. Recent development of Circular Economy
According to Stahel’s fundamentals for a sustainable future, the future business model should be to sell goods as services. This enables the economic actors to keep the ownership of their goods and the resources that belong to it. The second fundamental must be sustainable politics with simple solutions, such as taxing non-renewable resources.19 Stahel and Andersen clearly point out the difference between linear and Circular Economy by saying that Circular Economy simply does not have a start and an end, thus it is open-ended. An optimization of the system can just be realized within the loop, such us optimizing stock management, as well as quality and performance of materials.20
According to Pitt and Heinemeyer Circular Economy goes beyond the classical sustainability approach, because it is not just doing less harm to the environment but also providing concepts to change economies and societies. The authors depict shift from “just” changing customer behaviour and their values and attitudes towards a re-engineering and re-design of economics and systems in production and consumption. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is mentioned as one of the schools that provides learning materials to start re-thinking from the bottom of education directly in the classroom. Pitt and Heinemeyer describe the opposite of Circular Economy – the linear economy – as a “take-make-dump”21, which on their point of view is still the valid mechanism of the economic. This mechanism irrevocable ends in landfill of the earth, withal it is not an infinite system and cannot work for the future generations.22 Similar to the findings of Sariatli, who depicts the current economy on an excessive level of waste output through the intensive resource exploitation, which results in the limits of the linear economy. Contrarily, the pressure on profit exceeds because of the increase of resource scarcity. The author puts the meaning of Circular Economy into simple words: a “system that keeps the added value of a product as much as
17 See (Bocken et al. 2016), pp. 308; (Stahel 2010) 18 See (Kopnina 2019), p. 618 19 See (Stahel 2010), pp. 179 20 See (Andersen 2007), p. 134; (Stahel 2010), pp. 174 21 (Pitt and Heinemeyer 2015), p. 246 22 See (Pitt and Heinemeyer 2015), pp. 245
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possible and eliminates the waste”23. With a SWOT analysis (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), Sariatli also found threats in the Circular Economy, such as increasing prices of products. Due to the full control of lifecycles, companies are able to cross-subsidize activities. This lifecycle-control could also result in the emergence of cartels. The author also found various weaknesses of Circular Economy in the current state (2017), i.a. insufficient financial support for the economy to implement new circular mechanisms as well as missing specifications and guidelines for structured implementation, which underlines the need of this thesis and further research.24
Another definition of Circular Economy is pointed out by Geissdoerfer et al. in 2017, where material and energy loops need to be slowed down, closed and narrowed. The solution is summarized by installing long-lasting designs and reuse, repair, maintain, remanufacture, refurbish and recycle, which is already mentioned by Stahel in 1984. Another finding of the paper is, that Circular Economy turns out as a condition for sustainability. Withal, the authors point out that Europe is the root of Circular Economy with increasing interest, but Chinese academia were the first to explore the topics due to new ways of the country to handle this topic, i.a. through implementing regulatory environmental controls.25 Andersen also draws attention to the promotion of Circular Economy in Asia and its roots in the industrial ecology, same as Homrich et al. who found Circular Economy trends in ecoparks and industrial symbiosis.26
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Circular Economy model provides a functional service system for manufacturers and retailers. The aim is to keep the ownership of their product materials as long as possible. Withal, the change towards being also a service provider and not just the manufacturer or seller is forced. This is a mandatory shift in business models and the traditional way of thinking to foster development for a Circular Economy.27
The latest version of the ISO/DIS 14009:2020 defines Circular Economy as followed:
“Systematic approach to the design of business models, enabling the sustainable management of resources in products”.28
23 (Sariatli 2017), p. 31 24 See (Sariatli 2017), p. 31-34 25 See (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017), pp. 766 26 See (Andersen 2007), p. 133; (Homrich et al. 2018), p. 525 27 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 22 28 (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 3
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2.1.4. Implementation strategies
Based on Pomponi & Moncaster (2017), there are different schools of thought that are framing the Circular Economy into economic, environmental, technological or societal dimensions.29 The authors Blomsma and Brennan (2017) state that Circular Economy can be displayed as an umbrella concept. The authors examined different frameworks that contain aspects of circularity. These frameworks provide different views and interpretations on the topic of waste and resources with a common focus on extending the resource life based on the linear economy. Thus, the umbrella concept of Circular Economy includes different strategies, such as reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, maintenance, repair, waste-to-energy, product longevity approaches as well as cascading of substances. All latter mentioned aspects are summarized as resource life-extending strategies (RLESs) by the authors showing that Circular Economy should be referred to with more than one strategy.30 Homrich et al. also depicts cradle-to-cradle, industrial ecology, biomimicry and the Ellen MacArthur Framework as conceptual umbrellas for Circular Economy.31
Braungart et al. (2007) introduced cradle-to-cradle (C2C) as a holistic approach for eco-efficient product and process design. Cradle-to-cradle design aims to turn the used material for production and processing back into nutrients.32 Thus, C2C strives for innovative designs in the field of economy, environment and society. Additionally, products and services should be radically innovated.33
Braungart et al. divides the nutrients into biological and technical metabolism. The biological nutrients are materials that are biodegradable and can be returned back to the earth without any hazard for the natural system nor humans. It requires specific process steps and techniques from the earliest beginning of the product formation, starting with the resource extraction and further manufacturing as well as the customer use, return and final reverse transformation of the materials from the product. The authors describe these products as products for consumption, like textiles or shoe soles, which could be used as garden mulch after the reverse transformation into biological nutrients. The technical nutrients are described as products that give a service to the customer, such as a washing machine or a television. The idea behind is that the product material has more
29 See (Pomponi and Moncaster 2017), p. 710-715 30 See (Blomsma and Brennan 2017), p. 604-606 31 See (Homrich et al. 2018), pp. 525 32 See (Braungart, McDonough, and Bollinger 2007), p. 1343 33 See (Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute 2016), p. 2
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than one product life cycle and stays within a closed-loop system. The product preferably belongs to the manufacturing company and would be leased to the customer.34
According to the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, the awareness about the reduction of the environmental harms should be to become “more good” and not just “less bad”, which underlines the need for innovation and re-engineering of today’s business.35 The roadmap of the institute for C2C design comprises short-, mid-term and long-term goals. The short-term goal is, to identify all materials of a product and which ecological impact it has. The mid-term goal is to increase ecological and economic effectiveness and efficiency for product and service designs. The long-term goal is a healthy and safe environment. The C2C institute defined three principles that support the roadmap in achieving the goals: first, the elimination of the concept of waste (waste per definition is not existing, as all materials should be nutrients needed for different purposes); second, to fully use renewable energy; third, to strive for technological- and biodiversity.36 Contrary to cradle-to-cradle is also described as cradle-to-grave, which depicts the open-loop mechanism. The authors McDonough and Braungart further specify cradle-to-cradle as a holistic system, for instance when beginning to design and create a building. Withal, positive effects can just be achieved when systems and even communities start to rethink; in other words, changing the production, supply chains or manufacturing processes will not lead to sustainable cradle-to-cradle effects – the authors even use the words “ecological intelligence”. Thus, cradle- to-cradle is the epitome of valuable synthetics, high-tech synthetics and mineral resources that are part of a closed-loop mechanism of production, recovery and reuse.37
Upon all, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is the first that conceptualized the way from a linear towards a Circular Economy and withal, played a major role for industries with their Butterfly Diagram.38 It is also designated as the main cited reference for Circular Economy definitions.39 The former British sailor Ellen MacArthur defines the Circular Economy as:
“An economy that is restorative and regenerative by design.”40
34 See (Braungart et al. 2007), p. 1343 35 See (Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute 2016), p. 2 36 See (Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute 2016), p. 3-4 37 See (McDonough and Braungart 2003), pp. 14 38 See (Lewandowski 2016), p. 5-19 39 See (Homrich et al. 2018), pp. 525 40 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2020)
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The EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework displays biological (green) and technical (blue) nutrients and how they are allocated across the economic systems cycle. Both, biological and technical nutrients with the products and components that are based on them, include certain characteristics in each case. These circles are based on the cradle-to-cradle design as described earlier. The core principle is to achieve a restorative Circular Economy. This will primarily be achieved by shifting the material structure of consumables from the blue side towards the green side. As biological nutrients also have an environmental impact, other products - besides the material of consumables - should still circulate within the blue area.41
Figure 4: The Butterfly diagram of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation42
The technical aspects include following main terms, defined and emphasized by the Ellen MacArthur foundation, which expand the classical point of view of “just” recycle the products:
§ Reuse of goods: The repetitive usage of a product. The condition for the reuse is maximum a little change. One good practice example is to use the same water in different processes, such as processing technology and as a cooler.
41 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), pp. 24 42 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 24
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§ Refurbishment of a product: Bring the product to “life” again with repairing or replacing the main components. § Remanufacturing of components: To remove good parts/ components from a broken product, which cannot be used anymore. These removed products can be built into other products to refurbish them. § Cascading of components and materials: Using parts of broken products for a completely different purpose, after their end-of-life. § Down- & Upcycling: Materials of a product are converted into lesser or higher quality.
The biological aspects on the other side include: § Extraction of biochemicals: Generating electricity from biomass through biomass conversion processes. § Composting: microorganisms break down the organic material into compost (soil) § Anaerobic digestion: Production of biogas/ energy through an oxygen-free process with microorganisms on waste.
Both cycles – biological and technical – are entering the energy recovery and landfilling: § Recovery of energy: Using waste-to-energy processes (combustion or gasification) to generate useable heat. § Landfilling: Waste is properly disposed onto or into suitable land.43
Booth cycles representing a closed-loop value chain as a holistic frame, in the absence of product diversity and specificity. When it comes to a certain product, the circularity with remanufacturing or downcycling, can differ when considering another product. It may happen that two products, using two different circular models, gain the same outcome (heat, energy). The Ellen MacArthur foundation distinguishes four circular models as a source of value creation. One is the so-called inner circle. The inner circle represents for example the maintenance or repair of a product and therefor saves cost of material, energy or labour. Another model is the extended version of the inner circle as mentioned before. That model includes a certain product design with the purpose of enabling the product to be vital for even more inner cycles as usual products or designing the product in a way that it can resist even longer in one cycle. A third model reflects the process of cascading of components and materials, as mentioned above. The goal is to interconnect industries for reusing removed components from products from a different industry. The fourth model represents a value creation source, which emphasizes the usage of non-toxic and easy-to- separate inputs to enrich the value creation for the first three models.44
43 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 25 44 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 33-35
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2.2. Fundamentals of standardization
2.2.1. Objectives and key benefits
According to ISO, a standard is a
“document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context. (…) standards should be based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience, and aimed at the promotion of optimum community benefits”45.
A standard is a qualified recommendation to do something, a specification and no law.46 Standards basically are voluntary. If a government prescribes a standard as mandatory the status changes from voluntary into binding and the standard becomes a legal requirement.47 Furthermore, a standard is created according to an international accepted procedure, which is based on common results from science, technology and operations with specifications. It aims to achieve a high value for all parties that are using it consistently as a guide or rule. Withal, a standard is accepted by a standardization organization for repetitive use.48 Previous definitions and explanations of a standard are also standardized by the standard DIN EN 45020.
Standardization serves for innovation, safety, understanding in economy, science and administration as well as public relations, additionally for quality control, environmental protection, consumerism and labour protection.49 Standards also facilitate for spreading technical knowledge into the market. Further qualitative benefits are increasing numbers of safety and health issues, which also lead to a monetary benefit through the reduction of absenteeism.50
Standards provide specifications needed to deliver high quality products, services, systems as well as ensuring quality, efficiency and safety. From another perspective, standards regulate the international trade in various branches. They are beneficial for both, the manufacturer or service provider and the consumer. On one hand it provides information and data how to be best in class with processes, such as measures and weights and material; on the other hand, it guarantees reliable products and services for the consumer. A third-party profiting are governments, as
45 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004), p. 12 46 See (Ellmer 2014), p. 4 47 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2019a) 48 See (Ellmer 2014), pp. 4 49 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2015), p. 3 50 See (Blind et al. 2012), p. 4
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standards support the development of regulations. Standards promote growth and new markets, efficiency, fair trade, social responsibility, environmental protection and sustainability and safety etc. Fields of application are seen in almost every part of life, such as: Healthcare, New technologies, Food, Communication services, Logistics, Water quality, Emissions, etc.51
Unless the primary and overall qualitative goals of standards as summarized above, the economic benefit is not to be underestimated. Previous studies from DIN already calculated that 1% of the gross domestic product of Germany was reached throughout standards and technical guidelines, which has been about 15,8 billion Euros in 1998. This was even slightly higher compared to the updated study from 2012, in which a value of 0,7% to 0,8% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Germany was calculated. The following graphic shows the growth rate of the gross domestic product of five different countries according to their national studies and the respective contribution of standards. It also shows, that Germany has the highest contribution of standards to the GDP.
Table 1: Contribution of standards to growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP)52
The Authors Blind et al. from their study about the economic benefits of standardization, emphasize, that a positive effect on economic growth reaches its maximum, if the generated knowledge is diffusing the entire markets as fast as possible, which can be proven through the (increasing) number of standards in Germany. Means that as higher the number of standards (licences, patents as well as national or international generated knowledge) as higher the impact on economic growth or increase of monetary value – proven by the empirical results of the study. The authors also found out a positive impact of standards on productivity by improved processes and knowledge – in other words, the products get cheaper.53 The authors are scientists at the Technische Universität Berlin and Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and independent to
51 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020j) 52 (Blind et al. 2012), p. 6 53 See (Blind et al. 2012), pp. 4
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DIN. Nevertheless, the study was carried out and financed by DIN and does not contain any critical voices.
Key benefits of standards are shown in a case study of ISO from 2014 that also quantifies the micro economic benefits of standards. The empirical study is based on a scientific approach, developed for ISO as a specific method, the “ISO Methodology“54. The methodology consists of four steps to evaluate the impact of standards in companies. It starts with the evaluation of the value chain of the company and its key functions. The second is the identification of the impacts of standards. Therefore, internal experts give information on which standards are applied to which activities in the respective business unit. Within the third step, the key drivers for the company’s competitive advantage are analysed in regards of their relation to a standard together with the respective operational indicators. The calculation of the results forms the final step of the method. This method is also utilized by more than twenty countries to quantify the benefit of standards. The key benefits of the ISO study from 2014 are:
§ Reduction of operational lead time (e.g. reduced time for specific process steps, less waste and costs for procurement, decreased productivity costs), § Driver for innovations by utilizing standards, § Expansion of operations (new product lines, lower risk of new product release), § To enter or create new markets (new products through innovation i.a,).55
2.2.2. Types of deliverables
There are different types of standards that provide specifications for different application areas. Thus, they can be distinguished into a product/ service or process relation or system and management relation. A product, service or process standard comprises requirements that need to be fulfilled to qualify for a certain purpose by the specific product or product group, the service or the process itself. Further standards are terminology standards, testing standards, interface standards, standards on data to be provided. 56 As more specific a standard is, as more specific is the type of standard, such as an interface standard, a design or processing standard.57
Moreover, system and management related standards gain the interest of companies. One common and world-wide accepted standard is the ISO 9000 family for quality management because it can be applied to any organization whether it is small or large and independent of the field of activity. This management standard comprises i.a. customer focus, leadership and
54 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2014), p. 3 55 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2014), pp. 4 56 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004), p. 6-26 57 See (Ellmer 2014), p. 5
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improvement aspects with descriptions, explanations, key benefits and even actions to achieve a better performance when applying those principles.58 Derived from the quality management principles of ISO 9000, the ISO 9001 represents the requirements for quality management systems, which is already certified in more than 17059 countries.
Type of standard type of publication Scope of standard basic TS Technical Specification regional terminology TR Technical Report national product Guides european service Workshop Agreements international process system/ management testing Table 2: Types and scope of deliverables (overview)60
Besides the classical standards, ISO and CEN also distinguish different types of publications: Technical Specifications (ISO/TS), Technical Reports (ISO/TR) or ISO Guides i.a. A technical specification is subject to further development of its context but can already be used by the companies. This specification can be turned into an international standard when agreed by international stakeholder. The technical report comprises additional data from scientific researches or surveys and serves as an informative report with most up to date content. A guide instead delivers further explanations (how to’s and why), advices and support for the readers in the specific field of application and were this respective standard adds value to.61 A general distinction is made between horizontal and vertical standards. According to ANSI, the American standards institute, horizontal standards comprise management standards and guidelines, vertical standards comprise specific standards related to a material, a product or a process.62
Additional differentiation is done for the level of standardization, from regional to national, to European or international scope.63 On a national level, Austrian Standards distinguishes the ONR (ON-Regel) and ÖNORM. Latter mentioned is the classical national accepted standard, which are mainly based on European standards ÖNORM EN (90%) and International standards ÖNORM ISO or ÖNORM EN ISO (30%). The ONR is the predecessor of a possible ÖNORM and provides a fast solution of a current problem.64 In Germany DIN also provides either standards (DIN Norm)
58 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2015) 59 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020n) 60 Own table 61 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020o); (CEN European Committee for Standardization 2020b) 62 See (ANSI American National Standards Institute 2017) 63 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004), p. 6-26 64 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020e)
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or specification (DIN SPEC), which is similar to the ONR and provides the market for new products and solutions and plays the role as the preparatory stage for a national conformity as a standard.65
2.2.3. Organizations for standardization
Standardization is forced by numerous national and international institutions and organizations in various fields of application. The main international established organization for standardization is ISO the International Organization for Standardization, which is non-governmental and collaborates with 164 national bodies and published around 22500 international standards so far.66
As an international organization, ISO bundles knowledge to create international standards for existing and developing markets. The experts are coming from the industry or technical and business branches – supported by laboratories, academia or consumer organizations – that required standards and implement them into their companies. The headquarter of ISO is located and coordinated centrally in Geneva Switzerland.67 ISO also collaborates with the United Nations and its agencies as well as with the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) or International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and therefor represents opinions and expertise from various fields of application.68 Although the spectrum of stakeholders might give the impression of independency of the organization there are also critical voices emphasizing the ISO institution either as a traditional international organization (IO) or classical non-governmental organization (NGO). As ISO exists of their numerous members, who act as key drivers for the standards, academia agrees on a terminology for an organization, which is hybrid due to its transnationality and internationality as well as a private standard-setting organization.69
To ensure independency and the full knowledge of experts, ISO builds a transparent network for collaboration. The network is divided into seven distinct committees, top-down from the council to the technical committee: § General assembly, § Council, § Council standing committees, § President’s committee, § Policy development committees,
65 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020l) 66 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020j) 67 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019a), pp. 4 68 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018b), p. 6 69 See (OECD 2014), pp. 17; (OECD 2016); (OECD/ISO 2016), p. 9
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§ Technical management board and § Technical committees.
The committee members itself are differentiated from full members (contribution and voting, e.g. national stakeholders), correspondent members (observers for committees, e.g. international or regional organizations) to subscriber members (no participation in technical work).70
From the operational perspective, ISO developed 22.467 international standards in total by the end of 2018 and generated 1.690 registered projects so far. Based on the current figures from ISO, the technical sectors with the highest number of total published deliverables (international standards and all the other document types like technical reports, specifications etc.) are Information technology, graphics and photography (21,8%), followed by Mechanical engineering (15,3%) and Transport (12,4%). The technical sector Sustainability and environment only reaches a percentage of 3,3% and also has a low percentage of 3,7% in new registered programmes and active work items in 2018.71 The figures show an active and continuous development of standards and therefor a steadily increasing standardization in various technical sectors worldwide.
The countries with the highest participation number in different technical committees of ISO are shown in the table below. An excerpt for Europe it is the United Kingdom (BSI), France (AFNOR) and Germany (DIN). For Asia it is China (SAC), Republic of Korea (KATS) and Japan (JISC). For America it is the United States (ANSI), Argentina (IRAM) and Canada (SCC). Austria (ASI) is on level twenty-first after Switzerland and Belgium for technical participation in international standards.72
Country Acronym Institution United Kingdom BSI British Standards Institution France AFNOR Association francaise de normalisation Germany DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. China SAC Standardization Administration of China Korea, Republic of KATS Korean Agency for Technology and Standards Japan JISC Japanese Industrial Standards Committee Italy UNI Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione Czech Republic UNMZ Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing Romania ASRO Asociatia de Standardizare din Romania Austria ASI Austrian Standards International - Standardization and Innovation Table 3: National institutions for standards (excerpt of ISO members)73
70 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018b), pp. 10-16 71 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019b), pp. 1 72 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020m); (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019b), p. 8 73 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020m). ISO Members
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According to the figures from 2018, the ISO member Germany (DIN) is one of the countries with the highest number of active secretariats at the Technical Committee level (135), followed by the United States (ANSI, 105), United Kingdom (BSI, 78) and China (SAC, 77). Austria (ASI) participates with five active secretariats at Technical Committee Level.74
CEN European Committee for Standardization serves as holding for the 34 national standardization organizations from Europe. Similar to CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute it is a recognized organization by the European Union to define voluntary standards at a European level. The European Committee for Standardization CEN is hierarchically seen between ISO from the international perspective and national organizations like ASI, DIN or AFNOR.75
DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung, as one of the national institutions for standardization, is a private non-profit organization with around 34.500 external experts for technical expertise and 480 employees for the administration of standards and standardization projects. DIN coordinates national, European and international projects and ensures that all regulations are met to achieve the high international acceptance and contribution as partly mentioned above. On a national basis DIN fosters to spread new knowledge and developments to motivate the companies for application, thus benefit of technical expertise to continuously improve products and services and serving their customers. Withal, DIN fosters safety and innovation and the opening of future markets. On an international basis, DIN tries to establish the national standards towards an international level.76 Although the study of Blind, Jungmittag and Mangelsdorf about the economic benefits of standards, shows that around 80% of the standards that are published in Germany are based on standards from European or international material.77 DIN was founded in 1917 and inherits a public-private-partnership with the federal republic of Germany, contracted in 1975 and declared as the only national organization for standardization, unlimited and until further notice.78
Within DIN, the committee NAGLN DIN-Normungsausschuss Grundlagen der Normungsarbeit is responsible for the principles of standardization process. It consists of two sub-committees: the first is for standardization principles. The chairman is Dr. Burkhard Raith (thyssenkrupp AG), the
74 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019b), p. 8 75 See (CEN European Committee for Standardization 2020a); (CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization 2020); (ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute 2020) 76 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2019a), pp. 2 77 See (Blind et al. 2012), p. 5 78 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 1975), pp. 37
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deputy chairman Prof. Dr. Manfred Hennecke (BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und - prüfung). The second sub-committee is for creation of standards, with the chairmen Frank Jürgens (MAN Truck & Bus AG) and Dr. Bernhard Angermaier (AUDI AG) and deputy chairman Dr. Burkhard Raith (thyssenkrupp AG).79 In total the committee NAGLN consists of members from the economy (56%), work safety (7%), users (4%), science and research (4%) and 30% of the members are not named.80
DIN is financed through own income by 63,2%, by economy with 18,6%, by membership fees of 9,6% and project funds of the public sector of 8,6%.81
ASI Austrian Standards International – Standardization and Innovation is the national Austrian organization for standardization founded in 1920.82 As well as DIN it is a non-profit and non-governmental organization, which is independent and neutral. ASI collaborates with European and other international partners like ISO, CEN and ETSI and published in total 22.751 standards. 7,02% of these standards are pure national standards, 67,47% are based on European standards (ÖNORM EN), 0,98% based on ISO (ÖNORM ISO) and 0,3% based on DIN (ÖNOM DIN).83
The proportion of pure national standards are decreasing (approximately 1% less in 2018 compared to 2016) and the proportion of European standards increases (3,47% higher in 2018 compared to 2016).84 The web presence of ASI shows, that the organization fosters international collaboration to bundle knowledge from around the world into Austria.85
Different to the web presence of DIN that focuses strongly on national standards building and export it into the world.86 The basis for strategic dialogue at ASI is built through the presidential council and the honorary board and honorary members. The presidential council consists of around 54 members from various fields of economy, academia and politics like Drei Austria, TU Wien, Bundesministerium für Arbeit, Soziales, Gesundheit und Konsumentenschutz, Siemens AG, TÜV Austria, voestalpine Stahl GmbH, WKO Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Quality Austria or ÖBB Holding AG and members from different other national standardization institutes (Germany, Swiss, Slowenia i.a.).87
79 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2018), pp. 6 80 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020e) 81 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020o); (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2019b) 82 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020d) 83 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2019a) 84 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2019b) 85 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020b); (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020c) 86 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020m) 87 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020a)
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The income of ASI essentially exists of membership fees (€ 0,2 million), financing contributions from the federal and state governments (€ 1,4 million) and WKO Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (€ 0,2 million).88 ASI consists of 144 national committees and 271 working groups dealing with various topics in sectors like IT, Communication & electronic, agriculture or environment. The participants are nominated by small and medium sized companies (48,43%), large companies (30,38%), universities and research facilities (5,21%) or NGOs like environment (1,38%) i.a.89
2.2.4. Development process and conformity assessment
The development of a standard follows a strict process with different actors. The standardization organization, like ISO, ASI or DIN, owns the role as a conductor for an orchestra. The participants are independent expert from the field of application that are the tasks force for developing a proposal, sharing it with stakeholders for feedback and creating a draft for voting.90 A team of experts develop a description of a best-practice and proven state of the art situation of a specific case, which can either be a process step, a product or a service. If these description serves for various industries and is beneficial for customers and suppliers than it is worth to bring it up to the highest level of standardization, a national or even international standard approved by authorities like ISO.91
According to the highest standardization organization ISO, the process for developing a standard is divided into six different stages, partly obligatory and optional, as seen in the following figure. The first stage is the proposal stage, which confirms, that a new standard is needed. The preparatory stage follows with building a group of experts to iteratively develop a working draft, which is then send to the parent committee for further decisions. The third stage – committee stage – is used to share the document with all members of the parent committee until the committee reaches a consensus on the content. Fourth, the standard draft is sent to all ISO members for additional voting and feedback and final approval if a certain percentage of the vote is reached (enquiry stage). If not, the revised draft will automatically be forwarded to stage five – approval stage – to all ISO members again for final and last voting. The sixth stage – publication – officialises the standard as an International Standard by ISO.92
88 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2019a) 89 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2019b) 90 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020a) 91 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004), p. 6-26 92 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018b), p. 24-26
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Figure 5: ISO Standard development process93
To actively participate in the development of DIN standards, the person of interest needs to be a member of the specific committee (German: Arbeitsausschuss)94. According to the guideline for the standards committee (German: Richtlinie für Normenausschüsse)95, a committee consists of not more than 21 employees and it is subject to certain conditions. First, its composition is appropriate to the specifications of its field of work. Second, the committee commits to make use of the latest knowledge of science and the respective state of the art and third, to ensure the continuity of its work, which means that the members are not allowed to be absent from meetings more than three times in succession. The active involvement includes the development of suggestions and drafts for standards in a national and international context (e.g. ISO, CEN, ETSI), to comment, to approve or reject standard drafts or to collaborate within certification tasks.96 There are no obvious conditions that restrict the participation of anyone, thus everyone is allowed to
93 International Organization for Standardization (2019). Deliverables 94 Note from the author 95 Note from the author 96 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2013), pp. 9
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participate. Withal, the committee decides for itself about the composition of members leaded by the managing director for the committee, who is announced by the board of the DIN.
In contrast to DIN, there are no strictly defined requirements and guidelines on the ASI web presence (www.austrian-standards.at) available, that regulate the participation in the development of standards. Based on the general information, the participants should have an interest in the topic, be competent in the specific field of work, observe current technical developments, should speak English and have the needed capacity to collaborate. Furthermore, the tasks of a member of a committee are summarized in being prepared for the agenda of the meetings, collaboration in the creation of CEN and ISO documents, participation in meetings, usage of the right to propose and vote and to show willingness to agree.97
The conformity assessment is a process to verify if a product, service, process or organization is confirming the specific requirements of the standard that it should have for its specific target – to perform technically and functionally good. One outstanding benefit is, that the consumers and stakeholders get the confirmation that the product or service meet a certain standardization. Furthermore, it is beneficial for companies to stay competitive and for regulation institutions to have the guarantee that environmental, health and safety conditions are fulfilled. Based on Bredillet (2003) and Suddaby (2017), in general, standards also serve as a legitimacy to gain power on the economic market98,99 There are three assessment steps that organizations have to go through for achieving a certificate: the main is the certification, then testing, and inspection.100
The certification is executed by an external certification body, other than ISO, DIN or ASI, as they develop the standards. Thus, objectivity is given. ISO differentiates between a certification and an accreditation as part of the certification step. Certification is “the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements.”(ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019a). The accreditation is “the formal recognition by an independent body, generally known as an accreditation body, that a certification body operates according to international standards.”.(ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019a)
For an organization, the first step is to choose a certification body. The most common Austrian certification body is the company QA Quality Austria101, which provides system, product and
97 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020h) 98 See (Bredillet 2003), p. 463 99 See (Suddaby, Bitektine, and Haack 2017), p.457 100 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019a) 101 Further bodies are: Büro Veritas Austria GmbH, TÜV Austria, TÜV-Süd SZA, Wirtschaftskammer Österreich
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persons certification or trainings related to standards.102 Their certification portfolio contains integrated management system, quality, public administration, food safety, medical devices, environment and energy and many more.103 The certification process from Quality Austria is divided into six steps. Starting with the information phase and application, the company then faces two challenging “visits” from Quality Austria: the certifications audit stage 1 and 2. If the result of the second stage is without any significant deviation the company receives the certificate. As long as the company wishes to have a valid certificate it has to go through regular surveillance or re- certification audits.104 In Germany the most known certification bodies are TÜV CERT, DQS, DEKRA or Deloitte Cert i.a.
2.3. Standardization of Circular Economy
2.3.1. The European Approach
Under the headline of the Europe 2020 strategy, the three main drivers are a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Sustainable growth became the key word to change the economy towards better resource efficiency and low carbon production.105
With the European Green Deal in December 2019 the European commission specified environmental and climate challenges in even more detail. Withal, regulations and standardization are some policies that will be used more consistently to foster the sustainable implementation of the actions defined. The mobilization of industry for Circular Economy represents one of the eight elements of the Green Deal. To achieve hard results in 2050 various actions are defined to increase the pace of the transition from a linear towards a Circular Economy. The Circular Economy Action Plan is leading the stakeholders with specific requirements. Amongst other things, the European Commission fosters common principles and methodologies for the change of products or processes. They also call for new business models and consumer relations, such as offering reusable, repairable and durable products. Focus sectors are textiles, plastics, electronics and construction.106
The first Circular Economy action plan was published in December 2015 with 54 measures to close the loop. The following table displays different measures in the focus areas retrieved from the annex of the Action Plan from 2015 (excerpt). 107
102 See (QA Quality Austria 2020b) 103 See (QA Quality Austria 2020a) 104 See (QA Quality Austria 2020b) 105 See (European Commission 2010a) 106 See (European Commission 2019) 107 See (European Commission 2015b)
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Focus Area Actions Production product requirements with Ecodesign directive guidance on CE with best-practices and techniques documents improve efficiency uptake of Eco-Management and Audit System (EMAS)
Consumption actions on false green claims, guidance on unfair commercial practices assess independent testing programme use of product environmental footprint actions on green public procurement
Waste Management improve cooperation with member states (waste legislation, shipment of end of life vehicles) promote voluntary certification for key waste/recycle streams identify good practices in waste collection systems
Market for secondary raw materials develop quality standards (in particular for plastics) set minimum requirements for reused water promote safe and cost-effective water reuse
Priority Areas: Plastics Food waste Critical raw materials Construction and demolition Biomass and bio-based materials Innovation and investments Monitoring Table 4: Circular Economy Action Plan 2015 (excerpt)108
In December 2015 the European Commission publish the M/543 Commission Implementing Decision for a standardization request. Article 1 prompts CEN, CENELEC and ETSI to develop new standards on a European level in regard to material efficiency for products that are energy related.109 In Annex I of this Decision paper, the requirements for the standardization work are clearly outlined. An excerpt of the requirements is seen in the table below:
OBJECTIVES Following material efficiency aspects shall be considered: § Extension of product lifetime § Re-use of components from products § Upgradeability § Extraction of components for further: § Re-use, repair, recycling, treatment § Calculation criteria for reused or recycled content § Method for identification of components with their environmental impact i.a. § Reporting systems § Criteria for reuse, recycling, recover
108 Own table based on (European Commission 2015b) 109 See (European Commission 2015a), p. 4
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DESCRIPTION General requirements: § Sufficient and comprehensible development process of standards § Expert/ state-of-the-art knowledge § Technology neutrality § Standards shall be applicable to different products Content-based requirements: § Definitions of material efficiency aspects § Guidelines for application § Criteria for RRR (reuseability, recyclability, recoverability) § Documentation/ marking of products § Calculation and test methods § Communication details for sufficient information
Figure 6: Standardization requirements on EU standards for material efficiency of energy-related products110
A briefing from January 2016 about the new Circular Economy package addresses again the need for establishing standards in regard to quality of material, which is going to be recovered from waste as well as standards for recycling of construction waste, electronic waste or batteries.111
In March 2019, the first official report on the implementation progress of Circular Economy was published. With this report there is even more pressure in minimizing natural resources, freshwater resources and ecosystems. The actions plan is commented as fully completed.112 Already one year later, in March 2020, the commission published a new Circular Economy Action Plan as one of the main aspects of the Green Deal. Changes were made towards focus on entire lifecycles and measures to keep resources as long as possible in the EU, while the focus areas as stated above remain the same. The new actions are as followed: § “Make sustainable products the norm in the EU, § Empower consumers and public buyers, § Focus on the sectors that use most resources and where the potential for circularity is high such as: electronics and ICT; batteries and vehicles; packaging; plastics; textiles; construction and buildings; food; water and nutrients, § Ensure less waste, § Make circularity work for people, regions and cities, § Lead global efforts on Circular Economy.”113
110 Own table according to (European Commission 2015a), p. 7-8 111 See (Bourguignon 2016), p. 6 112 See (European Commission 2020b) 113 (European Commission 2020a)
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Based on the commission staff working document from March 2020, collaboration in circular development activities take place at multilateral level with the UN, G7/G2 level, as well as on bilateral and regional levels to achieve international agreements on a common environmental system.114 An online stakeholder platform is additionally available to share good-practices, knowledge, starting dialogues or even contribute.115
Based on the European approach towards a resource efficient Europe, several policies regarding Circular Economy emerged on the market, similar developments are shown in China. But policies are just the beginning, as for instance the European action plan for Circular Economy also calls for standards to promote markets for the urgency for circularity, e.g. with standards for different materials. The author McDowell also found out, that standards will facilitate further development of Circular Economy.116
2.3.2. Standardization efforts
Various efforts towards standardization of Circular Economy are existing from different organizations as the industry demands for guidance.117 Following chapter gives an insight of these activities based on previous elaboration:
§ C2C Cradle-to-cradle Innovation Institute, § Ellen MacArthur Foundation, § ISO International Organization of Standardization, § DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung, § ASI Austrian Standards International, § European Commission.
C2C The Cradle-to-Cradle Innovation Institute developed a program to certify products according to certain cradle to cradle criteria. These criteria are part of five categories: Material health, material reutilization, renewable energy and carbon management, water stewardship and social fairness. Each of this category consists of approximately ten distinct criteria that are evaluated individually based on five levels (basic, bronze, silver, gold and platinum). All together it is presented in a product scorecard to visualize the certified level of the product. Currently this Cradle-to-Cradle Product Standard is going to be revised from version 3.1 (2016) to version 4 and will be release approximately in 2021.118 According to a research of
114 See (European Commission 2020c) 115 See https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/en 116 See (McDowall et al. 2017), p. 652-658 117 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b), p. 17 118 See (Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute 2016), p. 9-15
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Ünal and Shao in 2019, the Cradle-to-Cradle Product Standard intensively contributes to trigger the Circular Economy mechanism into practice due to its operational approach. The authors emphasize the possibility to measure achievements of Circular Economy with this standard even more simple compared to other indicator such as eco-efficient value ratio or Remanufacturing Product Profiles. This effect is also rooted in the acceptance of C2C by industry. The paper depicts that since 2005 around 260 companies are applying the Cradle- to-Cradle principles in over 8.000 product so far.119 In contrast, in her study from 2019, Kopnina found out, that the process to certify products with C2C requires strict measures. The author also emphasizes an intensive challenge to implement C2C.120
EMF To support the need for change towards the Europe 2020 strategy with Circular Economy, there are several intervention factors stated also by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The six influencing factors are: education, information and awareness, collaboration platforms, business support schemes, public procurement and infrastructure, fiscal frameworks and regulatory frameworks.121 Latter mentioned regulatory framework comprises regulations for: § Product (design, extended warranties), § Waste (standards for collection and treatment, waste definition), § Industry or consumers.122 Legal, as well as institutional regulations represented through standards are contributing to the change.
ISO According to the United Nations 2030 Agenda, 17 SDGs Sustainable Development Goals are defined. ISO contributes to the three pillars economic, social and environment with ISO standards for each of those 17 goals to achieve more efficient targets. The most common and already known standard is the ISO 140001 for Environmental management systems, which is under regular revision with latest inputs from academia and marked development.123 Based on the article from Biermann et al. from 2017, the success of the UN sustainability goals depends on various institutional factors like the degree of formalization of commitments or implementation of policies. Furthermore, it is mentioned that standardization is one of the priorities to support these UN goals.124 In 2018 the organization also founded a technical committee for Circular Economy ISO/TC 323. The overall goal is to increase and maximize activities for a sustainable development. Thus, the committee develops standards in terms of requirements, frameworks as well as guidelines or tools to
119 See (Ünal and Shao 2019), pp. 755 120 See (Kopnina 2019), pp. 618 121 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015), p. 47 122 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015), p. 71 123 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018c) 124 See (Biermann, Kanie, and Kim 2017)
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support every kind of projects and implementation of Circular Economy into all companies involved.125 The participating members vary from 70 different countries from all over the world from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Observing members are coming from 11 countries, such as Ireland (NSAI), United States (ANSI) or Slovenia (SIST). The responsible secretary for ISO/TC 323 is AFNOR (France) in the lead of Olivier Cartigny.126
DIN has a wide range of activities on Circular Economy, such as working groups, project, conferences i.a. to foster the development of standards for Circular Economy.127 Based on a press release from DIN in February 2019, DIN is also going to find a working group to mirror the activities of the ISO technical committee. The first meeting was held in March 2019 in Berlin. The press release explains that the ISO/TC 323 is going to be a management standard to support organizations, public institutions or non-profit organizations in their execution of Circular Economy projects.128 In addition to this technical committee there are already existing committees that cover similar topics in terms of waste or energy management i.a. DIN set up other standardisation committees to address the topic of Circular Economy in specific branches, for instance: § NAGUS – Normenausschuss Grundlagen des Umweltschutzes, § NHM – Holzwirtschaft und Möbel, § FNK – Kunststoffe, § NAL – Lebensmittel und landwirtschaftliche Produkte, § NSMT – Schiffs- und Meerestechnik, § NAVp – Verpackungswesen, § NWT – Werkstofftechnologie.129
These developments show the increasing interest in the topic of standardization of Circular Economy. In specific, the national committee of DIN, NAGUS DIN-Normenausschuss Grundlagen des Umweltschutzes, operates with the working group NA 172-00-14-01 AK for Circular Economy, which is a sub-committee of NA 172-00-14 GA (Ecodesign, in particular Material Efficiency of Energy-related products)130. 131 Since March 2020 DIN also implemented a new member of the management for the field of strategic partnerships & public affairs, Thomas Schiemann. One special focus of this new field is Circular Economy,
125 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020g) 126 International Organization for Standardization (2019). ISO/TC 323 127 See (Winterhalter 2019); (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c); (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020j); (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020h); (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020a) 128 DIN e.V. (2019). Presse 129 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020g) 130 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020n) 131 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020i)
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which is in the lead of Benjamin Hein132. Schiemann emphasizes standardization as an important contribution to handle challenges in economy and society through sustainable acting, digital change and artificial intelligence.133
Future standards, which are already announced but not published so far are also coming from the NAGUS for example, which is one major player for developing standardization for environmental protection. The three main stakeholders are the industry (37%), science and research (18%) and the public sector (17%).134 NAGUS is currently working on a document for the evaluation of the ability for repair, reusability and upgrade of energy related products since 2017. The national and European taskforce determines parameters and procedures specifically for the assessment of ability to repair and reuse products. As well as the ability to upgrade products and to access or remove components, consumables or parts of a product (for repair, reuse or upgrade) and for the determination of indices and criteria.135
ASI The current activities of ASI regarding Circular Economy show up in the collaboration with ISO in TC 323, where ASI has an observer status, which allows to comment on the TC 323. Context from the TC 323 is mirrored in various national standards and working groups like committee 157 Waste Management.136 The context related tasks of the committee are to develop standards i.a. for requirements of preparation of waste for reuse, recycling or other recovery or usage of waste.137
EU In December 2019, the European commission fosters the standardization in regard to Circular Economy and declares:
“As the world’s largest single market, the EU can set standards that apply across global value chains. The Commission will continue to work on new standards for sustainable growth and use its economy weight to shape international standards that are in line with EU environmental and climate ambitions. It will work to facilitate trade in environmental goods and services, in bilateral and multilateral forums, and in supporting open and attractive EU and global markets for sustainable products.”138
132 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c) 133 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020p) 134 DIN e.V. (2019). Standard Committee Principles of Environmental Protection 135 DIN e.V. (2017). Projekt prEN 4554 136 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020g); (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020a) 137 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2018) 138 (European Commission 2019)
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One example for a European standard is EN 13432:2008 for packaging. This standard is about requirements for packaging, which are recoverable through composting and biodegration in 2008. This document provides criteria to verify, if the packaging is accepted as a recoverable packaging.139
The electronic industry is one main branch were standards for Circular Economy are also already officialised. These standards indicate key performance criteria, such as use of recyclable plastics, less use of hazardous materials, integration of a smart linear life cycle or improvement towards more effective energy efficiency. One example is the US standard IEEE 1680:2006. Besides the positive effect of having a standard for Circular Economy, Schaffer found out that the latter mentioned standard is too basic with too low criteria to achieve for organization. This results in a lower circular economic performance as it could be. Therefor Schaffer suggests the improvement of existing standards and development of new standards towards improved green criteria, bringing organizations to the next level with an even better environmental footprint as nowadays. He also displays the need for a better guide for organizations to develop more sustainable products, supporting re-use strategies and green designs. The standards, such as IEEE 1680:2006 also do not fit to current design processes, which are getting faster and having less material demand inter alia. New standards are needed to foster better reuse and repair criteria and providing organizations to establish Circular Economy policies within an integrated management system.140
VDI One example for an existing standard is from the VDI – Fachbereich for Resource Management, which published a series of guidelines about the recycling of electric and electronic products between 2001 and 2019 so far. These documents provide explanations and definitions for: principles and terminology, disassembly, logistics, preparation techniques, material and thermal recycling and removal and re-use.141 Furthermore, the VDI – Fachbereich for Resource Management is planning to publish a new guideline about the marketing of recycling of electric and electronic products.142
The Institute of Design Research Vienna also published a guideline with quality standards for Circular Economy in 2019 to address the need for a different product design to reach the transition to material circularity. The institute mentions, that standards should be integrated into the design work, such as ISO 14024, 14021 or 14025 Environmental Labels and declaration e.g. EU- Ecolabel, Österreichisches Umweltzeichen, Blauer Engel or recycling-code or EU-energy label. 143
139 Austrian Standards (2008). ÖNORM EN 13432:2008 02 01 140 See (Schaffer 2017), p. 4-5 141 VDI e.V. (2001). Richtlinienreihe VDI 2343 142 VDI e.V. (2001). Richtlinienreihe VDI 2343 143 See (Institute of Design Research Vienna and Designaustria 2019)
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Peralta et al., who researched about a standards-based Circular Economy in 2020, conclude, that there is still a lack of a standardized and accepted knowledge base of Circular Economy. The authors examined various fields of Circular Economy, such as the product design or labeling, which require standardization in terms of criteria, measurements, quality control and methods and tools to achieve the transition to Circular Economy.144
Recent studies of consulting companies show that they are also prepared to support the business in the transition towards circularity, but the studies also mention the need for standards. A study of PwC in 2019 also underlines the necessity for more precise standards for both, consumers and producers. Additionally, PwC demands clear indicators and reporting standards.145 McKinsey points out the need for global standards in terms of packaging and plastics, new design, buildings and even social, economic and environmental responsibility i.a. and emphasize that the world’s poor performance for e.g. recycling is caused by missing global standards and the increase of different requirements regarding material, labeling, formats or various packaging types.146 Even OECD is demanding standards for a positive transition towards circularity. Besides above- mentioned demands, OECD mentions the need for harmonizing quality standards for materials, standards for reparability and remanufactured products (especially when exporting them) and standards to ensure appropriate quality of raw materials.147
To give guidance on the integration of Circular Economy for organizations, standards were developed, and a trend is shown for new standards in the near future.
144 See (Peralta, Luna, and Soltero 2020), pp. 382 145 See (PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers 2019), p. 29, 46 146 See (McKinsey&Company 2016), pp. 3 - 35 147 See (OECD 2018), pp. 3 -13
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3. Conceptual framework
The first chapter dealt with the fundamentals of Circular Economy and different strategies, that evolved to approach the topic. Withal, the technical and biological cycle of the Ellen MacArthur Framework – the so-called Butterfly Diagram of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation are emphasized as one of the leading concepts to simplify the complexity of Circular Economy aspirations. The diagram depicts the different implementation approaches, such as cradle-to-cradle, in a comprehensible graphic. The second chapter of this Master Thesis reflected on the fundamentals of standardization. Beginning with the objectives and key benefits of standardization up to the development process of standards from a national to an international perspective.
The investigation of literature review and external sources exposes various actions to implement and operationalize the Circular Economy – from a standardization perspective – into praxis. The theoretical foundation of this Master Thesis shows the need to standardize Circular Economy as one aspect of achieving the environmental goals of the UN, the EU and respective countries. Thus, the evolving research gap is a missing generic picture of standards supporting the Circular Economy. Consequently, the research gap justifies the research question, which main existing and possibly future standards directly contribute to regulate the Circular Economy.
Thus, the Ellen MacArthur Framework is chosen to represent the standards of the Circular Economy in a systematic manner for this Master Thesis. The intended resource is a meta-analysis of respective standards. A closer look on the development process for Circular Economy standards is carried out to achieve a more holistic view on current Circular Economy standards. Furthermore, an investigation on current Circular Economy standardization projects from DIN and ASI is considered to explore the topic of standardization in a broader sense.
basic information standard type of standard publication status scope standard 1 standard 2 standard 3 Table 5: Meta-analysis of Circular Economy standards – standardization specifics148
148 Own table
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Circular economy - EMF subcategories standard 1 standard 2 standard 3 technical nutrients Mining/ materials manufacturing Maintenance Reuse/ redistribute refurbish/ remanufacture recycle biological nutrients extraction of biochemical feedstock anaerobic digestion/ composting Biogas Restoration Farming/ collection Biochemical feedstock EMF blocks A Product Design Table 6: Meta-analysis of Circular Economy standards – Butterfly Diagram categories149 B Business Models C Reverse Cycle Skills D Cross-cycle and cross-sector collaboration
149 Own table
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4. Methodology
4.1. Research design
According to Yin, the research design defines the structure to get from a specific stage X to a specific stage Y. Withal, stage X are the initial questions from the beginning of the Master Thesis, that need to be answered to subsequently achieve a conclusion and results from these questions.150 Also described by Bryman and Bell, the research design is the fundamental approach to collect and analyse data respective to the research question defined. Thus, the research design influences the decisions made in terms of data collection, prioritization and analysis to sufficiently answer the research question.151
The research design of this Master Thesis is framed into a three-step approach. Based on the fundamentals about standardization and Circular Economy as the theoretical foundation, an appropriate reference model is developed, which serves as basis for the scanning and analysis. The first process step is the non-systematic review of literature and web-based information, followed by the data collection to find and explore appropriate standards. The third process step is the data analysis with the categorization.
Creation of Data Analysis & Data Collection reference model interpretation
explore standards & categorize standards explore literature & conduct interviews according to webbased information reference model
Figure 7: Research design152
Various research strategies are applied in this Master Thesis according to the research questions. On the one hand a descriptive research design is chosen for analysis and possible forecasting of standards for Circular Economy. On the other hand, an exploratory research design is chosen to gain new insights with qualitative interviews with the cases from specific organizations, such as ASI and DIN. The mix of different research methods provides a multiple perspective and adds additional value to the research findings and sufficient understanding of the topic beyond classical research activities.153
150 See (Yin 2003), pp. 28 151 See (Bell, Bryman, and Harley 2019), pp. 44 152 Own figure 153 See (Bell et al. 2019), pp. 568
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4.2. Research method
4.2.1. Creation of reference model
For the creation of the reference model, a non-systematic review of literature is conducted. The review of literature and external sources, to gain insights of standardization and Circular Economy, is based on scientific data bases. Superficially, the advantage of conducting a literature review is the possibility to learn more about the field of research with already existing studies. This leads to the inclusion of different variables and aspects into the research, which have not been obvious before the conduction of the literature review.154 The goal of the literature review is to develop a reference model/ matrix, which serves as basis for the systematically scanning and analysis of standards.
Following sources (review protocol) are considered, which are essential for the research155. Primarily scientific knowledge from journal articles with different qualities are reviewed, as the topic of Circular Economy rather is new to science. Recent developments are also shown within grey literature. Following sources are considered for this Master Thesis: Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek, EBSCO, Wiley Online Library, Emeraldinsight, Science direct, Research gate, google scholar, i.a.. The web-based information and grey literature is information officialised in the internet and found via google. Direct search on homepages from institutions is considered, such as: ISO: www.iso.org, European Commission: www.ec.europa.eu, DIN: www.din.de, ASI: www.austrian-standards.at, VDI: www.vdi.de, Quality Austria: www.qualityaustria.com, IEEE: www.ieee.org, i.a..
4.2.2. Data collection
4.2.2.1. Quantitative data collection – scanning for standards
The scanning is the process of searching for Circular Economy standards. The scanning is the primary research method for this Master Thesis to obtain data.
The scanning is mainly based on web information following a so-called snowball method. The reason for this is the emerging interest in Circular Economy and standards, thus, not having a high number of existing literatures. That means, that one finding may lead to another finding and further research criteria. To achieve an unbiased search for standards, key words (search strings) will be defined, that are based on the conceptual framework (e.g. “standards Circular Economy”).156
154 Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2011), p. 103 155 Rowley, J., Slack, F. (2004), p. 31 156 See (Torraco 2005), p. 360
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Following table shows search strings and key words for the online research in google, on one hand the general aspects regarding Circular Economy and on the other hand standards related to the categories of the Ellen MacArthur Framework, the Butterfly Diagram, with the technological and biological cycle. The time frame of the research is August and September 2020.
general aspects technical and biological cycle standard biological cycle circular economy standard remanufacture standard biomimicry standard extraction biochemical feedstock standard butterfly diagram standard composting standard c2c standard redistribute standard circular economy standard maintenance circular economy standard cradle to cradle standard reuse standard ellen macarthur standard anaerobic digestion standard green deal standard biogas standard performance economy standard recycle standard technical cycle circular economy standard refurbish standard un goals circular economy standard restoration standard circular economy initiative standard circularity standard close loop standard durable product standard ecodesign standard farming standard repair standard secondary raw material standard sustainable products Table 7: Research Method: Scanning – Search Strings157
The identified findings then will be collected and summarized in a portfolio, which is the sample of the Master Thesis. The findings of the scanning are documented in a table. This indicates the number of standards found per search string, separated into the general aspects as well as technological- and biological cycle aspects.
Additional scanning databases are utilized to verify and compare the hits found in the web-browser and obtain additional information for specific standards. These databases are briefly described as followed:
Perinorm is a database for the management of standards and a product of DIN, ASI and AFNOR. The database consists i.a. of the entries of the databased from the three latter mentioned national standardization organizations. The company who developed this database is Beuth Verlag GmbH. The database and front-end application for users allows an advanced search possibility.158 For the application of this Master Thesis, a Demo-Version is
157 own table 158 See (Beuth Verlag GmbH 2020b)
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obtained that is valid for one month. The search is done via the free text field and the respective category from the Ellen MacArthur Framework (e.g. “mining”).
The second database is available via the Normen-Infopoints from DIN (DIN Infopoint) based on the standards management software of Beuth. DIN provides more than 90 Infopoints in Germany that allow to research and read standards free of charge. The access to the standards is just possible at the dedicated PCs from the Infopoints and restricts printing or copying of content.159 The Infopoint chosen for this Master Thesis was in Berlin, Budapester Str. 31. The search is also done via the free text field and the respective category from the Ellen MacArthur Framework (e.g. “mining”).
4.2.2.2. Qualitative data collection – action research
According to Graebner et al. there are five main reasons to work with qualitative data: theory building, capturing subjective experiences and interpretations, understanding complex processes, illustrating an abstract idea and capturing discourse or other linguistic phenomena.160 Especially in the context of this Master Thesis, the second and third above mentioned point adds value to the results of this Thesis. To capture the individual opinions of the respective subject leads to specific insights of the topic from the experience of the subject, thus leads to a differentiated interpretation of the information gathered. Furthermore, the qualitative data leads to a broader understanding of the topic, additionally to the literature review, which is conducted at the beginning of this Master Thesis. A characteristic and opposite meaning to quantitative data is the inductive approach when using qualitative data. It cannot prove the truth of general premises but can be used to build general rules as part of the exploratory research.161
To gain more specific and qualitative insights of current Circular Economy projects in terms of standardization, the so-called action research method is most appropriate for this Master Thesis.
According to Bryman & Bell, an action research is a qualitative research method where data is gathered through personal interaction and collaboration of the researcher with one or more subjects from the cases or field of research.162 Based on Collis and Hussey, action research is one type of participative inquiry, which (besides other criteria) leads to more sufficient quality data by involving different actors in the specific research field and thus contributing to objectivity of the results. Action research is utilized in applied research and within a rather fast changing
159 See (Beuth Verlag GmbH 2020a) 160 See (Graebner, Martin, and Roundy 2012), pp. 278 161 See (Graebner et al. 2012), p. 277 162 See (Bell et al. 2019), pp. 379
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environment with a proposed cycle approach of: plan, action and observe as well as reflect.163 Action research allows the researcher to better understand and explore the research topic under given conditions.164 Knowledge is gained through various actions and increases with applying more action based activities with a specific and practical context.165 In case of this Master Thesis, the action research is structured as followed according to the three-step approach as mentioned above:
Plan Personal and individual inquiries are considered, such as: informal telephone calls, interviews or e-mails with experts from the field of standardization within Circular Economy. Specific cases are chosen, which serve for an in-depth analysis, understanding of complex context and comparison of individual units.166 For this Master Thesis the cases are the standardization organizations of Germany and Austria and the international standardization organization, as well as one accredited certification body: § DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung, § ASI Austrian Standards International – Innovation and Standardization, § ISO International Organization for Standardization, § QA Quality Austria.
Based on the insights of the theoretical foundation of Circular Economy and standardization, a guideline is created with standardized questions for each organization that is considered as an interview partner.
Act The interviews are semi-structured, to not restrict the possibility to gain deeper insights in a specific topic that is mentioned by the interview partner besides the guideline. Therefore, semi- structured interviews offer more flexibility as a full structured interview and are more authentical as a quantitative research.167 Especially in the context of Circular Economy, which evolved in the past years, flexibility in the interviews is necessary. The interviews are expert interviews aiming to analyse subjective interpretations and experiences with open questions and additional increasingly specific questions subsequently. The guideline168 has general exploratory questions at the beginning and more specific questions afterwards (open and closed questions). The interview style is rather conversational (narrative opening to introduce) with ad-hoc questions to cover new or important topics. The interview whether is recorded, nor transcribed. Personal notes are taken while the call and saved as meeting minutes (protocol). The name of the interview
163 See (Collis and Hussey 2014), pp. 66 164 See (Greener 2008), p. 89 165 See (Koshy, Koshy, and Waterman 2011), pp. 1 166 See (Gerring 2004), p. 341; (Bell et al. 2019), pp. 63 167 See (Bell et al. 2019), pp. 435 168 See appendix
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partner is not mentioned (statement of interview partners), thus anonymous. The interviews lasted between 30 to 60 minutes. Following tables give an overview of the qualitative data collection:
Research tool date Number of Protocol file name partner documents (pages) ASI Telephone call 28.05.2020 1 (1) ASI_call_protocol-research_20200528169
QA Telephone call 17.09.2020 2 (6) QA_call_protocol-research_20200917170
DIN 1 Telephone call 18.09.2020 1 (2) DIN_call_protocol-research_20200918171
DIN 2 Telephone call 18.09.2020 1 (1) DIN_call_protocol-research_20200918_2172
ASI Telephone call 24.09.2020 1 (3) ASI_call_protocol-research_20200924173
DIN 3 Telephone call 13.10.2020 1 (3) DIN_call_protocol-research_20201013174
Table 8: Action Research - table of phone calls/ interviews175
Research tool date Number of Protocol file name partner documents (pages) ASI mail 15.09.2020 1 (3) ASI_mail_protocol_research_20200915176
DIN 1 mail 15.09.2020- 1 (2) DIN_mail_protocol_research_20200919177 19.09.2020 DIN 3 mail 17.09.2020 1 (1) DIN_mail_protocol_research_20200917178
ISO mail 15.09.2020 1 (1) ISO_mail_protocol-research_20200915179
QA mail 13.09.2020- 1 (5) QA_mail_protocol-research_20200918180 18.09.2020
Table 9: Action Research - table of mails181
The file abbreviations are also utilized for referencing and are found as such in the references chapter.
Reflect The reflection (as part of the action research method) is further described in the next chapter: Data analysis and interpretation.
169 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020a) 170 See (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020a) 171 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b) 172 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020a) 173 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020b) 174 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020e) 175 Own table 176 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020c) 177 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020e) 178 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020d) 179 See (Pumsleitner and ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020) 180 See (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020b) 181 Own table
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4.2.3. Data analysis
The third step is to analyse the standards according to the criteria of the Ellen MacArthur Framework, the Butterfly Diagram.
In this regard, all standards are listed in the matrix by utilizing a binary system of 1 and 0 that indicates, for which search string the standard is found, thus indicating a relation to the Ellen MacArthur Framework category:
1 yes/ fullfilled
0 no/ not fullfilled Table 10: Data analysis - evaluation system182
Standards that are found by search strings with general aspects (like “standard Circular Economy”) are categorized with a “0” under the specific Ellen MacArthur Framework categories (like “repair”). Thus, the matrix contains the total sample with all documents, whether it is a standard or from a recognized standardization organization as defined in the theoretical foundation.
EMF CATEGORIES sample Technical Cycle Biological Cycle
Title of document standardization organization scope pubplication status type Mining/ materials manufacturing Maintenance/ repair Reuse/ redistribute refurbish/ remanufacture recycle of extraction biochemical anaerobic digestion/ Biogas Restoration Farming/ collection Biochemical feedstock SUM CEN CENELEC Paper Position ACEA IEC webinar green standard deal standard biological cycle standard c2c standard circular standard standard standard standard technical cycle AS 4736 Biodegradable Plastic-Biodegradable PlasticsSA Standards Suitable nationalAustralia for Compostingpublished and other MicrobialStandard Treatment - Australian Capital Territory1 1 AS 5810:2010 Biodegradable plastics - BiodegradableSA Standards plastics nationalAustralia suitable for homepublished composting Standard 1 1 Responsible Recycling Standard (R2) SERI Sustainablenational Electronics Recyclingpublished InternationalStandard 1 1 BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principlesBSI British Standardsof thenational circular Institution economypublished in organizations.Standard Guide 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 1 BS 8887-1:2006 Design for Manufature, Assembly,BSI Disassembly British Standardsnational and InstitutionEnd-of-lifepublished processing (MADE)Standard 1 1 1 1 4 1 Table 11: Data analysis – Matrix183
A sum line for the Circular Economy and standardization specifics shows the total number of standards found per each category of the technical- or biologic cycle. A sum column shows the total number of fulfilled categories per standard. For example, if one standard is found under the search string “repair” and additionally under the search string “reuse” than the sum of this line shows a “2”, because this specific standard covers two categories of the Ellen MacArthur Framework/ Butterfly Diagram.
182 Own table 183 Own table
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To achieve an objective selection of the most relevant standards, in regard to Circular Economy and the Ellen MacArthur Framework categories, the data is filtered according to following rules and conditions.
• > 50% coverage of categories of Level 3 Butterfly Diagram (> 5 categories fulfilled)
• fulfillment of at least 1 Level 2 category of Butterfly Diagram
• total sample Level 1 according to all key strings
Figure 8: Data analysis - conditions for selection of relevant standards for Master Thesis184
Level 1 displays the total sample with all hits found in the internet according to all search strings as described above (general and specific search strings).
Level 2 displays all hits from the total sample that fulfil at least one category of the Ellen MacArthur Framework/ Butterfly Diagram. This selection criterion is chosen to answer the sub-research question “How are the standards related to the technical- and biological cycle of the Ellen MacArthur Framework – the ‘Butterfly Diagram’?”. These selected documents are analysed in more detail to examine if further categories are fulfilled. This analysis shell be done based on the standard itself. But the content of most of the standards is not available, as they must be purchased. Though, the table of contents for most of the standards is available, which supports the analysis and further categorization (source: beuth.de, DIN Infopoint). The table of content was analysed in regard to the categories of the Butterfly Diagram by searching for each category (such as repair, remanufacturing, biogas) separately if it is mentioned in the standard. If the full document was available or excerpts or descriptions of the respective standard (found either in the internet or DIN Infopoint), then these documents are used for further analysis. Thus, a descriptive analysis of each standard (document analysis) is done for the assignment to the respective criteria.
184 Own figure
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Furthermore, it serves as basis for a qualitative analysis to represent possible connections within the Ellen MacArthur Framework, for instance similarities and differences between standards.
Level 3 displays all hits from the total sample that fulfil more than 50% of the categories of the Ellen MacArthur Framework, which is a fulfilment of more than 5 categories based on the descriptive analysis of the standards done in Level 2. This coverage of categories leads to an indication if the standard rather is vertical (specific for one material or process) or horizontal (management- or system standard or guideline). This selection criterion is chosen to deep dive into the main research question “What main existing and future standards directly regulating the concept of Circular Economy?” and find out which standards holistically deal with Circular Economy.
Based on the binary analysis of the standard portfolio within the matrix, diagrams will visualize the results and the standard landscape in a more practical way for further usage for researchers or interest groups.
4.2.4. Data interpretation
The data interpretation represents the final step in this research process. The set of data, which is obtained through the mixed research methods and narrowed down by specific rules and conditions, serves as a product to challenge the theoretical foundation with recent and real data up to October 2020. Withal, the standards are examined thoroughly in terms of Circular Economy reference.
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5. Results
5.1. Standards for the Circular Economy
5.1.1. Overview of results
The research leads to a total finding of 260 results. This is the total sample according to all key strings defined in prior in the internet. This result represents the first level of the analysis process and the basis for further analysing investigations.
According to the analysis process, as showed in the pyramid below, the subsequent analysis is to find out all standards that fulfil at least one category of the EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework or the so-called Butterfly Diagram. This analysis leads to a result of 148. This number represents the standards on the second level of the pyramid.
The third level finally is highlighting all standards that fulfil more than 50% of the EMF, which means a fulfilment of 6 and more categories. This analysis leads to a result of 6 standards, which will be analysed in more detail in the next main chapter.
•> 50% coverage of categories of Butterfly Level 3: Diagram (> 5 categories fulfilled) 6
Level 2: •fulfillment of at least 1 category of 148 Butterfly Diagram
•total sample Level 1: according to 260 all key strings
Figure 9: Findings: Number of findings according to selection criteria visualized with a pyramid185
The following sub-chapters give more insights of the results from level one to three.
185 Own figure
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5.1.2. Level 1: Total sample
The total sample of this research leads to 260 findings from the internet based on all defined search strings. The result includes different national and international documents186.
The following figure indicates the number of documents according to the respective organization that published the document or is still working on it. It is seen that the majority of the documents is coming from ISO International Standardization Organization (99), followed by European standards (48) with CEN European Committee for Standardization and CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (46) as well as IEC International Electrotechnical Commission (14). All latter mentioned standards have an international scope.
Figure 10: Findings: Treemap of allocation of total sample per organization187
186 See full sample in appendix 187 Own figure
November 12, 2020 Petty Pumsleitner 45
With a result of less than ten standards are national standardization organizations or private standardization organizations with national or international focus, such as: § Cradle-to-Cradle institute with the Cradle-to-Cradle Product Standard, § ASTM D5511 - 18 Standard Test Method for Determining Anaerobic Biodegradation of Plastic Materials Under High-Solids Anaerobic-Digestion Conditions from the American Society for Testing and Materials, § TS.EW.001 Recycling von WEEE from the ERP European Recycling Platform, § GRS Global Recycling Standard and § RCS Recycled Claim Standard, both from the Textile Exchange, § SR2012 No 11 - Anaerobic digestion facility including use of the resultant biogas as a standard rule from the United Kingdom.
It is shown, that the research of standards, according to pre-defined search strings, gives a broad perspective about existing standards and standardization committees with a full spectrum of specific standards (vertical standards), such as the ASTM D5511-18 and standards with a general focus (horizontal), such as the GRS Global Recycling Standard.
5.1.3. Level 2: Selected sample – EMF categories
Level 2 comprises a result of 148 standards. This number represents standards that fulfil at least one category of the EMF. Most of these selected standards belong to recognized and accepted standardization organization, as defined in the theoretical foundation, such as ISO on the highest level of standardization organizations, followed by European standardization organizations like CEN/CENELEC or national standardization organizations like ASI or DIN.
This set of 148 standards is analysed in more detail according to information available on the internet for free, such as the table of content for instance from the online Beuth Verlag, as described in the research method. The result of the analysis is illustrated in the two figures below, that show, how many standards contain information about categories on the one hand from the technical cycle and on the other hand from the biological cycle of the EMF.
5.1.3.1. EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework – Technical Cycle
The first figure shows the results according to the technical cycle. It is clearly shown, that the topic of recycling is covered in 58 standards, thus having the highest result of the technical cycle. Reuse and redistribute is covered by 35 standards, closely followed by maintenance and repair, which is mentioned from 33 standards. Refurbish and remanufacture is covered by 25 standards. The lowest result is for mining and material manufacturing with 20 standards.
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EMF Technical Cycle
mining/ materials manufacturing 60
50
40
30 20 58 recycle 20 maintenance/ repair 33 10
0
25 35
refurbish/ remanufacture reuse/ redistribute
Figure 11: Findings: All standards mapped to EMF Technical Cycle188
Following tables show the findings/ hits for the different categories of the technical cycle of the EMF in detail (according to the figure above). Some standards will be shown more than ones, because they match more than one category of the Ellen MacArthur Framework.
Mining/ materials manufacturing
BS 8887-1:2006 Design for Manufature, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE) CEN/TC 147 Cranes - Safety CEN/TC 19 Gaseous and liquid fuels, lubricants and related products of petroleum, synthetic and biological origin CEN/TC 190 Foundry technology CEN/TC 249 Plastics CEN/TC 256 Railway applications CEN/TC 260 Fertilizers and liming materials CEN/TC 350 Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products CEN/TC 366 Materials obtained from End-of-Life Tyres (ELT) CEN/TC 383 Sustainably produced biomass for energy applications CLC/TC 59X WG 23 Material Efficiency standards (covering e.g. reparability) of washing machines, dish washers and tumble dryers CLC/TC 69X Electrical systems for electric road vehicles CLC/TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems IEC TR 62635:2012 Guidelines for end-of-life information provided by manufacturers and recyclers and for recyclability rate calculation of electrical and electronic equipment ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 22005:2014 Investigations of raw material in hard-coal-mining ISO Guide 82:2019 Guideline for addressing sustainability in standards ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy ISO/TC 82 Mining Table 12: Findings Technical Cycle: mining/ materials manufacturing189
188 Own figure 189 Own table
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Maintenance/ repair
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide CEN/CLC/JTC 10 Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign CEN/TC 12 Materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries CEN/TC 256 Railway applications CEN/TC 301 Road vehicles CEN/TC 326 Natural gas vehicles - Fuelling and operation CLC/TC 88 Wind turbines DIN EN 15978:2012 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of environmental performance of buildings - Calculation method DIN EN 16309:2014 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of social performance of buildings - Calculation methodology DIN EN 16627:2015 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of economic performance of buildings - Calculation methods DIN EN 45552:2020 Method fo the assessment of the durability of energy-related products DIN EN 45554:2020 Method for the assesment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade energy-related products ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics IEC 60601:2018 Medical electrical equipment - Part 1-3: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance - Collateral Standard: Radiation protection in diagnostic X-ray equipment IEC 62308:2006 Equipment reliability - Reliability assessment methods IEC 62309:2004 dependability of products containing used parts IEC 62353:2014 Medical electrical equipment - Recurrent test and test after repair of medical electrical equipment IEC 62430:2019 Environmentally conscious design (ECD) - Principles, requirements and guidance IEC 63077:2019 Good refurbishment practices for medical imaging equipment IEC TC 111 Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development IEEE 1680-2009 - IEEE Standard for Environmental Assessment of Electronic Products ISO 15686:2011 Buildings and constructed assets - Service life planning ISO 16204:2012 Durability - Service life design of concrete structures ISO 21225:2019 Plastics piping systems for the trenchless replacement of underground pipeline networks - Part 1: Replacement on the line by pipe bursting and pipe extraction (ISO 21225-1:2018) ISO 22716:2008 Cosmetics - Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) - Guidelines on Good Manufacturing Practices (ISO 22716:2007) ISO Guide 82:2019 Guideline for addressing sustainability in standards ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy UL 110 Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones VDI 2343 Recycling of electrical and electronic products ÖVE/ÖNORM E 8701-1:2003 Inspection after repair and modification and repeat tests of electrical appliances - Part 1: General requirements XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 13: Findings Technical Cycle: Maintenance/ repair190
Reuse/ redistribute
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide BS 8887-1:2006 Design for Manufature, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE) CEN/CENELEC TS 50625-3-4 Collection, logistics & treatment requirements for WEEE - Specification for de-pollution of temperature exchange equipment CEN/CLC/JTC 10 Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign CEN/TC 109 WG 6: Material Efficiency requirements for gas heating appliances; standard request for boilers under preparation CLC/TC 100X Ecodesign legislation for Electronic Desplays covering Material Efficiency (design for repair, reuse, dismantling and recycling, etc.) CLC/TC 9X Electrical and electronic applications for railways DIN EN 13725:2019 Emissionen aus stationären Quellen - Bestimmung der Geruchskonzentration durch dynamische Olfaktometrie und die Geruchsemissionsrate stationärer Quellen DIN EN 15804:2020 Nachhaltigkeit von Bauwerken DIN EN 16627:2015 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of economic performance of buildings - Calculation methods DIN EN 45552:2020 Method fo the assessment of the durability of energy-related products DIN EN 45554:2020 Method for the assesment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade energy-related products DIN EN 45556:2020 Method to assess proportion of reused components DIN EN 50625:2015 Collection, logistics and treatment requirements for WEEE ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics prEN 50614 Preparation for reuse IEC 62309:2004 dependability of products containing used parts IEC 62430:2019 Environmentally conscious design (ECD) - Principles, requirements and guidance IEC TC 111 Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems IEC TC 56 Dependability ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems. Requirements with guidance for use ISO 14021:2016 Environmental labels and declarations - Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) ISO 15270:2008 Plastics - Guidelines for the recovery and recycling of plastic waste ISO 15686:2011 Buildings and constructed assets - Service life planning ISO 20419:2018 Treated wastewater reuse for irrigation - Guidelines for the adaption of irrigation systems and practices to treated wastewater ISO 20760-1:2018 Water reuse in urban areas - Guidelines for centralized water reuse system - Part 1: Design principle of a centralized water reuse system ISO 20887:2020 Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works - Design for disassembly and adaptability - Principles, requirements and guidance ISO Guide 82:2019 Guideline for addressing sustainability in standards ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy UL 110 Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones VDI 2343 Recycling of electrical and electronic products ÖVE/ÖNORM E 8701-1:2003 Inspection after repair and modification and repeat tests of electrical appliances - Part 1: General requirements XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 14: Findings Technical Cycle: Reuse/ redistribute191
190 Own table 191 Own table
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Refurbish/ remanufacture
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide BS 8887-1:2006 Design for Manufature, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE) BREEAM RFO Refurbishment and Fit Out CEN/CLC/JTC 10 Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign CEN/TC 109 WG 6: Material Efficiency requirements for gas heating appliances; standard request for boilers under preparation CEN/TC 256 Railway applications CEN/TC 350 Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products CLC/TC 100X Ecodesign legislation for Electronic Desplays covering Material Efficiency (design for repair, reuse, dismantling and recycling, etc.) DIN EN 15978:2012 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of environmental performance of buildings - Calculation method DIN EN 16309:2014 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of social performance of buildings - Calculation methodology DIN EN 16627:2015 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of economic performance of buildings - Calculation methods DIN EN 45553:2020 Method for the assessment of the ability to remanufacture DIN EN 45554:2020 Method for the assesment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade energy-related products ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics IEC 62309:2004 dependability of products containing used parts IEC 62430:2019 Environmentally conscious design (ECD) - Principles, requirements and guidance IEC 63077:2019 Good refurbishment practices for medical imaging equipment IEC TC 111 Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems IEC TC 2 Rotating machinery ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 20887:2020 Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works - Design for disassembly and adaptability - Principles, requirements and guidance ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards UL 110 Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones VDI 2343 Recycling of electrical and electronic products XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 15: Findings Technical Cycle: Refurbish/ remanufacture192
192 Own table
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Recycle
Responsible Recycling Standard (R2) BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide BS 8887-1:2006 Design for Manufature, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE) CEN/CLC/JTC 10 Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign CEN/TC 109 WG 6: Material Efficiency requirements for gas heating appliances; standard request for boilers under preparation CEN/TC 144 Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry CEN/TC 190 Foundry technology CEN/TC 249 Plastics CEN/TC 268 Cryogenic vessels and specific hydrogen technologies applications CEN/TC 350 Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products CEN/TC 366 Materials obtained from End-of-Life Tyres (ELT) CEN/TR 15353:2007 Plastics, recycled plastics - Guideline for the development of standards relating to recycled plasstics CEN/TR 16957:2018 Bio-based products CLC/TC 100X Ecodesign legislation for Electronic Desplays covering Material Efficiency (design for repair, reuse, dismantling and recycling, etc.) CLC/TC 9X Electrical and electronic applications for railways DIN SPEC 4866 Sustainable dismantling and recycling of wind turbines DIN SPEC 6745:2020 Recycled pulps -Direct determination of stickies by means of near-infrared measurement DIN SPEC 91421:2019 Quality assurance of recycling products from dry toilets for use in horticulture DIN SPEC 91436 Reference model for the design and application of zero-waste processes DIN EN 13432:2000 Packaging - Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation - Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging DIN EN 13440:2004 Packaging - Rate of recycling - Definition and method of calculation DIN EN 15342:2008 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of polystrene (PS) recyclates DIN EN 15343:2008 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content DIN EN 15344:2020 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of polyethylene (PE) recyclates DIN EN 15345:2008 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of polypropylene (PP) recyclates DIN EN 15346:2015 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) recyclates DIN EN 15347:2008 Plastics. Recycled Plastics. Characterization of Plastic waste DIN EN 15348:2015 Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) recyclates DIN EN 15978:2012 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of environmental performance of buildings - Calculation method DIN EN 16627:2015 Sustainability of construction works - Assessment of economic performance of buildings - Calculation methods DIN EN 45555:2020 Method to assess recyclability and recoverability DIN EN 45557:2020 Method to assess proportion of recycled content DIN EN 50625:2015 Collection, logistics and treatment requirements for WEEE ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics TS.EW.001 Recycling von WEEE EU WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC Responsibilities and targets for the collection. Recycling and recovery of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) FSC-STD-40-007 FSC Standard für den Nachweis von Recyclingmaterial für die Verwendung in FSC-Produktgruppen oder FSC-zertifizierten Projekten IEC 62309:2004 dependability of products containing used parts IEC TC 111 Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems IEC TC 56 Dependability IEC TR 62635:2012 Guidelines for end-of-life information provided by manufacturers and recyclers and for recyclability rate calculation of electrical and electronic equipment IEC TR 62824:2016 Guidance on material efficiency considerations in environmentally conscious design of electrical and electronic products ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems. Requirements with guidance for use ISO 14021:2016 Environmental labels and declarations - Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) ISO 15270:2008 Plastics - Guidelines for the recovery and recycling of plastic waste ISO 20887:2020 Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works - Design for disassembly and adaptability - Principles, requirements and guidance ISO Guide 82:2019 Guideline for addressing sustainability in standards ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards ISO/IWA 19:2017 Guidance principles for the sustainable management of secondary metals ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy GRS Global Recycle Standard RCS Recycled Claim Standard UL 110 Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones UL 2789 Environment Standard - Environmental Claim Validation Procedure for Calculation of Estimated Recyclability Rate VDI 2343 Recycling of electrical and electronic products VDI 2343 Recycling elektrischer und elektronischer Geräte XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 16: Findings Technical Cycle: Recycle193
5.1.3.2. EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework – Biological Cycle
The findings according to the biological cycle show a higher variety as the findings from the technical cycle. The highest number of standards is 29, which indicates, that 29 standards cover the topic of anaerobic digestions respectively composting. Biogas is mentioned in 23 and farming and collection in 14 standards. The topic of extraction of biochemical feedstock is named by 12 standards, followed by 8 standards that cover the aspects of biochemical feedstock itself. A low result of 3 standards contains the aspect of restoration according to the sample found in the internet.
193 Own table
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EMF Biological Cycle
extr action of bi ochem ica l feedstock 30
25
20 29 biochemical feedstock 15 12 anaerobic digestion/ composting
10
8 5
0
3 14
23 farming/ collection biogas
restoration Figure 12: Findings: All standards mapped to EMF Biological Cycle194
Following tables show the findings/ hits for the different categories of the biological cycle of the EMF in detail (according to the figure above). Some standards will be shown more than ones, because they match more than one category of the Ellen MacArthur Framework.
Extraction of biochemical feedstock
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide CEN/TC 12 Materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries CEN/TC 230 Water analysis CEN/TC 234 Gas infrastructure CEN/TC 237 Gas meters CEN/TC 383 Sustainably produced biomass for energy applications DIN EN 17399:2020 Algae and algaebased products or intermediates DIN EN 45558:2020 Declaration of use of CRMs ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 23560:2015 Woven polypropylene sacks for bulk packaging of foodstuffs ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards Table 17: Findings Biological Cycle: Extraction of biochemical feedstock195
194 Own figure 195 Own table
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Anaerobic digestion/ composting
AS 4736 Biodegradable Plastic-Biodegradable Plastics Suitable for Composting and other Microbial Treatment - Australian Capital Territory AS 5810:2010 Biodegradable plastics - Biodegradable plastics suitable for home composting BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide ASTM D5511 - 18 Standard Test Method for Determining Anaerobic Biodegradation of Plastic Materials Under High-Solids Anaerobic-Digestion Conditions ASTM D5975 Standard Test Method for determining the stability of compost by measuring oxygen consumption ASTM D6400 Standard Specification for Labeling of Plastics Designed to be Aerobically Composted in Municipal or Industrial Facilities CEN/TC 223 Soil improvers and growing media CEN/TC 411 Bio-based products CEN/TC 444 Environmental characterization of solid matrices CEN/TR 16957:2018 Bio-based products DIN EN 13432:2000 Packaging - Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation - Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging DIN EN 13725:2019 Emissionen aus stationären Quellen - Bestimmung der Geruchskonzentration durch dynamische Olfaktometrie und die Geruchsemissionsrate stationärer Quellen DIN EN 14045:2003 Packaging - Evaluation of the disintegration of packaging materials in practical oriented tests under defined composting conditions DIN EN 14995:2007 Plastics - Evaluation of compostability - Test scheme and specifications ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics prEN 17427 Verpackung - Anforderung und Prüfschema für Tragetaschen, die für die Behandlung in gut geführten Hauskompostieranlagen geeignet sind ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 14021:2016 Environmental labels and declarations - Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) ISO 14855:2012 Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions - Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide ISO 15985:2014 Plastics - Determination of the ultimate anaerobic biodegradation and disintegration under high-solids anaerobic-digestion conditions - Method by analysis of released biogas ISO 20675:2018 Biogas - Biogas production, conditioning, upgrading and utilization - Terms, definitions and classification scheme ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards SR2010 No 15 Anaerobic digestion facility including use of the resultant biogas SR2012 No 11 - Anaerobic digestion facility including use of the resultant biogas UNI 11183 biodegradability requirements of plastic materials ÖNORM S 2122:2013 Soils from waste ÖNORM S 2201:2020 Organic waste for biological utilization - Requirements ÖNORM S 2206-1:2004 Requirements for a quality assurance system for the production of composts - Part 1: Principles for quality assurance of a company and of the internal technical processes composting XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 18: Findings Biological Cycle: Anaerobic digestion/ composting196
Biogas
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide CEN/TC 234 Gas infrastructure CEN/TC 237 Gas meters CEN/TC 326 Natural gas vehicles - Fuelling and operation CEN/TC 408 Natural gas and biomethane for use in transport and biomethane for injection in the natural gas network CEN/TC 411 Bio-based products DIN EN 16723:2017 Natural gas and biomethane for use in transport and biomethane for injection in the natural gas network (Parts 1,2) DIN EN 16726:2019 Gas infrastructure - Quality of gas - Group H ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 13686:2013 Natural gas - Quality designation ISO 14064:2019 Greenhouse gases ISO 14067:2018 Greenhouse gases - Carbon footprint of products - Requirements and guidelines for quantification ISO 14532:2014 Natural Gas - Standard reference conditions ISO 15985:2014 Plastics - Determination of the ultimate anaerobic biodegradation and disintegration under high-solids anaerobic-digestion conditions - Method by analysis of released biogas ISO 20675:2018 Biogas - Biogas production, conditioning, upgrading and utilization - Terms, definitions and classification scheme ISO 35103:2020 Petroleum and natural gas industries - Arctic operations - Environmental monitoring (ISO 35103:2017) ISO 35104:2020 Petroleum and natural gas industries - Arctic operations - Ice management (ISO 35104:2018) ISO 6974-1:2012 Natural gas - Determination of composition and associated uncertainty by gas chromatography - Part 1: General guidelines and calculation of composition ISO 6976:2016 Natural Gas - Calculation of calorific values, density, relative density and Wobbe indices from composition ISO/TC 193 Biomethane ISO/TC 255 Biogas ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 19: Findings Biological Cycle: Biogas197
Restoration
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide CEN/TR 16957:2018 Bio-based products ISO Guide 82:2019 Guideline for addressing sustainability in standards Table 20: Findings Biological Cycle: Restoration198
196 Own table 197 Own table 198 Own table
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Farming/ collection
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO 11290-2:2017 Microbiology of the food chain - Horizontal method for the detection and enumeration of Listeria monocytogenes and of Listeria spp. - Part 2: Enumeration method ISO 11783-2:2019 Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry - Serial control and communications data network - Part 2: Physical layer ISO 16119:2013 Agricultural and forestry machinery - Environmental requirements for sprayers ISO 22000:2018 Food safety management systems - Requirements for any organization in the food chain (ISO 22000:2018) ISO 6489-5:219 Agricultural vehicles. Mechanical connections betrween towed and towing vehicles ISO/TC 190 /SC 2 Chemical methods and soil characteristics ISO/TC 207 /SC 7 Environmental Management Systems - Greenhouse Gas Management ISO/TC 23 /SC 19 Agricultural electronics ISO/TC 282 /SC 1 Standards on treated wastewater ISO/TS 22002-3:2011 Safe farming PD CEN/TR 17341:2019 Bio-based products. Examples of reporting on sustainability criteria XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines Table 21: Findings: Biological Cycle: Farming/ collection199
Biochemical feedstock
BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide CEN/TC 12 Materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries CEN/TC 444 Environmental characterization of solid matrices DIN EN 19694-1:2016 Stationary source emissions - Determination of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in energy-intensive industries - Part 1: General aspects ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems - Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy Table 22: Findings Biological Cycle: Biochemical feedstock200
5.1.3.3. Comparison with Perinorm and DIN Infopoint
According to the information from the informal telephone calls with DIN201 and ASI202, the result of the research in the internet is compared with professional software for standards. The same search strings that are utilized for the research in the internet (orange line) are applied in the software available at the DIN Infopoint (blue line) and in the Perinorm software (grey line). The following figure shows the differences in hits from the three different applications.
199 Own table 200 Own table 201 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020a); (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b) 202 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020b)
November 12, 2020 Petty Pumsleitner 53
Figure 13: Findings: Ratio of hits from internet (Master Thesis sample) compared to hits from professional standards software203
The findings from the internet shown with the orange line (inner circle) depict the lowest result (number of standards) for each category of the EMF. The result from the DIN Infopoint with the blue line (middle circle) indicates the next higher level of findings according to the categories. The grey line (outer circle) from Perinorm illustrates the most findings as expected, because it contains the data bases of standards from DIN, ASI and AFNOR together. The highest number of standards is shown for farming and collection (340.666 standards), followed by maintenance and repair with 73.055 standards and mining and materials manufacturing with 21.392 standards. Recycling leads to a number of 5.417 standards and reuse and redistribute is mentioned by 2.345 standards. From the biological point of view, anaerobic digestion and composting leads to 1.360 and biogas to 600 standards.
203 Own figure
November 12, 2020 Petty Pumsleitner 54
The result of this high number of standards is confirmed by two employees of DIN. With the task of finding all standards that are related to Circular Economy with utilizing key words like recycling or remanufacturing leads to an extraordinary high number of standards. The strategy of finding standards by applying key word, as mentioned before, leads to an unsatisfying result of numerous standards that do not indicate if the standard is fully covering the aspect of e.g. remanufacturing as it is meant in terms of Circular Economy. Two employees of DIN are emphasizing the meaning, thus the definition of the key word/ category of EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework, which is not – in all cases – equal to the definition of the key word in the existing standards found in the database.204
The next level of analysis provides an even closer look into standards and or guidelines for Circular Economy.
5.1.4. Level 3: Selected sample – Coverage of >50% of EMF categories
Level 3 comprises all standards that cover more than 50% of the EMF Ellen MacArthur Framework categories, thus 6 or more categories within one standard. This further analysis leads to a result of following 6 standards (also shown in the figure below):
1. BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the Circular Economy in organizations, 2. ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2:2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) – Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) – Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics, 3. ISO/DIS 14009:2020 (E) Environmental management systems – Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development, 4. ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards, 5. ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy and 6. XP X30-901:2018 Circular Economy. Circular Economy project management system – Requirements and guidelines.
Technical Cycle Biological Cycle
Title of document Mining/ materials manufacturing Maintenance/ repair Reuse/ redistribute refurbish/ remanufacture recycle extraction of biochemical anaerobic digestion/ Biogas Restoration Farming/ collection Biochemical feedstock BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations. Guide 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ETSI TR 103476 V 1.1.2: 2018 Environmental Engineering (EE) - Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ISO/DIS 14009:2020 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ISO Guide 84:2020 Guideline for addressing climate change in standards 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy 1 1 1 1 1 1 XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy . Circular economy project management system - Requirements and guidelines 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Table 23: Level 3: Selected sample – Coverage of >50% of EMF categories 205
204 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020e) and (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020a) 205 Own figure
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The result shows the variety of the standards. Two of the standards are from the national standardization organizations BSI British Standards Institute and from the French standardization institute AFNOR. The other four findings are internationally focused. Withal, one finding is a TC Technical Committee that is working on an international standard for Circular Economy, the ISO/TC 323.
The six standards are analyzed in following chapter separately.
5.2. Circular Economy Standards in Detail and Development Process
5.2.1. BS 8001:2017 Framework for implementing the principles of the Circular Economy in organizations
This British standard provides terms and definitions, principles, management framework, implementation suggestions, strategies and a description of aspects needed, and which are related to Circular Economy. But it is already proofed, that a connection is missing between the BS 8001 and existing tools for quantification of specific data, relevant to support Circular Economy development in organizations (e.g. LCA, MFA, MFCA).206
The BS 8001 is a British standard and the first standard regarding Circular Economy published by an accredited standardization organization in 2017.207 According to the executive briefing about the standard it is developed to provide a practical approach to holistically rethink the organization’s business model and to achieve beneficial results in a short term perspective. Compared to other standards like ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems or ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, the BS 8001 is not a requirement but rather a guidance. Thus, it cannot be certified. The standard consists of two main parts. The first deals about Circular Economy knowledge in general, the second provides the reader with guidance how to implement Circular Economy principles into the organization.208
Section 1 The first section explains the relations of Circular Economy with resource efficiency, zero waste, bioeconomy and lean thinking. Furthermore, benefits for organizations are described and the resilience of the economic system as well as resilience of the
206 See (Pauliuk 2018), p. 81 207 See (BSI British Standards Institutions 2017a) 208 See (BSI 2017)
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organization is mentioned. This section closes with insights on customer relationships and challenges for different organizations in terms of Circular Economy specifics.
Section 2 deals about guiding principles that are indicated with following headings: § System thinking, § Innovation, stewardship, § Collaboration, § Value optimization and § Transparency.209
The following figure shows the excerpt from the standard in the professional standards management system from the DIN Infopoint. The title clearly points out, that this standard is a guideline, but classified as “Norm” (English: standard)210 under “Dokumentenart” (English: document type)211.
Figure 14: BS 8001: excerpt of general information from DIN Infopoint212
Furthermore, the excerpt shows the german search strings for this standard, that do not contain “Zirkuläre Wirtschaft” nor “Zirkularität”, but “Nachhaltigkeit” (English: Circular Economy, Circularity, sustainability)213.
209 See (BSI British Standards Institutions 2017b) 210 Note from the author 211 Note from the author 212 DIN Infopoint 213 Note from the author
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5.2.2. XP X30-901:2018 Circular economy – Circular economy project management system – Requirements and Guidelines
The XP X30-901 is a French standard published in 2018 by the national standardization organization AFNOR under the English title Circular economy – Circular economy project management system – requirements and guidelines.214 Similar to the BS 8001, this standard intends to present an holistic view on Circular Economy and provides a general approach for projects regarding Circular Economy.215
The scope of the standard is national and addresses organizations to improve their economic, environmental and societal performance, thus contributing to Circular Economy. The limitation on project management is no restriction on the type or portfolio of the organization as the standard emphasizes all activities that lead to an improvement for latter mentioned aspects.216
The XP X30-901 is structured according to the ISO table of contents for management standards with Scope, Normative References, Terms and Definitions, Context of the Organization, Leadership, Planning, Support, Operation, Performance Evaluation and Improvement. The Circular Economy specific part is summarized under the project management system and areas of action in chapter 4 as shown in the figure below.217
Figure 15: XP X30-901 Circular Economy table of contents218
214 See (AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation 2018d) 215 See (AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation 2018a) 216 See (AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation 2018b) 217 See (AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation 2018c) 218 (AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation 2018c)
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The following figure shows the excerpt from the standard in the professional standards management system from the DIN Infopoint. The title clearly points out, that this standard is a requirement and a guideline, but classified as Norm (English: standard)219 under Dokumentenart (English: document type)220.
Figure 16: XP X30-901: excerpt of general information from DIN Infopoint221
5.2.3. ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy
With the ISO/TC 323, the international standardization organization steps forward with the first international standard about Circular Economy in close cooperation with national standardization organisations. This standard is aiming to be a management system standard as ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 for instance.222
By addressing Circular Economy, the standard supports 16 of 17 SDGs Sustainability Development Goals of the United Nations (except SDG 17 Partnerships for the goals).223
The proposal for the new standard was handed in by the French standardization organization AFNOR in June 2018 with the proposed title Circular Economy as a new field of technical
219 Note from the author 220 Note from the author 221 DIN Infopoint 222 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b), p. 18 223 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020f)
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activity.224 Three month later the technical committee at ISO was created and the first meeting took place in my 2019 with approximately 120 experts from 47 different countries.225 AFNOR is one main driver for standardization in the field of Circular Economy, i.a. with their standard XP X30-901. In March 2019 AFNOR organized a G7 workshop about more resource efficient and circular value chains fostering standardization. They point out various benefits of standardizing the Circular Economy with the goal to provide an international framework for all stakeholders: § Facilitate multi-lateral communication between different stakeholders, § Facilitate best practice sharing, § Provide a framework for stakeholders to push Circular Economy projects.226
According to the national standardization body of Cyprus from 2019, the necessity for a new standard initially emerged because of world-wide economic, environmental and social challenges.227 Based on the latest version of the ISO/TC strategic business plan from February 2020, the standard is:
“giving a common understanding of what Circular Economy is, identifying new business models and establishing a framework and tools that any organization can adopt to help them integrate Circular Economy within their activities in an effective and systematic manner”228.
The benefits to develop a standard for the emerging broad field of Circular Economy are clearly defined in ISO’s business plan as shown in the figure below.
Figure 17: Benefits of ISO/TC 323229
The standard will provide tools for implementation of Circular Economy as well as definitions and requirements. It furthermore contains aspects from a political, economic, technical, regulatory and
224 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018a) 225 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019c), p. 1 226 See (Peyrat 2019) 227 See (Charalambous 2019), p. 3 228 (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019c), p. 6 229 (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2019c), p. 16
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legal as well as social perspectives, which reflects the broadness of the topic. Related ISO/TCs to ISO/TC 323 cover topics, such as: § ISO/TC 6 Paper, board and pulps § ISO/TC 22 Road vehicles, § ISO/TC 34 Food products or § ISO/TC 147 Water quality.230
The standard does not provide all environmental aspects that partly deal with Circular Economy. Those various environmental aspects that already exists in different standards are excluded, like: § ISO/TC 207 Ecodesign, § ISO 14040 Life cycle assessment or § ISO 20400 Sustainable procurement.231
Following structure is proposed for the new standard according to the proposal paper in 2018:
“Chapter Title 1 Scope 2 Normative references 3 Terms and definitions 4 Context of the organization, i.a.: § expectations of interested parties § Determining the scope of the management system of Circular Economy project § Purpose of Circular Economy § Contribution to sustainable development § Industrial symbiosis § Economy of functionality § Sustainable consumption § Life use extension § Effective management of materials and end-of-life of product 5 Implementation of a management system of a project contribution to Circular Economy (i.a. assessment and action plan) 6 Leadership (i.a. commitment, roles, responsibilities) 7 Planning (i.a. risks and opportunities, objectives of Circular Economy projects) 8 Support (i.a. resources, competence, communication, documentation) 9 Operation (i.a. planning and control) 10 Performance evaluation (i.a. monitoring, internal audit, management review) 11 Improvement (i.a. corrective action, continuous improvement)”
Table 24: Proposed structure of ISO/TC 323232
230 See (Charalambous 2019), p. 7 231 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018a), p. 2 232 Own table, based on (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018a), p. 10
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Within this ISO/TC 323 following working groups are defined at the beginning of 2020:
Structure/ Title Working Group ISO/ TC 323/CAG Chairman’s Advisory Group ISO/ TC 323/WG 1 Principles, Framework, Terminology, Management System Standards ISO/ TC 323/WG 2 Guidance for implementation and sectoral applications ISO/ TC 323/WG 3 Measuring circularity ISO/ TC 323/WG 4 Specific issues of Circular Economy
Table 25: ISO/TC 323 working groups233
The participating members are 70 from Argentina, Australia, Germany or Zimbabwe. The observing members are 11, i.a. Austria, Israel, Panama or Togo.234 Besides the participating members from national standardization organizations there are also organizations involved: § ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization, § ECOS European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardization, § Ellen MacArthur Foundation, § GRI Global Reporting Initiative, § UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization, § WBCSD World Business Council for Sustainable Development.235
5.2.3.1. DIN: NA 172-00-14-01 AK
The standards committee NA 172-00-14-01 AK is a working group explicitly dedicated from the national German standardization institute DIN to research on the topic of Circular Economy in regard to create specifications and standards to support a holistic implementation of Circular Economy into praxis in the lead of Angelina Patel236. This working group is a mirror committee for the ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy as shown in the picture below.
233 Own table, based on (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020g) 234 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020h) 235 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020i) 236 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b)
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Figure 18: NA 172-00-14-01 AK "Circular Economy" - Mirror Committee of DIN for ISO/TC 323237
The standards committee is working on different projects as listed below:
Document number Start of project Title ISO/CD TR 59031 May 2020 Circular Economy – Perfomance based approach – Analysis of cases studies ISO/WD 59004 May 2020 Circular Economy – Rahmenbedingungen und Grundsätze für die Umsetzung ISO/WD 59010 May 2020 Circular Economy – Leitfaden zu Geschäftsmodellen und Wertschöpfungsketten ISO/WD 59020 May 2020 Circular Economy – Rahmenbedingungen zur Messung der Zirkularität
Table 26: sub-projects of ISO/TC 323238
The committee consist of 35 experts, which is an extraordinary extended group compared to the standard size of DIN committees with a maximum of 21 members. In this special case the interest in the topic of Circular Economy is higher as expected and especially broad, which attracts the attention of various stakeholders. The members are representatives from economy, environmental parties, researchers and teachers. The goal is to include members from as many various fields of interest as possible. DIN receives the updated versions of ISO/TC 323 working papers from the respective working groups with the possibility to comment.239
237 (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020f) 238 Own table, based on (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020k) 239 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b)
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5.2.3.2. ASI: Committee 157 Waste Management
The committee 157 is the dedicated mirror committee for ISO/TC 323, managed by Mrs. DI Lisa Katrin Filzmaier. The committee exclusively exists of external partners as seen in the table below with respective group.
Number of Excerpt of participants participants
Committee 157 36 § Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Energie, Mobilität, Waste management Innovation und Technologie § Energie AG § Lenzing AG § ÖBB- Infrastruktur AG § OMV Austria Exploration&Production GmbH Figure 19: Participants of ASI Committee 157240
The experts are sent from their companies to participate and exchange their knowledge to contribute to the national and international standardization work. The participation is voluntary.
Currently, the committee has an observer status, which is decided by the committee and allows to comment on ISO/TC 323 status papers/ drafts. The experts decide themselves how they want to contribute the ISO/TC 323, thus the status could also change into an active member. The committee 157 Waste management is chosen as this existing committee suits best to the topic of ISO/TC 323 (no existing committee or projects dedicated explicitly for Circular Economy). Withal, experts align among different committees if interfaces exist, e.g. committee 199 Biological processing and exploration of waste (also managed by DI Lisa Filzmaier).241
5.2.4. ISO/DIS 14009:2020 (E) Environmental management systems – Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development
This standard is in liaison with ISO/TC 323 and under development with an expected publishing date in the end of 2020. ISO 14009 is product of the ISO/TC 207/SC 1/WG 12 Material circulation of products and is a management standard.242 The technical committee consist of 69 participating members (national standardization organizations), such as Austria and Germany and of 29 observing members, such as Armenia, Belarus or Eswatini.243 ISO 14009 is part of the general
240 See (ASI Austrian Standards International 2020f) 241 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020a) 242 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020c) 243 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020e)
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environmental management system standards series 14000, which is being extended with circularity aspects in regard to Circular Economy.
The standard contributes to the UN’s SDG Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.244
The scope of the standard is international. It aims to provide a systematic approach for organizations to manage the re-design and re-development of their existing product and product component portfolio towards material circulation based on the framework of the general Environmental Management System (as depicted in the ISO 14001). The overall goals are to: § Improvement of assembly and disassembly possibilities of products, thus § reduce usage of material, § increase usage of used material (recovery), by simplifying material types and manufacturing as well as assembly processes to enhance material circulation.245
According to the current draft version of ISO/DIS 14009 the standard has following structure, which contains the same chapter headings as ISO/TC 323 and other standard guidelines:
Chapter Title 1 Scope 2 Normative references 3 Terms and definitions Context of the organization, i.a.: 4 § Environmental Management System 5 Leadership (i.a. commitment, environmental policy, responsibilities) 6 Planning (i.a. risks and opportunities and objectives of material efficiency) 7 Support (i.a. resources, competence, communication, documentation) 8 Operation (i.a. planning and control) 9 Performance evaluation (i.a. monitoring, internal audit, management review) 10 Improvement (i.a. corrective action, continuous improvement)
§ Relationship between Circular Economy and material circulation Annex § Material flow in material circulation § Case study on redesign of existing product Figure 20: ISO/DIS 14009 Table of Contents246
244 See (ISO 2020) 245 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020d) 246 (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), pp. iii
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Following sections give more specific insights about the standard’s content based on the draft version from March 2020.
Chapter 3 provides concise definitions of most recent Circular Economy related words, such as redesign, ecodesign, circular readiness, post-consumer material, material circulation and efficiency as well as disassembly, dismantling, durability, reuse, refurbishing or biological recycling.247
Chapter 6 Planning provides risks and opportunities of products and product components according to seven material strategies: 1. “Increase recycled content, 2. Select materials that can be easily recycled, 3. Avoid the use of problematic substances, 4. Ensure availability of spare parts, 5. Reuse of parts, 6. Product reuse/remanufacture and 7. Legal requirements for products or parts to be reused, remanufactured or, otherwise, recycled.”248
Furthermore, the planning chapter specifies actions, how to achieve an increased material efficiency. This approach is illustrated in four steps to achieve a product with according to the material circulation aspect.
247 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 3-9 248 (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 16
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•types of materials •recycled content circular-readiness •how to assembly, disassembly, dismantling status
•well selected material material •facilitation of reuse, remanufacturing etc. circulation strategy
•increase recycled content, selection of material with low environmental impact •decrease amount of various types of materials design for material •improve: maintenance, upgrade, reuse, refurbish, remanufacturing etc. circulation
•increased material circulation improved product
Figure 21: ISO/DIS 14009 Process to achieve a circular ready design249
To achieve a circular ready design, as depicted in the figure above, it starts with an analysis about the potential of the material within the product to be circulated. The second step is decisive for the result of the improved product, as the strategy must be defined for the future products. Thus, defining what needs to be improved to develop products that allow material circulation. Afterwards specific targets and measures must be chosen.250
Following sub-chapters specify each of above-mentioned step with even more details and examples, which supports organizations to understand the topic of Circular Economy and to support the implementation systematically.
Chapter 8 Operations is from upmost importance, as it provides the reader with i.a. material circulation versus design strategies according to the five lifecycle phases: raw material extraction, material processing, production, distribution and use phase. Each strategy is described in detail in more than twelve sub-chapters in the standard. Also, various figures illustrate the circularity and indicate new business models.251
249 Own figure based on (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 20 250 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), pp. 20 251 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 26-32
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The bibliography of the standard shows interfaces to different existing standards dealing with separated aspects of Circular Economy, such as:
§ ISO 26000 Guidance on social responsibility, § ISO 15270 Plastics, § IEC/ISO/FDIS 62430 Environmental Conscious Design (ECD), § EN 45552 – 45559 General methods for assessing durability, remanufacturing, repair, reuse, upgrade, recyclability, reused components, recycled material, critical raw material, material efficiency aspects of energy-related products, § ETSI TR 103 476 Environmental Engineering (EE); Circular Economy (CE) in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and § BS 8001 Framework for implementing the principles of the Circular Economy in organizations – Guide.252
5.2.5. ETSI TR 103 476:2018 Environmental Engineering (EE); Circular Economy (CE) in Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Definition of approaches, concepts and metrics
The ETSI TR 103 476 is also one of the standards that covers most of the Ellen MacArthur Framework aspects for Circular Economy. In regard to information and communication technology, the standard deals with aspects and parameters that affect the environment, structured according to the lifecycle stages similar to the ISO/DIS 14009.
For the stage of raw material, chapter 7.1 depicts recycled content, the usage of critical raw materials as well as the proportion and usage of reused parts. For the usage stage, chapter 7.2 mentions following circularity considerations: § durability, § upgradability, § removability and § reparability. For the end-of-life stage, defined in chapter 7.3, following aspects are considered: § reuse, § recycle, § recover, § refurbish and § remanufacturing.253
252 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b), p. 42-43 253 See (ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute 2018), p. 3-4
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As this standard is not published by an accredited national or international standardization organization its free of charge and available for the public as download from the ETSI homepage.
5.2.6. ISO Guide 84:2020 Guidelines for addressing climate change in standards
The ISO Guide 84 also fulfils more than 70% of the Circular Economy aspects from the Ellen MacArthur Framework and therefore is presented in this chapter.
The guide is product of the technical management board and aims to provide a framed guidance for the development of standards that shall deal with climate change aspects, thus contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action. The target group are developers for standards.254
As well as in other ISO standards, the Guide 84 is structured into Scope, Normative references and terms and definitions. As an introduction, climate changed is addressed with general explanations. Followed by the main content about how to implement climate change and climate change issues like Greenhouse Gases or financing aspects into standards.255
5.3. Development process and certification
This research investigation shows, that the development process of standards related to Circular Economy in regard to ISO/TC 323 and ISO 14009 do not vary from the general standard process of standards-development as the organization is committed and thus obliged to keep the standard process for all different kinds of standards.256
From the perspective of a certification body, as Quality Austria, Circular Economy is hard to reach for a business case at the moment. C2C represents the only certifiable standard at the moment, which is a private standard and therefor voluntary. Compared to ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems is a requirement.257
254 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020k) 255 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020l) 256 Note from the author: One deviation was identified in terms of the number of participants in the national ASI mirror committee for ISO/TC 323 as stated in the chapters above. 257 See (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020a)
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5.4. Standardization initiatives for Circular Economy
5.4.1. European Green Deal
In June 2020 CEN and CENELEC published a report about standards that support the European Green Deal. The committees clearly point out that standards support the transitions and opening of markets towards a Circular Economy in terms of: § Production, § Consumption, § Infrastructures, § Utilization of resources § Functions of transportations systems.258
Above mentioned report provides a first overview of existing and draft standards relevant for the support of the European Green Deal mapped according to following categories as showed below with three examples each:
GREEN DEAL STANDARDIZATION EXAMPLES HEADING/ CATEGORY Climate ambition CEN/TC 234 Gas infrastructures CEN/TC 530 Carbon footprint EN 61010 Safety requirements for electrical equipment Clean, affordable and CEN/TC 12 Standardization of the material, equipment and offshore secure energy structures used in the drilling/pipelines EN 17038 series Pumps CLC/TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems Industrial strategy for a EN ISO 17989-1 Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry clean and Circular EN 15978 Sustainability of construction works Economy CEN/TC 248 Standardization of the following aspects of textiles, textile products and textile components of products Sustainable and smart CEN/TC 278 Intelligent transport systems (ITS) mobility CEN/TC 268 Hydrogen for vehicles CEN/TC Standardization of applications in the field of railways Greening the common CEN/TC 260 Fertilizers and liming material agricultural policy / ‘farm CEN/TC 455 The verification of product claims for plant biostimulants to fork’ strategy CEN/TC 415 Sustainable and Traceable Cocoa
258 See (CEN European Committee for Standardization and CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization 2020), p. 1
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Preserving and protecting CEN/TC 144 Standards for reliable and safer gardening tools biodiversity EN 13406 Agricultural machinery – Slurry tankers and spreading devices EN ISO 16119 series Environmental requirements for sprayers Towards a zero-pollution CEN/TC 462 Regulated chemicals in products ambition for a toxic free CEN Guide 16 for addressing chemicals in standards for consumer- environment relevant products Standards for water, air and soil (idea) Mainstreaming Sustainable finance-related standardization initiatives (idea) sustainability in all EU Reporting on sustainability and energy (idea) policies Promotion of innovation (idea) The EU as a global leader ENs to be basis for international standards for a strong international cooperation Working together – a EN 61010 series Climate friendly refrigerants European climate pact SABE: Strategic Advisory Body on Environment ACCCG: Adaption to Climate Change Coordination Group
Table 27: Green Deal headings for standardization support259
ECOS, the European Environmental Citizens’ Organization for Standardization, published a report in April 2020 that points out, that standards have the potential to support the European Green Deal. But the organization clearly advices that standardization activities must be available on time and methods must be appropriate. ECOS emphasizes product design as the most important aspect to achieve a reduction of environmental impacts, which will be mirrored in the possibility for product durability, repairability, upgradability, reuse and remanufacturing as well as the identification of chemical content in the material and more. The ECOS report underlines the Green Deal headings, with examples as mentioned in the table above, to promote Circular Economy in its broad field of application.260
The latest communication of the European Commission in September 2020 states, that the EU committed to lead by example i.a. with deploying global standards for the environment, such as more stringent standards for emission aspects for road transport, cars and vans, product efficiency, renewable energy, transport policy and many more.261
259 Own table based on (CEN European Committee for Standardization and CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization 2020), pp. Annex II 1-6 260 See (ECOS European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardization 2020) 261 See (Commission to the European Parliament The Council; European Economic and Social Committee; Committee of the Regions 2020), pp. 4-23
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5.4.2. SABE
In March 2020 a European initiative was founded to coordinate the standardization activities between CEN and CENELEC, managed by the national standardization organization NEN Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute. SABE, the Strategic Advisory Board on Environment, acts as a joint group to define the way of how all actors on the market are doing business with common agreements – facilitated by accepted standards beyond national borders. The joint group pursues a horizontal approach to cover as many aspects of the broad field of Circular Economy as possible. The main task is to develop proposals for a more effective prioritization of standardization activities for CEN/CENELEC and coordinate technical committees in the creation of new or adjustment of existing standards. NEN emphasizes the challenges in standardization as there are already many existing standards that address aspects of Circular Economy. Thus, the joint group draws attention on avoiding duplications. The members of the joint group can vary from standardization institutions as ISO and representatives from industry (the members are not defined yet262).263
5.4.3. HARMONI
HARMONI is a German research project to close the gap between European process industry and non-technological barriers (“Harmonised assessment of regulatory bottlenecks and standardisation needs for the process industry”). DIN analyses the field of standardization with the goal to increase the participation in the standard creation process from various industries, as well as the access to valid standards.264
Based on the Action plan of the HARMONI project from August 2019 there is also a recommendation for actions in the field of Circular Economy. The report emphasizes the need for guidance in following fields:
§ General guidance for the implementation of Circular Economy, § Implementation of the life-cycle-thinking, § Direct and indirect impacts on the environment, § Requirements for quality assurance, § Aspects that decrease pollution and energy consumption, as well as, § Definitions of products, resources and waste and § Connection of Circular Economy with eco-design, industrial symbiosis and Life-Cycle- Assessment, § Guideline on utilization of complete recycling of materials (end-of-lifetime),
262 Note from the author 263 See (NEN Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute 2020) 264 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020r)
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§ Guideline for feasibility of recycled material for further usage in other applications. Furthermore, HARMONI emphasizes, that the development of specific methodologies is important to holistically implement the circularity into industrial processes. This means, i.a. methodologies to measure the aspects of the technological cycle of the Ellen MacArthur Framework.265
5.4.4. ConCirMy
ConCirMY is a german project to configure the requirements of Circular Economy based on the example of manufacturing. DIN contributes with the creation of specifications, according to latest research project results. Subsequently, DIN is responsible to transform the national specification into an international standard, such as CEN or ISO.266
265 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b), p. 17-19 266 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020q)
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6. Discussion and conclusion
6.1. Standards for the Circular Economy
In the chapter about the fundamentals of Circular Economy the developments of Circular Economy are depicted with the transition from the classical linear take-make-waste process267 towards the circular process when the loops are closed268. Stahel explains the Circular Economy by saying that products should not be repaired when not broken, not be remanufactured when they can be repaired and not be recycled when they can be remanufactured and demands business models that support the realization of the loop system, i.a. to keep the ownership of the products as long as possible.269
Thus, it needs more than just changing the system of production and consumption270 and slightly adapting existing business models. Hence, the subsequent chapter highlighted standards and their benefits. With ISO, as the highest international standardization organization and many national standardization organizations as DIN and ASI, knowledge is consolidated from a community of experts271 to achieve high value along the entire value chain272 and general innovation273. As emphasized in the subsequent chapter, standardization in the field of Circular Economy is inevitable to not just achieve global environmental goals274 but also obtain Circular Economy business models275. The results of this Master Thesis show a high participation of international and national standardization organizations with the publications of standards related to Circular Economy. Chapter 5.1.2. gives an insight about the number of standards found per standardization organization. It is seen, that most of the standards are developed under the roof of ISO, followed by the European standardization organizations CEN/CENELEC and IEC. Further standards belong to national or private standardization organizations like DIN, VDI, C2C Institute or UL.
The relative higher number of European standards compared to the international or other national than European organizations might be an indicator of the European Green Deal Action Plan for Circular Economy and the declaration for standardization needs in this field of application.276 Projects like SABE and HARMONI are supporting these standardization activities additionally on
267 See (Andersen 2007), p. 134 268 See (Stahel 1984), p. 74 269 See (Stahel 2010), p. 179 270 See (Pitt and Heinemeyer 2015), p. 246 271 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004), p. 12 272 See (Ellmer 2014), pp. 4 273 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2015), p. 3 274 See (European Commission 2019); (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020f) 275 See (Institute of Design Research Vienna and Designaustria 2019) 276 See (Commission to the European Parliament The Council; European Economic and Social Committee; Committee of the Regions 2020), pp. 4-23; (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020a)
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a European and German basis277. In one interview with Quality Austria it was additionally emphasized, that the new EFQM Excellence Model contains requirements in terms of SDGs and Circular Economy. Thus, an application for the EFQM Excellence Model presumes verifiable actions in the respective company.278 This development might demand further specific standards and implementation guidelines for Circular Economy for the industry.
The research has also proven the increasing development of Circular Economy standardization, especially in terms of the different fields of activity as mentioned in chapter 2.3.2. DIN founded a separate department for Circular Economy, which started with a few focus areas, such as additive manufacturing or wood industry. The interview with DIN confirmed increasing standardization activities and increasing interest in updating existing standards with Circular Economy specifics.279 Due to the findings from the interview, more and more focus areas are added whenever there are new working groups updating or developing standards with Circular Economy specifics (which is presented on DIN’s web page). Thus, the seven focus areas as described in the theoretical foundation under chapter 2.3.3 are already completed with e.g. textile, recycling and maritime technology within a short period of some month. Furthermore, one interview with DIN confirmed the rising interest in Circular Economy standardization, as there are for instance 35 experts in the committee for Circular Economy at DIN instead of 21, which actually is the maximum number of participants for such expert committees.280
6.2. Standards relation to the Ellen MacArthur Framework
Chapter 2.1.4. refers to different schools of thought that frame the Circular Economy into economic, environmental, technological or societal dimensions.281 Amongst C2C Cradle-to- Cradle, which is primarily explored and explained by Braungart et al. as a system with biological and technical nutrients, where materials are returned back to the earth as they were once extracted,282 the Ellen MacArthur Butterfly Diagram283 was chosen to represent and map the standards of Circular Economy in a systematic manner. Chapter 2.3.2. elaborated different studies and papers about ongoing standardization efforts in terms of Circular Economy. Such as a study of Morsoletto from 2020 i.a. about the targets for a Circular Economy, which confirms that the development of resource-efficient standards would be beneficial to reach the targets. The author refers to an increase of reuse if proper standards would exist, which would also enhance modularity systems in reuse.284
277 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020r, 2020q; NEN Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute 2020) 278 See (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020a) 279 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c) 280 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020d); (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b) 281 See (Pomponi and Moncaster 2017), p- 710-715 282 See (Braungart et al. 2007), pp.1343 283 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013), p. 24 284 See (Morseletto 2020), pp. 3-7
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Though, Circular Economy and the Ellen MacArthur Butterfly Diagram do not just refer to reuse but also to mining/materials manufacturing, maintenance and repair, redistribute, refurbish and remanufacturing or recycling from the technical point of view. From the biological point of view, categories such as anaerobic digestion/ composing, biogas or farming also act equally important according to fields of standardization, which is also shown by the results of this study project. Reuse, as mentioned in the study above, reached the second highest number of standards. However, most of the standards, in terms of the technical cycle, makes the recycling aspect.
Additional research shows, that this result from the internet does not match the result from Perinorm, as top 1 there - from the technical point of view - is maintenance and repair (73.055 standards), followed by mining and materials manufacturing (21.392 standards). Coming back to a study of McKinsey, that emphasized missing global standards, e.g. for recycling285 is not in line with the research investigation of this Master Thesis. The findings show, that recycling, for instance, is covered by a mixture of national and international/ global standards, such as the global R2 Responsible Recycling Standard or ISO 15270:2008 Plastics – Guideline for the recovery and recycling of plastic waste. However, the findings also indicate a higher number of European standards (with focus on plastic materials) compared to global standards (see chapter 5.1.3.1).
Nevertheless, the findings indicate a higher volume of vertical standards (material-, products- and process standards) compared to general system management standards and guidelines (horizontal standards) as shown in chapter 5.1.3. For instance, the series of DIN EN 4555X appears separately for maintenance/ repair (DIN EN 45552:2020 Method for the assessment of the durability of energy-related products & DIN EN 45554:2020 Method for the assessment of the ability to repair, reuse and upgrade of energy-related products), as well as for refurbish/ remanufacture (DIN EN 45553:2020 Method for the assessment of the ability to remanufacture & DIN EN 45554 as mentioned also for repair) and also for recycle (DIN EN 45555:2020 Method to assess recyclability and recoverability & DIN EN 45557:2020 Method to assess proportion of recycled content).
A different result is shown by analysing the findings according to the fulfilment of more than six of the categories of the Ellen MacArthur Framework. The evaluation on Level 3 revealed six documents that cover more than 50% of all eleven categories of the Ellen MacArthur Framework. Thus, these documents provide a broader perspective of Circular Economy as the results on Level 2, as mentioned above, which also is a goal of the above-mentioned project SABE.286
285 See (McKinsey&Company 2016), pp. 3 - 35 286 See (NEN Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute 2020)
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Chapter 5.1.4 shows the results, whereas four of the documents represent management and system standards, such as the BS 8001:2017 Circular Economy or the guideline ISO/DIS 14009:2020 Environmental Management Systems – Guidelines for incorporating material circulation in design and development, that are commonly speaking horizontal standards.
Therefore, ISO/DIS 14009 by definition is an approved document from a recognized standardization organization with specifications aligned by experts from science, technology and operations.287 However, the ISO/DIS 14009 is not per se a certifiable standard, though it is a guideline and part of the ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems family (with ISO 14001 as a requirement, thus certifiable). Professional software for the management of standards like Perinorm or DIN Infopoint classify the ISO/DIS 14009 explicitly as a standard. For outsiders and non-experts these details turn out to be confusing and almost impossible to clarify when not supported by experts like a certification body. Similar phenomenon appears with the BS 8001, that is by title a “guide”, but also classified as a Norm (English: standard)288 as Dokumentenart (English: document type)289. Different to the standard XP X30-901 Circular economy – Circular economy project management system – Requirements and Guidelines as elaborated in chapter 5.2.2., which is by title a requirement and a guideline standard, thus actually applicable for a certification.
In this regard, a differentiation needs to be done between a certifiable and non-certifiable standard. As chapter 2.2.4 outlines, the certification or conformity assessment confirms the quality and functionality of a product to be legitimized on the economic market.290 As long as standards like ISO/DIS 14009 cannot be certified291 and are not a requirement by an accredited organization, it raises the question how seriously the topic of Circular Economy will be considered and implemented in companies. Furthermore, companies nowadays are already challenged by integrating an increasing amount of different standards like latter mentioned ISO 14001 for environmental management system, or ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety management systems, or ISO 9001 for quality management systems, or ISO 5001 for energy management systems that are all requirement standards and certifiable. As Circular Economy is an holistic topic to be considered horizontally and vertically in organizations, the integrated management system is getting even more complex and is being challenged by new guidelines and requirements taken into account.
287 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2004); (Ellmer 2014) 288 Note from the author 289 Note from the author 290 See (Bredillet 2003; Suddaby et al. 2017) 291 See (Pumsleitner and QA Quality Austria 2020a)
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Level three also revealed the Technical Committee of ISO for Circular Economy, the ISO/TC 323, which is amongst other ISO standards292 contributing to sixteen SDGs from the UN to achieve more efficient targets for the economic, social and environmental pillars as described in chapter 2.3.2.293 This indicates an additional drive for standardization in the field of environment and Circular Economy through the impact of the political actors as the United Nations. Although some information about this upcoming standard is available, the interviews with the standardization organizations show, that the content while development process is exclusively reserved for the participating and observing members294. ASI for example gets the draft documents from ISO to comment on, but even this is not available for the public and scientific work like this Master Thesis.295 Even direct contact to the committee manager of ISO/TC 323 at ISO in Paris didn’t reveal any further detailed information.296
In conclusion, the research revealed a high number of different standards covering more or less aspects of Circular Economy and the Butterfly Diagram, but just a few standards give a comprehensive depiction and understanding of the broad topic of Circular Economy. Nevertheless, the specific product and material standards covering just one aspect of the Butterfly Diagram are as important as the standards with a coverage of 50% of the categories. Due to the overall and key research question of this Master Thesis (What are main existing and future standards directly regulating the concept of Circular Economy?) the research revealed a satisfying result with existing (BS 8001, XP X-30-901) and future (ISO/DIS 14009, ISO/TC 323) standards covering various aspects of the generic Butterfly Diagram297, which is still the main cited reference298 when it comes to Circular Economy developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, that plays a major role for industries299 with its Circular Economy concepts.
6.3. Practical implication
The theoretical foundation of this Master Thesis provides a consolidated view on many different activities and projects in the field of standardization to support the transition towards circularity. The research investigation for this Master Thesis revealed a bunch of standards that give fundamental insights about existing and future standards that can be applied from businesses into their organization. The standards – and most of all the findings from Level 3 – provide valuable
292 For example ISO/DIS 14009 293 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2018c) 294 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020b) 295 See (Pumsleitner and ASI Austrian Standards International 2020b) 296 See (Pumsleitner and ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020) 297 See (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2013) 298 See (Homrich et al. 2018) 299 See (Lewandowski 2016)
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guidance for organizations300 to implement Circular Economy and change existing business models. For instance, an assessment sheet, to evaluate the maturity of Circular Economy301 in the company, provides initial practical measures for change agents and appointed Circular Economy roles.
Withal, scientific papers of researchers indicate a need for more specific and globally harmonized standards as requirement for a successful transition.302 It is shown that the standards are accepted as national as well as international standards, which has an impact on business-to-business and business-to-customer level. Nevertheless, the results show a higher number of European standards, which is – in times of global collaboration – an evidence for the need of harmonization of standards. This international harmonization already takes place at ISO with the ISO/TC 323, but on a rather horizontal level, thus investing in more vertical activities is necessary.
Furthermore, the present results can be taken into account for interested parties to further explore relevant standards for the Circular Economy and to identify which standards are most suitable for stakeholders from the business perspective.
To conclude, this Master Thesis is a short excerpt from the field of standardization within Circular Economy. Current developments deliver many more opportunities to lead the way towards Circular Economy with standardization.
6.4. Limitations
The main limitation of this Master Thesis is the research approach based on the research question. Limits occurred through the high amount of national and international standards as shown in the graphical overview of Internet, Perinorm and DIN Infopoint findings with partly more than 50.000 hits for one category of the Ellen MacArthur Framework according to the predefined search strings. To gain a sufficient result, of which standards effectively cover the topic of Circular Economy, as defined in the theoretical foundation, all hits must be analysed in detail, which would result in a tremendous need for timely resources. This leads to the second limitation, that each standard requires a fee partly up to a three-digit amount.
Furthermore, the search strings (categories of the Ellen MacArthur Butterfly Diagram) on the one hand led to specific standards that namely contain required aspects, but on the other hand it does
300 See for example (Tecchio et al. 2017) 301 See (ISO International Organization for Standardization 2020b) 302 See for example (Peralta et al. 2020); (Schaffer 2017); (McDowall et al. 2017); (Tecchio et al. 2017)
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not validate automatically a Circular Economy correlation. This perception is also approved by an employee of DIN, that also conducted a research about existing standards for Circular Economy (based on an internal DIN assignment). The employee reported, that it is not so easy to find appropriate standard with latter mentioned search strings (such as repair, remanufacturing or recycling), because the terms of Circular Economy are too general and the meanings of the terms are partly slightly different to what it meant in the past. Practically speaking: “if you search for “maintenance” or “repair”, it will show you thousand entries but nonspecific related to Circular Economy”.303 Thus, the research of the respective DIN employee did not end with satisfying results.304 The mapping of standards respective to Circular Economy, was done according to nine categories: Circular Economy, Additive Manufacturing, Timber Industry and Furniture, Plastics, Food and Agriculture Products, Recycling, Ship- and Marine Technology, Textile and Textile Machinery and Packaging, where different working groups (German: Normenausschuss) with experts are included.305 However, according to DIN it is not enough to conduct a tagged search with above mentioned search strings, as this purely is a quantitative search. The interview partner admitted, that it was hard to generate added value to this long list of standards found via tagged search. Further analysis must be done on a qualitative basis to find out the standards with a “real” connection to Circular Economy, which is part of the project SABE that is mentioned in chapter 5.4.2.306
Another limitation arises due to the fast development and emerging interest in Circular Economy that leads to more and more entries in the internet as the activities for Circular Economy are increasing with the UN Sustainability Development Goals and European standardization projects as referred to in the chapter of results.
303 Noted in the protocol and translated by the author from German into English 304 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020a) 305 See (DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c) & (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c) 306 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020c)
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7. Future research
The results of this Master Thesis reveal several aspects for an investigation in further research. According to the above-mentioned limitations of search strings and their meaning for Circular Economy or the high number of existing standards requires an in-depth analysis of standards per category of the Ellen MacArthur Framework. This would contribute to different specific results, thus implications for companies, and would support the implementation of Circular Economy into the market even faster.
Furthermore, the mapping of standards to the Ellen MacArthur Framework limits the perspective to the technical and biological cycle. Future research can also be done according to business models or a company’s product- or service portfolio or the organization’s value stream. This would answer the question, which standards do belong to a certain branch, product, material or service, thus giving a completely different result with the same intention as this present Master Thesis.307
Finally, the application of upcoming Circular Economy standards (like ISO/DIS 14009 and ISO/TC 323) in companies would be from highest interest in terms of how the standards are changing organizational structures and processes or in terms of the effectiveness of these standards to achieve sustainability and climate goals.
307 See (Pumsleitner and DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung 2020e)
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Appendix
§ Total sample of 260 standards/ hits § Interview guideline § Interview protocols § Reference model/ xls matrix (work document)
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