The Circular Economy is viewed as an important driver for resolving resource issues and tackling sustainability issues more broadly. The fashion industry operates in a largely linear way and suffers from various environmental, societal and economic challenges. In a Circular Economy, first and foremost, products need to be retained at the highest level, thus slowing resource loops. Slowing resource loops goes against current fast fashion trends and therefore appears the most difficult approach to pursue. This paper investigates how a large established retailer aims to slow resource loops as part of a broader project targeted to significantly reduce textile waste to landfill. The retailer collaborated with a university partner to pursue circular business model experiments. This paper reports on the approach for a slowing resource loops experiment around building sewing capabilities. Suggestions for future research and practice on circular business model experimentation are included.

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Business model experimentation for sustainability is an intentional and systematic approach to identify, test and learn about value creation strategies that could be adopted by a business in response to current unsustainable trajectories. For businesses such as large clothing retailers the need to alter course is acute as pressure builds from economic, environmental and social angles. The circular economy concept provides a potential powerful lever for change. To date, however, scant research has been conducted on how circular business model experimentation is conducted. We present an in-depth action research case study of a large international clothing retailer embarking on a journey of business model experimentation for circularity: the processes, methods, roles and the organisation in light of the need to address broad sustainability challenges in the business. It was found that experimentation activities oscillated between slow and loaded, and faster and un-weighted modes. While an intentional and stepwise process was sought, in reality it was largely emergent and highly iterative. Through this iterative process, new circular business models were generated that co-exist with current non-circular ones. Confidence in experimentation as a business capability also increased through this collaborative project. This study provides insights into how to conduct lean startup type business model experimentation for circularity in a large organisation. For practitioners, the benefits of academic-industry collaboration, and the oscillating dynamics of business model experimentation are illuminated.

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Circular business models are increasingly viewed as a key driver for business competitiveness and sustainability. Yet it is unclear what the positive (or negative) environmental impact of such new business models might be. Existing methods such as Life Cycle Assessment and Mass Flow Analysis, typically more suited for product-level and material-level environmental assessment respectively, may be modified to assess the impact of new circular business models. However, these might be too time and resource-intensive to effectively guide decision-making. Building on earlier work on circular design and business models, the performance economy and life cycle and systems thinking, this work proposes a list of guiding principles to start assessing the impact of new circular business models. The guiding principles are organised according to the following high-level strategies: Slowing effects; Closing effects; Life cycle effects, and Systems effects. Slowing effects are linked to long lasting products and extending product life as part of the new business model. Closing effects relate to the potential for recycling, or product life post-consumer use, as a result of the circular business model innovation. Life cycle effects are the effects not yet captured within these slowing and closing effects, which arise across the product life cycle from raw material sourcing up until production, transport, use and disposal of products. Finally, Systems effects are the wider impacts of circular business model innovation. For each high-level strategy key questions were formulated to assess the environmental impact reduction of the new circular business model. It was found that the strategies and guiding principles help stimulate debate on the environmental direction of new circular business models. This work has provided insights to guide a potential direction for assessing the environmental impact of new circular business models, and added to the sparse body of literature in this field.@en

Business model innovation (BMI) tools have become mainstream as entrepreneurs and managers seek systematic approaches to initiate business models (BM). However these tools, for example the Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) Business Model Canvas, while offering tidy and structured formats, may not adequately capture the complexity of value propositions for multiple stakeholders with potentially competing demands. In order to address this issue, the researchers first critiqued extant BMI tools, before designing the Cambridge Honeycomb Business Model Tool ™ - each building block is a hexagonal shape that collectively composes a hive-type structure. The Honeycomb incorporated the capacity of the Cambridge Value Mapping Tool ™ to articulate the value proposition by breaking it down into multiple value exchanges. A prototype Honeycomb Tool was tested internally with the research team in November 2015. Subsequently, following refinements the tool was piloted with a large fashion retailer’s team during a collaborative two-day BMI workshop. Initial results indicate that the tool’s infinitely expandable hexagonal cellular structure, where cells are introduced independently allows greater analysis of the ‘Value proposition’ by scrutinising various value exchanges between multiple stakeholders, e.g. society and the environment. Value was composed of both tangible and intangible benefits. The pilot process revealed that the Honeycomb is effective in generating not only general BMs with an in-depth analysis of value propositions, but also sustainable BMs. Sustainability in fashion retailing is particularly fraught as intense competition creates time and cost pressures - simultaneously customers and NGOs add to the burden with social and environmental concerns. Consequently, the Cambridge Honeycomb Business Model Tool contributes to academic knowledge by building upon other BMI tools and bridging Value Mapping approaches. For practice, the unbounded structure of the Honeycomb Tool cells helps teams undertake detailed interrogation of BMs, which balance the needs of conflicting interest stakeholders.@en