Rethinking the circular economy – from the very beginning

Resource scarcity and supply chain issues pose enormous challenges for the economy and society – and highlight the growing importance of a more conscious approach to natural resources. Resource efficiency is no longer merely a business issue, but a task for society as a whole. TRANSFER spoke to Steinbeis entrepreneur and committed circular economy expert Dr. Christoph Soukup about the role of intelligently designed circular economy approaches and how companies can benefit from them in practice.

Dr Soukup, where does your personal passion for the circular economy come from?

It’s a long story – here’s the short version: I actually discovered the topic relatively late, but all the more intensely. For many years, I worked at Daimler with great pleasure. One day, the head of procurement asked me if I could imagine taking on responsibility for sustainability in procurement and the supply chain.

After a short period of reflection, I agreed – and discovered how fulfilling it is to dedicate oneself professionally to something one also believes in personally. After leaving the company, I used the career break to ask myself a fundamental question: what do I want to do with the rest of my working life? The answer was the circular economy – a field that doesn’t just formulate sustainability in abstract terms, but translates it concretely into strategies and business models.

You speak of the ‘smart circular economy’: what exactly do you mean by that – and what added value does this approach offer, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises?

With this term, I want to highlight a crucial distinction. Many people associate the circular economy primarily with recycling companies and recycling centres. However, when implemented consistently, it begins much earlier – namely at the design stage of a product, long before it is manufactured.

If industrially manufactured products are modular in design and conceived in such a way that they remain repairable and their materials can be separated by type, they can be reused or repurposed after their initial phase of use. This requires one thing above all else: an engineering mindset, not large shredders or massive wrecking balls.

How does your Steinbeis Advisory Centre specifically support companies on their path towards a sustainable future?

We see ourselves as companions – particularly for medium-sized companies on their journey towards a circular economy. We start exactly where a company currently stands and develop individual solutions together.

Often, the first step is to develop a shared understanding of the circular economy and identify concrete starting points within the company itself: to this end, we have developed the ‘Circular Test Bench’. Together with the client, we select an existing product and systematically analyse its circular potential.

A pragmatic approach is important to us here. The initial focus is on leaving the product and business model largely unchanged to enable a quick start and to make efficient use of obvious potential. Even at this stage, initial ideas often emerge on how the topic can be further developed and how the company’s own products can be designed to be more consistently circular.

You work with both medium-sized companies and start-ups – in your experience, where do the biggest differences lie in terms of mindset, pace and needs?

A medium-sized company has a history and established structures, long-standing traditions and a proven business model that has significantly shaped its development and stability. This foundation should not be abandoned lightly. Instead, we work together to identify existing circular approaches – such as repair services, which are already well established in many areas of the B2B sector – and develop these further in a targeted manner.

Start-ups, on the other hand, can start out as ‘born circular’. They do not need to overhaul existing structures and can rely on circular principles from the very beginning. In our collaboration, I therefore often try to convince them not to develop linear business models in the first place.

Rethinking resources is not only an economic issue but also a societal one: where do we currently stand in your view, and where is the greatest need for action?

Companies are increasingly recognising their vulnerability regarding the availability of raw materials and resources. Circular economy strategies are therefore increasingly seen as a tool for strengthening supply chain resilience. The willingness to rethink processes is growing noticeably.

At a societal level, the picture is less clear. While the pandemic provided some impetus for reflection, there are strong tendencies to return to a previous ‘normal’ based on linear consumption.

To counteract this, we are working with our clients to develop solutions that make the use of products with a previous life the norm. This is creating a ‘new normal’: buildings are no longer simply demolished; instead, components are recovered and ‘harvested’. Doors, windows or load-bearing elements are then reused on-site or in neighbouring projects.