From industrial side streams to the circular economy business – value chain, business ecosystem and productisation approach

This dissertation presents the side stream to business (SS2B) process. The process describes elements to create viable businesses from industrial side streams and associated technologies and to productise industrial side streams for commercial use as industrial by-products. The study extends the understanding of utilising industrial side streams as a valuable raw material in business cases and studies the role of value chains, business ecosystems and productisation in efficient industrial side stream utilisation.

The research studies industrial side stream utilisation as a phenomenon from a holistic and real-world perspective by adopting a qualitative approach and using case study methods. Circular economy research has been criticised for excessively focusing on the environmental benefits of the circular economy while neglecting the business and economic perspectives. This study focuses on the business process perspective of the circular economy and emphasises the role of companies implementing the circular economy in practice. In the future, competitive companies will be the ones that can renew their business to successfully meet sustainability targets and, in the process, find new revenue streams or cost reductions through, for example, industrial side stream utilisation.