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Background In industrial practice a transition from a linear (take-make-dispose) to a circular product system (considering reuse/remanufacturing/recycling) requires the change of business models through new value propositions. In doing so the focus of the value proposition shifts from selling a physical product to providing access to functionality through business innovation. One key factor related to circular business transitions is market acceptance. It is particularly challenging to understand what complexity a new concept like circular economy (CE) brings to established businesses where the success and the failure of the business is dependent on customer's acceptance of new value propositions. Purpose This paper empirically explores the opportunities of a circular business approach for washing machines in the city of Stockholm by quantifying and assessing customer preferences for CE value propositions for a business to customer (B2C) scenario. Method This study uses the method of choice-based conjoint analysis to investigate preferences based on the attributes price and payment scheme, environmental friendliness as well as service level. Originality This paper is the first of its kind to assess customer preferences from the CE market acceptance point of view using a conjoint approach and provides insight to what extent new CE value propositions may be adopted. Findings Results indicate that there is general interest in paying for access rather than for ownership. Service levels have the strongest impact on customer utility of a washing machine offer. If associated with reduction in CO 2 emissions the number of remanufacturing cycles can increase purchase probability. As a method choice-based conjoint analysis is highlighted as beneficial to break down CE value propositions and to identify to what extent particular service-related attributes and product-related attributes contribute to overall customer utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires a substantial decrease in the average carbon intensity of buildings, which implies a need for decision-support systems to enable large-scale energy efficiency improvements in existing building stock. This paper presents a novel data-driven approach to strategic planning of building energy retrofitting. The approach is based on the urban building energy model (UBEM), using data about actual building heat energy consumption, energy performance certificates and reference databases. Aggregated projections of the energy performance of each building are used for holistic city-level analysis of retrofitting strategies considering multiple objectives, such as energy saving, emissions reduction and required social investment. The approach is illustrated by the case of Stockholm, where three retrofitting packages (heat recovery ventilation; energy-efficient windows; and a combination of these) were considered for multi-family residential buildings constructed 1946–1975. This identified potential for decreasing heat demand by 334 GWh (18%) and consequent emissions reduction by 19.6 kt-CO 2 per year. The proposed method allows the change in total energy demand from large-scale retrofitting to be assessed and explores its impact on the supply side. It thus enables more precisely targeted and better coordinated energy efficiency programmes. The case of Stockholm demonstrates the potential of rich urban energy datasets and data science techniques for better decision making and strategic planning. Image 1 • Data-driven strategic planning framework for urban building retrofitting is proposed. • High resolution meterings and energy performance certificates are used as input data. • 334 GWh/yr demand reduction potential from retrofitting is identified for Stockholm. • Retrofitting scenarios are analysed from energy, environment and cost perspectives. • Large-scale retrofitting has a noticeable and non-uniform impact on heat supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the global environmental impacts of local consumption is an area of growing interest among policymakers and consumers. By knowing what products comprise urban consumption "hotspots," municipalities and consumers alike could take deliberate actions to target and discourage consumption of high-impact products. In this paper, a new method for identifying environmental hotspots of consumption is presented. The main methodological advances are the following: i) material flow analysis of urban areas and life cycle assessment are combined; ii) a 16-year time-series of urban consumption data is used for selection of the most suitable representative products and for trend analysis; iii) representative products are selected systematically from consumption data of 1000 product types; iv) representative products are scaled up to represent consumption of the product groups; v) hotspots are identified by simultaneously evaluating six environmental impacts - acidification, climate change, eutrophication (marine and freshwater), photochemical ozone formation, and resource use; vi) for the case study, hotspots are connected to the city's profiles. The method was applied to the Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo and to Sweden in total. Electronics is a hotspot for all the studied areas and all the studied impacts and should be a prioritized product group for action. Fuel is a hotspot shared by all the areas while vehicles is a hotspot in Gothenburg. Meat is a nationwide hotspot, but not for the cities investigated. Gothenburg and Stockholm could collaborate to find effective measures for their common hotspot machinery. Thus, the method can be used to identify hotspots and find which product types could be part of national versus local programs. • Combined MFA-LCA environmental impact analysis of urban consumption. • Region-specific analysis to identify need for local consumption reduction efforts. • Some common but also different hotspots were identified for the studied areas. • Method enables assessment of multiple environmental impacts simultaneously. • Time series of consumption data allows for trend analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitions from a linear (take-make-dispose) to a circular product system (considering reuse/remanufacturing/recycling) require changes of business models through new value propositions. Therefore, the focus for industrial businesses shifts from selling physical products to, for example, providing access to functionality through business innovation. In this context it is particularly challenging to understand what complexity a new concept like circular economy (CE) brings to established businesses where the success and the failure of the business is dependent on customer's acceptance of new value propositions. The objective of this paper is to develop an algorithm based on gathered survey data to "learn" choice behavior of a small customer group and then replicate that choice behavior on a larger population level. This paper explores the opportunities of different circular business offers in the city of Stockholm by embedding support vector machine classifiers, which are trained on CE survey data, in a simulation model to quantify and study choice behavior on city level. Stated choices from CE surveys including unique demographic data from the respondents, i.e. age, income, gender and education, are used for algorithm training. Based on the survey data, support vector machine algorithms are trained to replicate the decision-making process of a small sample of respondents. The example of a washing machine is used as a case study with the attributes price and payment scheme, environmental friendliness as well as service level. The trained support vector machines are then implemented in a simulation model to simulate choice behavior on population level (Stockholm city). This paper is the first of its kind to use both machine learning and simulation approaches in a CE market acceptance context. Based on the washing machine-specific survey and Stockholm-specific customer data, results indicate that larger share of the Stockholm population would be willing to opt for circular washing machine offers compared to the existing linear sales model. Given the data-driven nature of machine learning algorithms and the process-oriented structure of simulations programs allows for generating large amounts of data from small samples. This supports exploration of new emerging areas like CE in addition to saving time and expenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy integration between autonomous policy sectors is a tool for managing interdependent technical systems to avoid suboptimization. Biogas, regarded as a renewable energy carrier usable in the energy and transport systems, is produced from organic material such as municipal organic waste (MOW). It is connected to a number of systems and policy sectors, making biogas management an instructive case for studying policy integration processes. Swedish biogas production has increased in recent years, and in the Stockholm region there has been enormous interest in biogas production for vehicle use since the early 2000s. In this paper biogas will be discussed in the perspective that it is or has potential to be a vital part of three systems: waste, energy, and transportation. The aim is to analyse whether policy integration occurs between the systems and to explore if boundary objects can play a role when understanding policy integration processes. In examining the biogas development process, regional policy documents and interviews with stakeholders in the biogas process are used. The results indicate consensus among regional actors that biogas should be used in vehicles and that MOW should be collected for this purpose, indicating congruence of understanding of biogas. Biogas functions as a boundary object in these cases and contributes to high policy integration between the energy and waste systems. Despite consensus that biogas should be used in the transport system, there is little policy integration between the energy and transport sectors. The policy sectors of transport infrastructure and spatial planning are not concerned with fuel or biogas issues. Public transport policy focuses on the use of biogas for their vehicles, but even if biogas serves as a boundary object it is not developing into policy integration processes. The conclusion is that biogas development has resulted in integrated policymaking between the energy and waste sectors and biogas has served as a strong boundary object which has spurred that development. Between the energy and transport sectors there is little policy integration, and biogas is not a boundary object in the cases of transport infrastructure and spatial planning policy sectors. What this case shows is that if there is a lack of presence of a boundary object it suggests no preconditions for policy integration processes to start. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Biofuel production through polygeneration with heat as one of the by-products implies a possibility for cooperation between transport and district heating sectors by introducing large-scale biofuel production into district heating systems. The cooperation may have effects on both the biofuel production costs and the district heating production costs. This paper is the second part of the study that investigates those effects. The biofuel production costs evaluation, considering heat and electricity as by-products, was performed in the first part of the study. In this second part of the study, an evaluation of how such cooperation would influence the district heating production costs using Stockholm's district heating system as a case study was performed. The plants introduced in the district heating system were chosen depending on the future development of the transport sector. In order to perform sensitivity analyses of different energy market conditions, two energy market scenarios were applied. Despite the higher revenues from the sale of by-products, due to the capital intense investments required, the introduction of large-scale biofuel production into the district heating system does not guarantee economic benefits. Profitability is highly dependent on the types of biofuel production plants and energy market scenarios. The results show that large-scale biogas and ethanol production may lead to a significant reduction in the district heating production costs in both energy market scenarios, especially if support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. If the total biomass capacity of the biofuel production plants introduced into the district heating system is 900 MW, the district heating production costs would be negative and the whole public transport sector and more than 50% of the private cars in the region could be run on the ethanol and biogas produced. The profitability is shown to be lower if the raw biogas that is by-produced in the biofuel production plants is used for combined and power production instead of being sold as transportation fuel; however, this strategy may still result in profitability if the support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. Investments in Fischer–Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether production are competitive to the investments in combined and power production only if high support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Systems integration is a trend in the quest for increased environmental performance in urban districts, yet its implications are not yet fully known. Hammarby Sjöstad is a district in Stockholm, Sweden, designed with high environmental ambitions. These ambitions were later expressed in the Hammarby Model, an integrated infrastructural system aiming to minimize the metabolic flows of the district by closing its material and energy flows. Various integrated systems were already present in Stockholm when discussions began around the development of the Hammarby Model. Using a conceptual framework inspired by transition theory, this paper analyses the process of designing and building the Hammarby Model. Our aim is to create a better understanding of the implications of systems integration at the urban district level. The findings of the study show that systems integration may both enable and constrain further innovation. On one hand, integration facilitates the implementation of technologies that are add-ons or that solve a reverse salient experienced by the integrated system. On the other hand, technologies that are perceived to threaten the integrated system are locked out, prohibiting further optimization of the system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Systems integration (the combination of previously independent systems) is one of the solutions proposed by industrial ecology scholars to tackle environmental problems. Systems integration has not yet been analysed as an innovation process, which could bring additional insights to its challenges and barriers. This paper is a first attempt to fill this gap. Using a conceptual model based on actor-network theory and insights from structuration theory, we analyse the case of developing sewage gas for transport in Stockholm. Results show that the process was very dynamic and that the network grew in such a way that it became risky for actors not to join it. Moreover, pre-existing socio-technical rules had to be re-negotiated during the process. The process through which types of pre-existing rules were modified was unique for each pre-existing network that was involved. Besides, in one instance systems integration required the development of a bridging network allowing interaction between initially independent networks for sewage and private transport. Finally, results also show that systems integration requires a “superstructure” i.e. an organisation that can coordinate activities and take important risks to see to it that systems integration gets realised. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]