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This paper presents a sustainability benchmarking tool, the GreenTool, to compare different electronic product concepts, specifically printed ones, with each other from the sustainability perspective. The purpose is to increase awareness of different aspects of sustainability and support the design of more sustainable electronics. This tool is built on European and global sustainability regulations and recommendations, and it considers environmental, economic, and social sustainability aspects in seven different criteria, each with several sub-criteria that are the actual categories used in the comparison. The tool uses scientific and industrial information as input, as well as a technical understanding of the new and baseline concepts to be compared to properly support sustainability benchmarking. In this paper, we further present an example comparison of four smart label product concepts, one of which is the commercial baseline concept, and the other three are developmental concepts. The biggest differences among the product concepts were found in the categories of ‘raw materials’, ‘manufacturing’, and ‘logistics’ criteria, where the developmental concepts based on manufacturing by printing and bio-based materials gave environmental benefits over the baseline. In the other criteria, the differences were smaller, but the developmental concepts also provided slight improvements in sustainability. The GreenTool can be considered suitable for qualitative sustainability comparisons in product concept design.

Addressing urgent environmental concerns, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and marine plastics, requires rapid responses. We need novel solutions that are circular by design and have the potential to change our mode of operation more rapidly and systematically.To understand and re-design our material cycles to be circular, we need data and systems understanding. Currently this data is scattered and siloed in many forms and formats, making its use difficult for individual decision makers.The Circular Design Network project (2019-2022) was initiated to understand the practical data needs and gaps at the systems level, and to build a stakeholder network to develop data approaches for circularity. By building a network that comprises data users, providers and developers, we aim to develop new ways of collecting and validating data, along with new methods to process and refine it into system-level models of action. This guide is meant as an open invitation to participate in building a circular economy based on shared data and knowledge. It also introduces central concepts, approaches and tools for data-enabled circular design, illustrating value creation from data to knowledge to action. These concepts are concretized through case examples in the battery, textile and food value chains.

Climate change and other urgent environmental challenges necessitate system-level solutions and quick actions. The linear business models of taking, making and disposing are not sustainable and further contribute to the systemic changes. Our economy needs to adopt circular principles. Data and digitalization can provide the leap forward for the sustainable next generation circular and sustainable business models and solutions. Based on 29 in-depth stakeholder interviews in the battery value chain, we report practical circular economy (CE) data drivers, needs and opportunities, and discuss the role of data platforms and their ecosystems as the new means of circular value creation, as well as challenges in large-scale data utilization. The key drivers for extending data use in CE were customer pull for transparency and sustainability, regulation and compliance, product traceability to manage a sustainable supply chain, and improving product and process sustainability and efficiency. Two shared development topics were identified through the value chain by different stakeholders: side stream management and implementing traceability. Both of these themes require tight collaboration in the ecosystem and through the value chain, and the solutions could be built on data platforms. Overall, based on the findings, the vision and/or know-how for impactful data utilization is yet to be discovered. The role of data, the rules for data use, and the opportunities are still unclear in the field. The current platform initiatives, such as the battery passport, are designed to collect battery data upstream from the user and not include downstream use data collection. We suggest that the market and stakeholders would benefit from use data as a new element. This data would provide benefits for the manufacturers to prolong the product lifecycles, promote safe use and disposal of batteries and enable new business models (lifetime extension, product-as-a-service, recycling). This study proposes the establishment of a battery ecosystem operating on a hybrid platform (supporting innovation and transactions), established around co-creation and based on the Battery Passport data, with low entry barriers for any startups or SMEs, to enable data-driven business.

The Finnish Government has contributed to enhancing the innovation capabilities of research organisations and universities within Finland with the KINO and Innovation Sout fundings during the years 2016 and 2017. The main aim of VTT KINO -project was to accelerate commercialization of VTT´s research results via spin-off creation and licensing. The key activities of KINO and implementation of identified most promising processes was continued within VTT Innovation Scout, during 2017. Within this project the main aim was to develop processes, tools and ways of working, that accelerate research based innovations, growth and renewal at VTTs customers; companies and society. The Innovation Scout project was formulated as challenges linked closely to VTT’s strategy:Challenge 1: Ideation tools (Päivi Mikkonen and Inka Orko)Challenge 2: VTT 100 (Sami Kazi)Challenge 3: RDI Ecosystems (Päivi Mikkonen) Challenge 4: Internationalisation (Jari Uotila)Challenge 5: Customer access to VTT (Martti Perttula and Tuula Hämäläinen)Challenge 6: Evaluation culture (Olli Kuusisto and Kirsi-Maria Hyytinen)The methodology within the challenges was explorative. Many trials and pilots were made and even the not successful trials were seen as valuable learnings. Nevertheless, many very interesting findings and development results were made and they contribute straight to VTT’s strategic development programs in the coming years.

The Jarogain process provides a unique hydrometallurgical approach for treating zinc-containing side-streams and residues, in particular jarosite, gothite and electric arc furnace dust. The process is based on a sequence of steps, in which the feedstock is first leached in a reducing environment, and its metal contents are subsequently separated as hydroxide and sulfide precipitates. Finally, the remaining iron is crystallised from the solution. Key products of the Jarogain process are: i) lead concentrate, also containing silver and gold, ii) mixed indium, gallium and germanium concentrate, iii) zinc concentrate, iv) iron concentrate, and v) sulfuric acid. Gypsum silicate and a separate arsenic precipitate remain as solid residues. A purified aqueous effluent is purged from the process. A plant processing 400 000 t of jarosite and 50 000 t of EAF-dust annually would require an investment of 390 million. The battery limit cost of the actual Jarogain process is 200 million. Almost 50 % of the overall costs are generated by the auxiliary units such as the sulfuric acid plant and power boiler required for the operation. The economic feasibility of the Jarogain process was assessed on the basis of the discounted cash flow analysis. The levelized cost of production for the metal concentrates was estimated to be 80% of the pure metal prices. The greatest uncertainties with regard to the economic feasibility relate to the investment costs and the values of lead and zinc concentrates. According to the laboratory scale proof-of-concept results obtained, the Jarogain process remains an interesting alternative for processing residues and side-streams containing zinc. Further studies should focus on continuous piloting of the proposed concept in order to support a more rigorous feasibility study in terms of process economy.

Jarosite is a leach residue that can be produced by industrial bulk metal treatment processes and typically has the chemical formula MxFe3(SO4)2(OH)6, where M normally represents a metal cation. The largest source of jarosite is electrolytic zinc processing [1], which worldwide has an annual production of 11-12 Mt and an associated jarosite waste of 5-6 Mt that can cause important challenges due to its classification as a problem waste. Moreover, as zinc ore typically contains many other commercial/critical metals, the content of valuable materials in this material is significant. An analysis of jarosite from Kokkola, Finland shows that it contained as much metal as many present day commercial ores: ~15% iron, 2% zinc, 3 % lead, 150 g/t silver, 0.5 g/t gold, 100 g/t indium and 40 g/t gallium. Until now, jarosite related research has concentrated on its use in landfill and construction purposes [2], though there is increasing interest in finding methods to efficiently reprocess/recycle jarosite into valuable products [3, 4]. The hydrometallurgical process currently under development by VTT and Aalto University exploits jarosite powdery nature to undertake wet chemical processing. This low cost and energy efficient operation is targeted at the recovery of concentrates which contain the major value-added metals.

Industrial odorous off-gases can consist of hundreds of different compounds giving cause to odour annoyance in the vicinity of the odour-emitting plant. For the identification of the odorous components in the gas, traditional analytical methods are not always sufficient since the odour threshold values cannot often be found in literature. This report decribes the development of a GC-MS sniffing port method for identifying odorous compounds in off-gases. In the method the sample is injected into a gas chromatograph and divided into two flows. The compounds in these sample flows are separated in two identical columns and detected simultaneously in a mass spectrometer and by sensory means. The olfactory detections are marked in the iongram and the odorous compounds are identified. Tenax TA adsorbent is generally used for collecting the odorous sample for analysis. The compounds are released from the adsorbent for analysis by thermal desorption. The report also decribes a case study where the GC-MS sniffing port method was applied to a gaseous emission from a food factory. Over ten odorous compounds could be identified.

The lean and efficient use of raw materials, energy and products is a key principle in the circular economy. As a hypothesis, our activities and industrial operations can only be designed as circular in a holistic way if we share information across the value chain and between the stakeholders. In the Circular Design Network project (2020–2022), funded by the Academy of Finland, we have focused on understanding the opportunities and pathways to data-enabled circular operations, and on creating a network in data for circular design. This report analyses the findings and summarises the results of the stakeholder interviews (WP 1) mainly during 2020. The stakeholder interviews consisted of 81 company, R&D and regional support organisation interviews mainly in the value chains of batteries, textiles and food-carbon cycles, with a few interviews in the pulp and paper and chemical industries. We interviewed the stakeholders on their roles in the value chain, their data-related challenges and needs in circular practices, the role and data use in their current operations, the data tools, collaboration and activities around data, and the opportunities they saw in data for a circular economy. The findings were analysed per value chain and according to their position in the value chain: raw material suppliers, product manufacturers/solution providers, end users, etc. The role of the circular economy principles, as well as use of data, varies greatly depending on the business model and sector of industry. In general, all the interviewed organisations collect and use data for operations and customer management as a standard practice; but at the same time, most would like to better utilise data, also for circularity. Large manufacturing organisations have the means to invest in developing new data-based opportunities, and some have taken steps forward and are developing data platforms internally or with an external partner. On the other hand, some smaller innovative and data-oriented organisations design and implement new data-based approaches in an agile way. Data platform providers can play an important role in enabling organised data sharing and internal use. Overall, almost all of the interviewees had an interest in specifically expanding customer data collection and utilisation and to create new business models based on that. Traceability of materials through the value chain is a key driver and opportunity for data management. In particular, the stakeholders saw a growing need for localised and transparent LCA and sustainability data. Open data or data sharing at the general level was also regarded as interesting. However, the concrete data opportunities are still for the most part hazy, and few stakeholders are willing to share their own data unless there is a valid business reason and the means to control the use of the data. We deduct that in order to create a living data ecosystem, an initiator and driver, with a vision of a data-based (business) operation, is needed. We noted that the boundaries of the different roles in the value chain are blurred in a circular economy. New circular business models seek the value in combining, for example, circular products manufacturing to waste management, or end-of-life recycling service to retail or manufacturing. Connecting data to operations requires cross-disciplinary competences. In a circular economy, the roles are expanding and combining in innovative ways, which may shake up the traditional practices and collaboration in the value chains. New combinations of competencies may be needed. The changes may also cause some need for readjustments at the regulatory and public policies levels, such as end-of-waste processes or GDPR practices.

Kiertotalous on toimintatapa, jolla tähdätään kestävän kehityksen mukaiseen kasvuun. Materiaalikierrot ovat kiertotalouden keskiössä, sillä niihin liittyy merkittäviä ympäristövaikutuksia ja toisaalta merkittävää liiketoimintaa eri sektoreilla. Vuonna 2018 materiaalikierroissa toimi yli 500 yritystä, ja kiertotaloudesta liikevaihtoa arvioidaan muodostuneen noin 11 mrd € (5 % bkt:sta). Kiertotalouden yritykset perustavat liiketoimintansa pääosin kierrätyksen tai resurssitehokkuuden liiketoimintamalleille. Vain muutama prosentti kiertotalouden liikevaihdosta kertyi tuote palveluna-konsepteista tai jakamisalusta-liiketoiminnasta. Materiaalikiertotalouden ekosysteemit voidaan jakaa kolmeen tyyppiekosysteemiin: alueellisista vahvuuksista ponnistavat ekosysteemit, teollisuuden vahvojen vetureiden ekosysteemit, sekä kiertotalousvisioon nojaavat ekosysteemit. Eri tyyppisillä ekosysteemeillä on oma tärkeä roolinsa kiertotalouden toteutuksessa. Kiertotalouden materiaalikiertoihin liittyvä liiketoiminta on arvion mukaan kaksinkertaistettavissa vuoteen 2030 mennessä. Kasvu vaatii kuitenkin samaan suuntaan ohjaavia yhtäaikaisia politiikkatoimia, kuten sääntely, investointituet ja T&K&I kannusteet. Seuraavaksi tulisi arvioida valittujen kiertotaloustoimien yhteinen vaikuttavuus eri toimialoilla suhteessa hiilineutraalisuustavoitteisiin ja kiertotalouden toteutumiseen.