Sustainability

Circular Business Models

Overview

Overview

Our Purpose

Our Purpose

Customer Supply Chains

Customer Supply Chains

Circular Business Models

Circular Business Models

Our Supply Chain

Our Supply Chain

People & Ethics

People & Ethics

Reports & Governance

Reports & Governance

Transitioning to circular business models with sustainable packaging and services

Today, most products and packaging are used in a linear flow, instead of being reused, repaired and/or recycled. This generates enormous amounts of wasted material and pollution. At Nefab, we strive to make packaging solutions circular by innovating with sustainable materials, designing with circularity in mind, inventing new circular business models and managing waste better.

Key Elements of Circularity

Packaging Engineering

When designing new packaging and solutions, our engineering teams are strictly following the Nefab sustainability design guidelines. To make the process easier, we developed GreenCalc, a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) tool that identifies potential CO2 eq and cost savings of packaging compared with the existing solution. 

"Our ambition is to establish fully circular business models and to turn waste into new resources. We set out to do so by designing sustainable packaging based on the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle, and working with key partners for returnable flows."
    1. Charles De Muizon
    2. Sustainability Director

Three simple design priciples

With the help of tools like GreenCalc, our engineers follow three design principles: 

Design with efficient resource utilization (reduce)

  • Reduce environmental impact in transportation, reduce packaging materials use and reduce product fragility


Design with extended resource utilization (reuse)

  • Reuse packaging in the supply chain, reuse packaging multiple times, control returnable pool and design packaging to be repaired

Design to increase material recovery (recycle)

  • Increase recycled content, use material that can be better recycled, and design with a circular approach

 

Innovation & Sustainable materials

Sustainable packaging materials and sourcing is the foundation of circular solutions. At Nefab we take a global and local approach to strategic sourcing, and we are continuously scanning the market for new, innovative materials. In addition, we continue to invest in R&D and in partnership with like-minded companies to build circular, resource efficient business models.

Waste management

Waste, as well as resources, should be well managed. Within Nefab, waste is carefully sorted into the following waste streams; wood, metal, corrugated and paper, plastics and foam, general mixed waste. We strive to optimize end of life scenarios by developing partnership to maximize recyclability, reusability, and circularity. Our ambition is to turn waste into new resources.

Circular Business Models

Circular Business Models
Circular Business Models

The Shift to Circularity

To create circular eco-systems it is imperative to establish a network with partners throughout the value chain to offer sustainable business models. At Nefab we innovate together with our customers, suppliers, and supply chain partners with the ambition to drive the change into fully circular flows.

Our approach is to set up pilot projects to validate and demonstrate potential savings by shifting to a circular business model. The key steps are described below:

  • High or fully recycled packaging materials
  • Packaging design and production with lowest environmental footprint possible
  • Materials sourced from closed loop or circular flows
  • Locally optimized logistics to lower CO2 eq in transport.
  • Enabled by Nefab buy-back of packaging – guaranteeing circularity.
  • LCA measurement and tracking to further reduce CO2 eq emissions and total costs

Read more about our initiative within circular business model based on thermoformed plastics

Get in touch

For more information on circularity and our range of sustainable solutions, please contact us today.