4.3
Francesca Toolkit
CBM Canvas
The Circular Business Model Canvas supports organisations in designing and structuring business models that integrate circular economy principles across the entire product lifecycle. The tool helps companies understand how value is created, delivered, and captured when products are designed for durability, reuse, repair, refurbishment, and material recovery. It enables organisations to align circular strategies with operational activities, ecosystem partners, and revenue mechanisms.
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Phase
Format
Expertise
Objective
The Circular Business Model Canvas supports organisations in designing and structuring business models that integrate circular economy principles across the entire product lifecycle. The tool helps companies understand how value is created, delivered, and captured when products are designed for durability, reuse, repair, refurbishment, and material recovery. It enables organisations to align circular strategies with operational activities, ecosystem partners, and revenue mechanisms.
What the Tool Is
The Circular Business Model Canvas is a strategic design canvas used to structure how circular business models operate. It adapts the traditional Business Model Canvas to integrate circular strategies such as longevity, repair, reuse, refurbishment, product-as-a-service, and material recovery. It helps organisations visualise how circular value is created for customers, how products circulate across multiple lifecycle phases, and how economic value can be captured across these cycles.
When to Use the Tool
The Circular Business Model Canvas is particularly useful when organisations are developing or transforming business models to integrate circular economy principles. It can be used when companies are:
- Designing new circular products or services
- Transitioning from linear to circular business models
Expected Output
The exercise produces a Circular Business Model Map describing:
- The circular value proposition delivered to customers
- Customer segments across multiple lifecycle phases
- Channels enabling delivery, return, repair, and reuse
- Customer relationships supporting long-term engagement
- Revenue streams generated across product lifecycles
- Key resources and activities enabling circular operations
- Ecosystem partners supporting circular flows
- Cost structure implications of circular strategies
- The circular strategies structuring the business model
This output helps organisations design business models capable of capturing value from extended product lifecycles and circular flows.
Define the Circular Value Proposition
Identify how the offering delivers circular value through durability, repairability, reuse, or transparency.
dentify Customer Segments
Determine the different users or beneficiaries across the product lifecycle, including potential secondary markets.
Map Channels
Identify the channels used to deliver products and services as well as those enabling returns, repair, or refurbishment.
Define Customer Relationships
Clarify how relationships with customers evolve over time, particularly in service-based or long-term circular models.
Identify Revenue Streams
Determine how economic value is captured across multiple lifecycle phases.
Identify Key Resources
Map the physical, digital, and intellectual resources required to support circular operations.
Define Key Activities
Identify the operational activities required to operate the circular business model.
Identify Key Partnerships
Determine the ecosystem partners required to deliver and scale the circular model.
Analyse the Cost Structure
Identify how costs shift when circular strategies are implemented.
Define Circular Strategies
Identify the circular strategies that structure the business model.
Office furniture supplier: An office furniture supplier develops a furniture-as-a-service concept for corporate clients, pairing a subscription offer with refurbishment services and take-back agreements — echoing the lifecycle-service logic of providers such as Ahrend and NORNORM.
Resources
