4.4
Francesca Toolkit
Circular Ecosystem Value Wheel
The Circular Ecosystem Value Wheel helps organisations analyse how value is created, circulated, and captured across the broader ecosystem supporting a circular business model. The tool enables companies to map the actors involved in different lifecycle stages, identify their activities and resources, and understand how value flows between them. It supports organisations in designing circular solutions that rely on coordinated ecosystem collaboration rather than isolated firm-level initiatives.
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Phase
Format
Expertise
Objective
The Circular Ecosystem Value Wheel helps organisations analyse how value is created, circulated, and captured across the broader ecosystem supporting a circular business model. The tool enables companies to map the actors involved in different lifecycle stages, identify their activities and resources, and understand how value flows between them. It supports organisations in designing circular solutions that rely on coordinated ecosystem collaboration rather than isolated firm-level initiatives.
What the Tool Is
The Circular Ecosystem Value Wheel is an ecosystem mapping tool used to visualise how value is generated and circulated across multiple actors involved in circular product lifecycles. It structures ecosystem analysis around lifecycle stages such as raw material sourcing, production, distribution, use, collection, refurbishment, and recycling. It helps organisations identify which actors participate in these stages, what resources and activities they contribute, and how value is created and captured through collaboration.
When to Use the Tool
The Circular Ecosystem Value Wheel is particularly useful when organisations are designing or scaling circular business models that depend on ecosystem coordination. It can be used when companies are:
- Mapping ecosystem actors involved in circular value creation
- Designing reverse logistics or recovery systems
- Building partnerships for refurbishment, reuse, or recycling
- Understanding value distribution across the circular ecosystem
- Preparing collaborative pilots or ecosystem experiments
- Identifying gaps or bottlenecks in circular value chains
Expected Output
The exercise produces a Circular Ecosystem Value Map describing:
- Lifecycle stages of the circular system
- Ecosystem actors involved in each stage
- Activities performed by ecosystem partners
- Resources enabling circular value creation
- Value created and captured across the ecosystem
- Gaps, dependencies, or coordination challenges
This ecosystem map helps organisations design collaborative structures required to implement circular business models at scale.
Start with the ecosystem value proposition
What is the value proposition that is binding all the actors of the ecosystem?
Identify Ecosystem Actors
Map the actors participating in each lifecycle stage, including suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, repair partners, recyclers, and digital infrastructure providers.
Identify Activities
Define the key activities each actor performs within the lifecycle stage.
Identify Resources
Identify the resources required by each actor to perform these activities.
Analyse Value Creation
Examine how value is created by each identified actor to support the ecosystem.
Analyse Value Capture
Identify how each actor captures economic, environmental, or strategic value.
Identify Ecosystem Gaps
Analyse missing actors, weak connections, or coordination challenges.
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.
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