The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) has been central in providing tools and ideas for accelerating the Circular Economy. The EMF teamed up with IDEO, an internationally recognized product design firm, to create the EMF-IDEO Circular Design Guide. It is a valuable framework for achieving a circular product design through its detailed, step-by-step process complete with many worksheets and activities. The Framework consists of 4 steps: Understand, Define, Make and Release. These steps align with IDEO's Human-Centered Design and Design Thinking approaches to product design, now incorporating principles of the circular economy. In this module, we describe IDEO's overall approach to product design, and then detail each step of the EMF-IDEO Circular Product Design Framework in a manner that enables the Design Team to go through the process themselves, and ultimately identify the circular product design to take forward into production.

While the Ellen MacArthur Foundation-IDEO Circular Design Framework is a well-known approach towards transitioning to greater circularity, other valuable frameworks exist as well. Notably, the CIRCit Project, conducted by a team from academia, research centers and industry, established a circular design guideline that can be incorporated directly into more conventional stage-gate product development processes. The CIRCit approach to Circular Product Design and Development is explored in detail in this module, especially as it applies to the early stages of product development. In addition, linking product design to nature is a common theme among many guidelines. The field of biomimicry encourages innovation by looking to nature for solutions. The Biomimicry Institute and its sister-organization, Biomimicry 3.8, have established a design guide that helps product developers learn how to apply the principles of biomimicry into their design process. This module also explores this novel approach to circular product design.

Many companies are ramping up their efforts to ensure their products are more sustainable and circular, whether to comply with the new European Union’s eco-design regulations, or because customers are seeking products that better reflect their own values of social and environmental responsibility. Yet how would consumers know whether a product is truly circular or not – and to what degree? One approach is the use of a 3rd party certification. By having a 3rd party evaluate and assess a product’s circularity relative to a rigorous set of standards, the company’s claims become quite credible. This 4th and final module of the course explores a 3rd party certification process that comes from the Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute, the non-profit spun out from the Cradle-to-Cradle organization. Products can achieve levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum, with the requirements for each certification level are captured in a document called the Cradle-to-Cradle Product Standard. This module examines the most recent product standard in some detail, notably version 4.1, which takes effect in 2025. Certification depends on progress on 5 different focus areas: Material Health, Product Circularity, Clean Air and Climate Protection, Water and Soil Stewardship, and Social Fairness. In this module, you will go through each of these to get a better understanding of what it takes to get a product certified as sustainable and aligning with the principles of the circular economy.