Assessing the environmental performance of circular business models in the safety and security sector

Övrigt konferensbidrag, 2026

A growing share of circular business models (CBMs) relies on reuse and refurbishment strategies to retain product value while reducing demand for virgin materials. However, many circular economy (CE) initiatives are still assessed primarily at the product level, which can be misleading for business model innovation because environmental and economic performance depend on how value is created, delivered, and captured across a multi-actor system. Design for Sustainability (DfS), therefore, increasingly requires decision-support tools that quantify the consequences of CE interventions at the level where strategic and operational decisions are actually made: the business model.
This study applies the novel Business Model Life Cycle Assessment (BM-LCA) method to an ongoing industrial case in the safety and security sector, comparing a conventional linear sales model with a reuse-oriented model for powder fire extinguishers. The reuse model is designed to extend the commercial life of each unit through take-back, refurbishment, and resale at a reduced price, while maintaining mandatory compliance activities (regular inspections). In both models, value capture is not limited to product transactions; the company also earns recurring revenue from compliance-driven service activities such as annual checks and 10-year checks. These periodic inspections are central to the business logic and materially shape the life-cycle footprint through recurring logistics and servicing activities (e.g., technician travel, handling, reloading), making them critical to include when assessing CBM performance.
The study represents the system using primary case data for product composition, assembly energy, and the sales-and-service structure, complemented by established LCA databases for background processes. Foreground processes include component supply, manufacturing/assembly, distribution, installation, annual checks, 10-year checks with reloading, refurbishment loops, and end-of-life treatment, modelled together with the associated monetary flows that represent the business model. Four scenarios are analysed: a baseline linear model (each extinguisher sold once), a Swedish reuse configuration (the same extinguisher sold multiple times through collection–refurbishment–resale), and two international reuse configurations that centralise refurbishment (in Sweden or another market) while changing logistics, partner roles, reverse-flow organisation, and service delivery arrangements.
A key contribution, already realised in the BM-LCA scoping and descriptive phase, is the actor and transaction mapping. This mapping step has immediate learning value because it clarifies where revenues and costs are generated (including inspection-based revenues), which stakeholders control which activities (e.g., servicing trips, refurbishment operations, treatment routes), and where data gaps and potential burden-shifting risks can be concentrated, thereby strengthening both assessment quality and managerial relevance before final results are produced.
The BM-LCA coupling phase links material flows and profitability through profit-based functional units over a one-year business period, enabling comparison of linear and reuse configurations under equivalent profit constraints. Sensitivity analyses will test decision-relevant parameters, including return rates, number of reuse cycles, transport distances and load factors for service logistics, reverse-flow efficiency, and end-of-life treatment routes for the extinguishing agent.
This contribution expects to show whether and under which conditions the reuse model can reduce environmental impacts while maintaining profitability, where hotspots occur across life-cycle stages; whether burden shifting arises; and which technical, design, business, and behavioural parameters most influence outcomes. By making explicit the partnerships and coordination mechanisms required between manufacturers, service organisations, logistics providers, and end-of-life actors, the study will also discuss implications for scaling safe and compliant circular offerings across markets, transforming a compliance-intensive safety system into a sustainable opportunity.