More and more we hear about circular economy. Not only from environmentalists, but also from economists and politics. What is it? Circular economy aims to stop the linearity of our goods' lifecycle. Products, or at least their constituents, should have multiple lives, not only one. A first major principle is to reduce mining and extractions of resources from the Earth. A second major principle is to reuse more, repair more, remanufacture more and recycle more. From the start, smart design should help repairing and recycling. An ongoing project in Wellington, Capital of New Zealand, is a fantastic example of industrial reuse!
CHANGE THE ENGINE, REUSE THE REST OF THE BUS. UNIQUE IN THE WORLD.
Scott Thorne is General Manager, Strategy at NZ Bus. NZ Bus is New Zealand's largest urban bus service operator. We had the chance to meet him and he could tell us the great story of their future electric buses.
“The city trolley buses were supposed to end life in the middle of 2017. The local Council will take down the electrical network wires you can see above your heads in the city. Wellington is well known as a green city and the Council has a preference for low emission vehicles, but technology options for electric buses are limited. NZ Bus wants to be at the forefront of sustainable energy options and sees diesel and hybrid buses as dead end technologies. Furthermore, we really did not like the idea of sending our 60 trolley buses to the garbage dump. To combat that, we came with an idea: transform the old trolley buses into independent electric buses!
We went to California and met Ian Wright. He is a co-founder of Tesla. Ian lives in San Francisco, but he is a Kiwi (a New Zealander)! And we discussed about retrofitting the buses. He and his company Wrightspeed drive projects like transforming Mack trucks to electric. We agreed on the technical solutions and this is how our project started!
The first stage of the project is the retrofitting of the trolley bus. We remove the old electric engine, trolley poles and related equipment, and we install a new power train and batteries. This retrofitting starts now in December 2016! Our 60 trolley buses should be renovated by mid of 2017.” The second stage is even more exciting. “We will retrofit diesel buses! Among our 700 buses, we have a first target of 30% of them renovated to electric, within the next 2 years.”
This beautiful project is quite unique; it gives a glimpse of what industrial reuse will be in the future.
MODULARITY WILL BE COMMON
In France, the start-up Ian Motion turns existing vehicles into restored electric ones. The first model they will restore is the Austin Mini! Also in France, last October, the automobile manufacturer Renault presented a new version of their electric car Zoé. A major evolution is the new battery (yes, we talked about batteries in a previous article!), which doubles the autonomy of the car. The company explained that this improved battery can also be installed on the previous version of the car. A nice upgrade! Generally speaking, the automobile industry is one of the industries which have already started to integrate circular economy concepts, recyclability in particular.
Within the electronic industry, a unique product starts to become popular: the Fairphone. In addition to its inspiring ethical ingredients (it is the only Fairtrade phone for instance), the smartphone has a robust design and it is the first modular phone. Its modularity allows a much higher repairability and easy upgrades. Recently the Dutch start-up commissioned an independent assessment of the phone, examining its environmental impact across its entire life cycle. The modularity of the phone “enables 30% reduction of CO2 emissions across lifecycle.” This is a very good figure!
[Left] The modular architecture of the Fairphone. If a component fails, buy only one of the modules, not a complete new phone.
[Right] Fairphone 2 was the first smartphone to receive Blue Angel certification. You can find on the german certification website other brands – like Philips - which are doing well. ©Fairphone
HIGH REPAIRIBILITY WILL BE THE NORM
Today the design of the manufactured products does not always allow a good repairability. This will change in the future. Already several brands make efforts in this area, such as Canon, Miele, Seb or Rowenta. The brands Seb and Rowenta produce household appliances. They committed to designing repairable products. They guarantee the availability of their spare parts up to 10 years and “a proximity network of more than 6500 certified professional repair centres worldwide.”
Another good example of change comes from Sweden. Since last 1st of January repairing costs are lower there. The Swedish government wants to tackle the “throwaway culture” and the tax on repairing services was divided by two. It applies to clothes, refrigerators and washing machines for instance. There is also employment behind a strong repair industry, like the recycling industry. Governments may also see this interest.
In the future our goods and products will be designed differently; they will be more beautiful in the sense they will be more durable…
1. Winner – Outstanding Contribution to Innovation in the New Zealand Road Transport Industry Awards
2. Winner – Renewables Innovation Award in the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards
3. Winner – EECA Business Energy Management Award in the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards
4. Finalist – Innovation Excellence in the New Zealand Innovation Awards
5. Finalist – Innovation in Technology Solutions in the New Zealand Innovation Awards
 |
| This chart from Ellen MacArthur foundation illustrates the principles of circular economy. You will notice it describes “technical” blue cycles but also “biological” green cycles.©Ellen MacArthur foundation |
Scott Thorne is General Manager, Strategy at NZ Bus. NZ Bus is New Zealand's largest urban bus service operator. We had the chance to meet him and he could tell us the great story of their future electric buses.“The city trolley buses were supposed to end life in the middle of 2017. The local Council will take down the electrical network wires you can see above your heads in the city. Wellington is well known as a green city and the Council has a preference for low emission vehicles, but technology options for electric buses are limited. NZ Bus wants to be at the forefront of sustainable energy options and sees diesel and hybrid buses as dead end technologies. Furthermore, we really did not like the idea of sending our 60 trolley buses to the garbage dump. To combat that, we came with an idea: transform the old trolley buses into independent electric buses!
 |
| Scott and Carolina, in NZ Bus offices. |
We went to California and met Ian Wright. He is a co-founder of Tesla. Ian lives in San Francisco, but he is a Kiwi (a New Zealander)! And we discussed about retrofitting the buses. He and his company Wrightspeed drive projects like transforming Mack trucks to electric. We agreed on the technical solutions and this is how our project started!
The first stage of the project is the retrofitting of the trolley bus. We remove the old electric engine, trolley poles and related equipment, and we install a new power train and batteries. This retrofitting starts now in December 2016! Our 60 trolley buses should be renovated by mid of 2017.” The second stage is even more exciting. “We will retrofit diesel buses! Among our 700 buses, we have a first target of 30% of them renovated to electric, within the next 2 years.”
This beautiful project is quite unique; it gives a glimpse of what industrial reuse will be in the future.
MODULARITY WILL BE COMMON
 |
| ©Ian Motion |
Within the electronic industry, a unique product starts to become popular: the Fairphone. In addition to its inspiring ethical ingredients (it is the only Fairtrade phone for instance), the smartphone has a robust design and it is the first modular phone. Its modularity allows a much higher repairability and easy upgrades. Recently the Dutch start-up commissioned an independent assessment of the phone, examining its environmental impact across its entire life cycle. The modularity of the phone “enables 30% reduction of CO2 emissions across lifecycle.” This is a very good figure!
[Right] Fairphone 2 was the first smartphone to receive Blue Angel certification. You can find on the german certification website other brands – like Philips - which are doing well. ©Fairphone
HIGH REPAIRIBILITY WILL BE THE NORM
 |
| © Seb |
Today the design of the manufactured products does not always allow a good repairability. This will change in the future. Already several brands make efforts in this area, such as Canon, Miele, Seb or Rowenta. The brands Seb and Rowenta produce household appliances. They committed to designing repairable products. They guarantee the availability of their spare parts up to 10 years and “a proximity network of more than 6500 certified professional repair centres worldwide.”
Another good example of change comes from Sweden. Since last 1st of January repairing costs are lower there. The Swedish government wants to tackle the “throwaway culture” and the tax on repairing services was divided by two. It applies to clothes, refrigerators and washing machines for instance. There is also employment behind a strong repair industry, like the recycling industry. Governments may also see this interest.
In the future our goods and products will be designed differently; they will be more beautiful in the sense they will be more durable…
 |
| Picture snapped with our Fairphone 2! |
The sound of electric!
The electrical wires will be taken down mid-2017 by the City Council.
~~~
NZ Bus project has won several awards already:1. Winner – Outstanding Contribution to Innovation in the New Zealand Road Transport Industry Awards
2. Winner – Renewables Innovation Award in the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards
3. Winner – EECA Business Energy Management Award in the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards
4. Finalist – Innovation Excellence in the New Zealand Innovation Awards
5. Finalist – Innovation in Technology Solutions in the New Zealand Innovation Awards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment