IISE Seminar on “Introduction of Circular Economy and how this Business Model creates Values to Stakeholders”

The Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) and SEEM Department, CityU organized a seminar named “Introduction of Circular Economy and how this Business Model creates Values to Stakeholders” on 9^th April 2018.  Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) was one of supporting organizations. The term Circular Economy is becoming familiar to an increasing number of business.  It expresses an aspiration to get more value from resources and waste less, especially as resources come under a variety of pressure – price-driven, political and environmental.  Before the seminar, I took a photo with Mr. Harry Li (President, IISE (HK)). 

I met many quality professionals and took a photo for memory.

(Left: I and Mr. Dominic Lam (CEO, CMATCL))

(Left: Dr. Percy Chan (Quality Director & Acting Global Supply Chain Director, GP), I and Dr. Jason Kong (Vice-Chairman/Marketing, ISSC)) (Remark: Mr. Larry Lee (Customer Services & Compliance Quality Manager, GP) was also here but missing during photo taken.)

Then Dr. Victor Lo (President, ISI) arrived and we took photo.

(Left: Mr. Dominic Lam (CEO, CMATCL), Mr. Arthur SY Lam (GM, Business Development, CMATCL), Mr. Alfred Chan (GM, HR, CMATCL), Dr. Victor Lo and I)

In the beginning, Mr. Harry Li (President, IISE (HK)) then gave an opening speech and introduced IISE(HK). He was also the first speaker and his topic named “Introduction of Circular Economy”.

Firstly, Harry briefed the current practice “also called linear economy” that created waste during production and after the product use. 

Then he introduced the circular economy that was a close loop economy including usage / share, life extension / service support, Reuse/Redistribute/Repurpose, Refurbish/Remanufacture/Recondition, Close loop recycling and Open loop recycling/cascading, etc.  Resource constraints and technological development were the fundamental drivers for circular economy.

After that Harry mentioned the concept of circular economy included Blue economy (cascading system but quality decay), Performance economy (Product as a service), Biomimicry, Natural capitalism, Industrial ecology and symbiosis, Cradle to cradle (Raw material → Product → Raw material), and Regenerative design.

Finally, Harry introduced six guiding principles and they were Systems Thinking, Innovation, Stewardship, Collaboration, Value Optimization, and Transparency. Moreover, he discussed the different business models from circular economy such as Circular Supply Chain, Recovery and Recycling, Product Life Extension, Sharing and Product as a Service.

The second speaker was Mr. Joseph Tong (Manager, Sustainability Management, Fuji Xerox (HK)) and his topic entitled “Fuji Xerox’s Road to Infinite Zero Landfill”.  He briefed three topics agenda that Toxic Legacy, Fuji Xerox’s journey towards circular economy and value beyond environmental benefit.

Firstly, Mr. Joseph Tong used UN University 2015 data told us that e-wast disposal in Asia top three were Hong Kong (21.7kg per person), Singapore (20.0kg per person) and Taiwan (19.1kg per person).  The diagram showed the Toxic Legacy of our Digital Age!

Then he told us that their company met the big image crisis in Japan in 1993 because of their product appeared in the landfill through photography distribution.  In 1995, they performed company-wide product recycle policy that “Promoting Reuse of Resource for infinite Zero Landfill”.

Fuji Xerox redesigned their business model toward zero landfill with circular thinking for resource efficiency.

One part was mentioned about life-cycle planning was impressed because they designed model to reuse parts over 3 generation.  Finally, they were able to reduce material consumption upto 28.3%, to reduce energy consumption upto 26.3% and to reduce greenhouse gases emission upto 27.6%!

The last speaker was Ir. Axel Cheung (VP, South China operations in Li & Fung) and this topic was “Circular Economy is key to Sustainable Development (and Why Business Must Lead the Way)”.  He firstly briefed the history of Li & Fung and it was 111 years old with 22,000 employees over 40 countries.

Then Ir. Cheung briefed us their 3 year plan (2017-2019) that to create the supply chain of the future. And then he mentioned one of their China factory had more than 600 staff needed transportation and the location was not convenience.  After that they considered to cooperate with electronic bus manufacturers for their need.

After that he mentioned three roads toward circular economy including Mindset Change, Communication and Transparency.

Lastly, he concluded their achievement included reducing 253 tonnes of CO2 since 25 Jan 2016.

Q&A session

At the end, Mr. Harry Li (President, IISE (HK)) presented souvenir to Mr. Joseph Tong.

And also presented to Ir. Axel Cheung.

Reference:

IISE – http://www.iise.org/Home/

IISE(HK) – https://iisehk.wordpress.com/

HKSQ – www.hksq.org

Related seminar:

20170221: HKSTP Seminar on Know More about Circular Economy - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2017/02/hkstp-seminar-on-know-more-about.html