Industry must double down on circularity
20/05/2024 ABB Motion Services
By Anne Franzas, Global Product Manager, Circularity, ABB Drive Products
As industry grapples with mounting waste, dwindling natural resources, and the climate emergency, the pressure to adopt circular practices intensifies. The essence of circularity is to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. According to The Circularity Gap Report 2023, transitioning to a global circular economy could meet people's needs with just 70 percent of the materials currently extracted and utilized. This would keep human activity at a sustainable level.
For the industrial sector, greater environmental responsibility comes with additional business benefits. Indeed, embracing circular practices can translate into significant cost savings, reduced dependency on raw materials and reduced risk related to scarcity of resources and price volatility, making supply chains more resilient and profitable.
Despite this, the Circularity Gap Report reveals a worrying trend: global circularity has regressed, decreasing from 9.1 percent in 2018 to 7.2 percent in 2023. What’s more, recent research from ABB shows that 91 percent of businesses have already been affected by resource scarcity, which has led to increased costs, supply chain disruption, and slowdowns in production capacity, amongst other issues.
Industry must double down on its sustainability efforts. To achieve this, it needs to adopt a broader approach to circularity in practice. This means looking beyond recycling to explore more diverse strategies to optimize resource efficiency and equipment lifespan across the entire supply chain. The outcome will be a reduction in emissions and waste that maximizes the efficiency of resources – not only raw materials but also energy, labor, and more. Positively, two-thirds of industrial businesses are projected to increase their investment in circularity initiatives in the next three years, according to the ABB report.
How drives contribute to circularity
High efficiency motors and variable speed drives (VSDs), also known as variable frequency drives (VFDs) or, simply, drives, play a vital role in enhancing industrial efficiency, longevity, and waste reduction. Unlike direct on-line (DOL) motors — that is, motors running without a drive — motors paired with a drive provide dynamic speed adjustments, optimizing energy usage and minimizing waste. By precisely aligning motor speed with the workload, drives ensure maximum efficiency, leading to significant energy savings and reduced carbon emissions.
Moreover, drives demonstrate versatility and adaptability across various industrial applications, including pumps, fans, compressors, and conveyor systems. Their ability to modulate motor speed according to demand not only improves energy efficiency, but also extends equipment lifespan and reduces maintenance costs, since more precise control reduces mechanical stress on components.
Additionally, the implementation of drives offers direct benefits for industrial productivity. With precise control and reliable performance, these systems enhance process yields and quality across a spectrum of products, as well as across a vast number of different industries.
Moreover, drives equipped with sensors can facilitate remote condition monitoring, enabling early detection of problems and proactive maintenance, thereby reducing downtime and its associated costs. Additionally, they optimize energy consumption by ensuring the most efficient use of resources. This last point is crucial, since energy is a significant source of industrial expense.
Curbing emissions
Understanding the relationship between circularity, material efficiency, and emissions reduction is increasingly important for businesses, particularly as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting requirements and carbon reduction targets are formalized. Circular practices naturally contribute to emissions reduction by minimizing waste and optimizing resource use. However, it's crucial to consider emissions across the entire supply chain, beyond a company's direct operations.
Emissions are typically classified into three scopes: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3.
- Scope 1 emissions include direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as onsite fuel combustion or industrial processes.
- Scope 2 emissions consist of indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heat, or steam used in operations.
- Scope 3 emissions encompass indirect emissions from the entire value chain, including procurement, production, transportation, product use, and end-of-life disposal.
To achieve meaningful emissions reduction, businesses need to address all three scopes. While improving operational efficiency and reducing Scope 1 emissions are important, overlooking Scope 2 and 3 emissions can result in incomplete assessments of a company's carbon footprint and missed opportunities for emissions reduction.
Taking a comprehensive approach to emissions allows companies to identify areas for improvement throughout their supply chains. Adopting circular practices can markedly decrease emissions tied to raw material extraction, processing, and distribution. These practices include sustainable sourcing, adhering to Ecodesign guidelines, providing Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) information, and implementing product reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling strategies.
Integrating circularity principles into supply chain management enables companies to reduce emissions intensity per unit of output, improve resource efficiency, and minimize environmental impacts. This approach aligns with regulatory requirements and sustainability goals while fostering innovation, resilience, and long-term competitiveness.
As businesses work towards meeting ESG reporting requirements and carbon reduction targets, addressing the Scope 2 emissions of end users and Scope 3 emissions of equipment manufacturers becomes increasingly critical. Companies that actively manage and reduce their Scope 2 and 3 emissions are better positioned to demonstrate environmental responsibility.
Responsible recycling and sustainable design
Responsible recycling of decommissioned industrial machinery has a vital role in promoting circularity. Refurbishing older models and reusing components extends the lifecycle of industrial equipment, effectively reducing the need to purchase more. By properly recycling outdated components during decommissioning, valuable materials, such as precious metals, can be recovered and reused. This not only reduces the environmental impact but also helps conserve finite resources.
But if older equipment cannot be refurbished and decommissioning is a must, then to adhere to the principles of sustainable design, new parts must be designed with a greater focus on performance, energy efficiency, and reliability than ever before. By precisely controlling the speed and torque of motors, drives not only reduce their energy consumption, but they also reduce wear and tear on the assets in use, thereby extending their longevity. Upgrading to high efficiency motors and coupling them with drives ensures optimal performance.
In other words, circularity demands mindful usage of all kinds of resources, including electricity. Almost 45% of the world’s current electric power usage is attributed to motors utilized within buildings and various industrial sectors. Estimates indicate that substituting the existing base of over 300 million industrial electric motors with systems that employ optimized, superior efficiency designs could slash worldwide electricity usage by as much as 10%. Hence, enhancing energy efficiency stands as a pivotal component of achieving a sustainable future.
Time for action
Without a doubt, the industrial sector is at a crucial point in its path towards sustainability. Amid the challenges of increasing waste, diminishing resources, and the climate emergency, the importance of advancing circularity is clear. As environmental responsibility aligns with economic viability, the adoption of circular practices becomes increasingly compelling.
Interestingly, within these challenges lies a significant, untapped opportunity for progress. The integration of advanced motors and drives into operations has huge potential to advance industry’s efforts.
By embracing these technologies, alongside a more rounded approach to circular practices, industries can not only navigate regulatory demands, but also realize tangible benefits in terms of cost savings, resilience, and environmental responsibility.
In this fast-evolving landscape, there is no time to waste. Now is the time for action.
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