The CE Strategist - A learning tool to identify new circular business opportunities and adapt the Business Model

There is a broad consensus that new business models are a key factor for the transition to a Circular Economy (CE). The paper introduces the methodology of a learning tool, called CE Strategist, which provides guidance for the process of creating a CE inspired Business Model (BM). Developed within the European Erasmus+ project KATCH_e, the tool aims to help students and businesses alike, to identify circular business opportunities and further define them through an adapted version of the Business Model Canvas (BMC). The tool currently exists as an Excel-version, and is in the process of being implemented as an openly accessible Webtool. Its methodology follows a three-step process: (1) Evaluation of CE business opportunities with a questionnaire about the current product system; (2) Selection of the most relevant predefined CE business strategies covering the whole life cycle; (3) Definition of the BM with an adapted sustainability-oriented version of the BMC. The innovation of the tool lies in its process design, which is the main focus of the paper. It not only covers the analysis of CE potentials or the specification of the BM as the majority of existing tool, but provides guidance throughout the whole process of BM Design. The results section discusses the experiences which were made during the testing phase as well as limitations and further improvement potentials of the tool.