Circular Economy Practices in the HVAC Industry Challenges and Opportunities
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Quality and operations management (MPQOM), MSc
Publicerad
2024
Författare
Kullner, Oskar
Somoshi, Saurabh
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The demand for improved heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
continues to increase with the population expanding. However, increased usage of
HVAC systems entails more energy consumption, and higher amounts of waste in
terms of used materials. The aim of this thesis is therefore to explore and assess
the opportunities, drivers, and barriers present in the HVAC industry in terms of
implementing Circular Economy (CE) practices with the goal of reducing waste and
improving sustainability while also positively impacting financial goals.
To begin, information related to both CE and HVAC such as scientific articles, online
sources, and government publications was collected. This theoretical knowledge
helped to construct the framework of questions for the semi-structured interviews.
Responses then served the purpose of the empirical data an analyzed together with
theoretical content to formulate a case study.
The results of this thesis report underlines the opportunities for implementing CE
practices including circular business models and reverse supply chains. Some circular
approaches were found viable to implement in the HVAC industry. The adoption of
Product-as-a-Service models would incentivise product life extension and increasing
revenues although requiring substantial changes related to the value chain. Reacquiring
products to refurbish and resell them would increase revenue per unit at the
cost of additional reverse supply chain costs and undetermined willingness to pay.
Reacquiring products in order to disassemble them and return components to stock
where they can be incorporated into new units and sold as new could drastically
reduce material costs and increase profitability as long as incurred additional costs
are lower than savings made in reduced material costs.
The study also identifies a number of barriers and drivers considering the reacquisition
and refurbishment of the HVAC products. Drivers such as organizational
drivers, competitive advantage, product and process development drivers. On the
other hand, barriers are subject to raw material selection, lack of resources, cultural
barriers, consumers & customer acceptance. The conclusion of the study helps the
case company to consider the opportunities, drivers and barriers as mentioned in
this report to form the initial foundation towards the step of transitioning to CE.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Circular Economy , HVAC Industry , Sustainability , Circular Business Models , Case Study