Till Fülscher

European and Swiss manufacturers face mounting pressure from novel regulations such as the EU Green Deal, the forthcoming Digital Product Passport, the Circular-Economy Action Plan and the Swiss parliamentary initiative «Schweizer Kreislaufwirtschaft stärken», yet most still rely on tools built for linear value chains to comply with these goals. A ZHAW study - conducted by one of our founders and based on interviews with almost one-quarter of all DAX‑40 firms - revealed four blockers for the successfull design of circular business ecosystems: a surge in relevant stakeholders, higher uncertainty in planning and scaling, a lack of CE specific data and the difficulty of weaving isolated efforts into a coherent circular strategy. Dealing with these issues demands dedicated methodology. Methodology, which is currently hard to come by. MESH Circular Business Solutions bridges the tool gap for SMEs by pairing co-creative design sprints with System-Dynamics simulation. We map forward and reverse flows and deliver a calibrated stock-and-flow twin of the current supply chain that spans materials, money and emissions. Facilitated by us, teams brainstorm circular ideas, which they are then able to simulate as quantitative “what-if” tests in the same environment, optimising for CO₂ emmissions, SC resilience or economic gain. SD modelling's stock-and-flow logic is particularly suitable due to its inherent focus on feedback loops, dynamic nature and intersection between qualitative and quantitative approaches, leveraging the advantages of both. While the models are not straight forward to build, there will be significant economies of scale with a growing amount of customers, stemming from repeatedly usable model elements. This will enable us to build models at a granularity and price that is not feasible to do in-house for SMEs. Having client-specific models furthermore promotes long-term customer relationships as expanding on an existing model is much easier than constructing a new one from scratch, creating a certain lock-in effect for customers.