UNVEILING THE VALUE CHAIN GENERATOR: A TOOL FOR CIRCULAR ECONOMY TRANSFORMATION

Imagine a tool that connects industries and transforms waste into opportunities. By identifying and analyzing the value creation potential of available resources, by-products, or specific regional characteristics, businesses can unlock new market opportunities and value chains. These opportunities are relevant not only to established companies, such as breweries or bakeries, but also to startups and entrepreneurs seeking innovative ways to leverage untapped resources.

For example, a brewery could sell its spent grain to local farmers for use as animal food or as a substrate for biogas production. Similarly, a bakery might repurpose unsold bread into bread crumbs, croutons, or even fermented products. Regional development agencies could take this a step further by mapping waste streams across multiple businesses, uncovering synergies that drive new business models and sustainable practices. By harnessing these insights, industries can contribute to reducing waste, lowering CO2 emissions and fostering a circular economy. 

The DECIDE Toolbox is a comprehensive framework designed to support businesses in transitioning from linear to circular economy (CE) business models by providing detailed tools for modeling, analysis and evaluation. It includes Business Process Modeling to map workflows and identify circular potential, an adaptation of the Business Model Canvas to reflect CE principles and e3value mapping to analyze value creation, delivery and capture in circular contexts. With a multidisciplinary approach integrating environmental sciences, sustainability research, electrical engineering and business informatics, the toolbox ensures robust and innovative solutions. Its methodologies are validated through pilot use cases across diverse industries, such as batteries, packaging, food, textiles and smart cities, ensuring practical relevance.

Positioned within the DECIDE toolbox, Value Chain Generator (VCG) is a cloud-based AI platform designed to accelerate the shift to a circular economy by identifying, validating and connecting circular value chains across industries. The VCG tool supports the initial stages of circular business modelling, aiding industries in discovering untapped opportunities and establishing cross-sector collaborations crucial for a sustainable future.

The tool integrates data from over 3.5 million companies and evaluates the economic, environmental and technical feasibility of circular solutions, using BioLink models—AI benchmarks designed to assess circular economy potential. It automates the matchmaking process across industries, identifying synergies and fostering cross-sector collaborations. Whether you’re a food producer, energy innovator or textile manufacturer, the VCG can reveal untapped opportunities for sustainable growth using its extensive database:

• 650+ validated circular business solutions (BioLinks),

• 150+ proven valorization technologies,

• 100,000 validated textual documents covering circular business models, technologies and industry verticals,

• A database of 3.5 million companies.

In the DECIDE Toolbox schema, VCG therefore represents the first stepping stone, where users can get acquainted with the possibilities of their organization in participating in different circular business models before the interested stakeholder moves to the Circular Economy Business Modeller in the DECIDE Toolbox process. 

Anteja ECG, a company specializing in the design and implementation of innovation strategies and circular business models is the DECIDE project partner and was responsible for this deliverable. Anteja ECG empowers businesses and organizations to manage social and environmental risks in their global value chains. You can get to know them and other DECIDE project partners here.

Behind the Scenes

Integration of the VCG into the DECIDE Toolbox was a collaborative effort involving diverse expertise and cutting-edge methodologies. To bring readers closer to the team’s experience, here are a few key insights from its creators:

• Challenges Tackled: The complexity of integrating massive datasets and designing user-friendly interfaces.

• Innovative Methods: Leveraging AI for real-time decision-making and validating circular solutions.

• Proud Moments: Seeing the tool successfully applied in pilot projects, such as whey processing and brewer’s grain valorization.

As the foundational tool within the DECIDE Toolbox, VCG enriches the Circular Economy Business Modeller (CEBM) process with detailed economic, environmental and technical data, improving the quality of circular business model creation.

VCG tool was tested and validated in the DECIDE project through pilot projects like the whey processing and brewer’s grains, the VCG  has demonstrated its ability to create real-world economic and environmental benefits which was beneficial for testers of the DECIDE Toolbox.

Miha Skrokov, work package leader, shared his thoughts about the integration process and the significance of this deliverable for companies and the circular economy:

“By combining experts in the field of software development and a thorough and deep knowledge of possible circular solutions, we were able to design a tool that can quickly evaluate the most important factors a company needs to consider before investing in a certain innovative technology like ROI, CO2 emission mitigation, possible partners etc. This information enables the VCG tool to be the perfect entry position tool in the DECIDE toolbox as it will enable companies to gather the necessary information to go into further evaluation of possible sustainable solutions.

The integration process involved adjusting our approach of delivering information for the interested stakeholders so that the info is as useful to the following processes of modelling with the other tools in the toolbox (e3Value, System Dynamics, BPMN...) . We developed a three-step “first touch” approach for using the DECIDE toolbox:

1. Survey – Assess the stakeholder’s current situation through a structured questionnaire.

2. Meeting – Convene a discussion with a circular expert to interpret the survey insights.

3. AI Recommendations – Use AI to identify and propose the most promising circular solutions.

Also, the information shared with the stakeholders has been refined  so it can directly feed into subsequent modeling processes. To validate this approach, we tested it alongside the other tools in the DECIDE toolbox across several use cases like the Whey case. Our findings indicate that this method is both practical and effective.

Throughout the integration of our tools into the DECIDE toolbox, it became clear just how invaluable our solution is for companies pursuing a circular economy. It’s an opportunity no forward-thinking organization would want to miss.”

About the team:

“After initial bumps, we managed to work great as a team and as the chemistry built we were able to fast-track our work and come to this beneficial solution.”

His perspective on Circular Economy practices:

“Implementing a circular economy within companies can be a complex process, marked by knowledge gaps and the challenge of transforming the status quo. The DECIDE toolbox, together with VCG, helps bring structure to this innovation journey—filling in those gaps and guiding companies through an otherwise “messy” transition.”

The Benefits

The benefits of circularity, including cost savings, new revenue streams, profitability, green job creation, and CO2 emissions reductions, are clear. And this is just the beginning. The tool will be accessible to SMEs, startups, and regional agencies across the Danube Region and beyond.

The core idea of the VCG is to intelligently identify synergies that are economically viable, environmentally and climate impactful and technologically feasible among three key value chain stakeholders: industrial residual producers (who generate waste), technology providers (who transform waste into raw materials) and buyers (who purchase the recycled material as new).

This approach facilitates the efficient use, reuse and upcycling of resources. Exploring multidimensional synergies between materials, technologies and financial metrics, enables businesses to make informed decisions through three steps:

1. Automate the discovery of potential circular solutions.

2. Evaluate and validate this potential in terms of economic, environmental, climate impact, and technical feasibility.

3. Perform cross-industry matchmaking between the most suitable companies and technology providers to exploit these opportunities.

User journey through the DECIDE Toolbox.

Often, there is a lack of knowledge or necessary resources to recognize the potential of waste, by-products or underutilized regional resources. Many SMEs, are unaware that their waste could serve as raw materials for other business models. For example used car batteries could find a "second life" as neighborhood energy storage systems or brewery residues could be converted int valuable ingredients for the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. This knowledge gap leads to valuable opportunities for creating sustainable and economically successful models being overlooked.

The VCG is more than a deliverable—it’s a call to action for businesses and organizations to embrace sustainable practices. Explore the DECIDE toolbox and see how the VCG can transform your operations into a model of circular efficiency. Stay tuned for updates, follow our progress and updates to ensure you’re ready when the full toolbox becomes available and don’t miss the opportunity to lead the way in adopting sustainable business practices!

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