Entrepreneurship

The use of MFCA can yield many benefits for businesses, including better evaluation and understanding of the costs related to material inefficiencies, greater emphasis on the economic gains of minimizing waste and production losses and the identification and prioritization of the actions to be undertaken (e.g., input substitution, process modification, internal recycling and the sale of by-products to increase profitability). As a tool, MFCA also has the power to convince business leaders to address environmental issues.

While MFCA is relevant, it requires the detailed modeling of the material flows within a business. The tool entails energy-intensive data collection and a thorough knowledge of production costs. The analysis therefore requires time, resources and expertise that are not always available in-house.

With that in mind, the research project aims to develop a simplified MFCA methodology to be used by SMEs and demonstrate the benefits and impacts of using simplified MFCA.

The project aims to develop an open data analysis tool and strategy to enable entrepreneurs to create a circular business model and/or complement their current business model in response to the challenges they face as they try to combine efficient business models and the circular economy (e.g., the lack of tools, coordination of independent stakeholders within a complex network, creation of a value that combines the economic, environmental and social dimensions, etc.).

The project aims to set out the profiles and inventories of the circular actions taken by activist entrepreneurs. The inventories of demands detail the means of intervention and communication in the public space with respect to a stance rooted in circular values.

With that in mind, the research aims to identify the ways in which entrepreneurs reconcile the business aspect and the common good in order to understand how some will change institutional standards and rules in the circular economy to reflect their values and develop business opportunities.