Circular Business Model Canvas
The Circular Business Model Canvas takes the standard business model canvas and adds two dedicated blocks that most versions leave out: adoption factors (the societal, regulatory, infrastructure and technology conditions that decide whether circularity actually catches on) and the take-back system that gets material back to you at end of use.
A grid of blocks fills the page, the familiar canvas boxes joined by two new ones for adoption factors and take-back.
Reach for this when…
- You want to sell durability or repair but your current model rewards selling more units.
- A sustainability initiative sits next to the business model instead of inside it.
- You are redesigning a product line and need to know where the material goes at end of life.
How to run it
- Map your existing model onto the standard blocks: value proposition, customers, channels, revenue.
- Add the two circular blocks: adoption factors (the societal, regulatory, infrastructure and product/technology conditions that decide if circularity actually catches on) and the take-back system that gets material back to you at end of use.
- Trace materials in from source and out at end of use for every offer.
- Redesign the revenue block for what loops (repair fees, subscriptions, resale), not just first sale.
- Check partners and costs: reverse logistics and remanufacturing usually change both.
A worked example
Situation. Astrid Berg ran Nordvavnad Textiles, a garment maker outside Gothenburg, Sweden, selling workwear once and never seeing the fabric again.
Applied. She filled in the canvas properly for her overalls line, and the take-back block sat empty - she had never designed a way to get worn garments back.
Result. She added a return-and-recut service reusing offcuts and worn stock into a cheaper second line, turning waste fabric into a new revenue block instead of a landfill cost.
The catch
The canvas is a design prompt, not a business case - it will not tell you whether reverse logistics pays for itself, and for many products it does not. It also assumes customers will return items, which needs an incentive most businesses forget to design. Treat the extra blocks as hypotheses to test, not facts.
If the take-back block has no incentive attached, it is a wish, not a system.
Origin: Mateusz Lewandowski's 2016 circular adaptation of Osterwalder & Pigneur's Business Model Canvas, which added the take-back system and adoption factors blocks.