The idea of leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) to support strategies in line with the circular economy (CE) has been gaining traction in literature. However, previous work has predominantly focused on the opportunities that these technologies can bring, and few studies have critically assessed the environmental viability of the proposed strategies. In this study, we assess the net environmental impact of IoT-enabled circular strategies in the specific case of truck tires in the Swedish context, in order to gain insight into when and how it makes environmental sense to embed IoT hardware into products to support circular strategies. We quantify (1) the potential environmental savings in the different life cycle phases made possible through access to sensor data, and (2) the environmental impact from the added technology needed to provide and process the data. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate the difference in impact between the current state and an ‘IoT scenario’. We find that the IoT scenario gives a 4% lower weighted life cycle impact than the current state. Through sensitivity analysis, we show that the conclusions are sensitive to assumptions made about the expected benefits of adding IoT, which depend on the technological context as well as the current and IoT-induced behavior of stakeholders along the product life cycle. The results are also sensitive to assumptions about the environmental impact of the IoT hardware components, implying that design decisions at this level can be important for ensuring a net environmental impact reduction from IoT-enabled circular strategies.

Previous literature has highlighted many opportunities for digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics, to enable circular strategies, i.e., strategies which support the transition to a circular economy (CE). As one of the key circular strategies for which the digital opportunities are apparent, maintenance is selected as the focus area for this study. In the field of maintenance, IoT and data analytics enable companies to implement condition-based maintenance (CBM), i.e., maintenance based on monitoring the actual condition of products in the field. CBM can lead to more timely and efficient maintenance, better performing products-in-use, reduced downtime in operations, and longer product lifetimes. Despite these benefits, CBM implementation in practice is still limited. The aim of this research is thus to understand the challenges related to CBM implementation in practice, and to extract solutions which companies have applied to address these challenges. Towards this aim, a multiple case study is conducted at three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). A framework is derived which allows for a broad analysis of challenges and solutions in the cases. We identify 19 challenges and 16 solutions and translate these into a set of actionable recommendations. Our findings contribute to the field of CBM with a comprehensive view of challenges and solutions in practice, from the OEM's point of view. Moreover, we contribute to CE literature with a concrete case study about IoT-enabled circular strategy implementation.

While the enabling capabilities of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Circular Economy (CE) have been highlighted in a number of publications, knowledge about how to leverage IoT in actual implementation of circular strategies is still lacking. This paper aims to elucidate reasons for the apparent mismatch between the ‘theoretical opportunities’ of IoT for CE as described in literature, and current implementation in practice. To this end, we present a case study in the field of LED lighting, within a company with previous experience and knowledge in both IoT and CE. The primary data source is twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from the company. We identify opportunities for using IoT to support circular strategies in this specific case: IoT can support servitized business models; improve tracking and record keeping of in-use and post-use products; enable conditions monitoring and predictive maintenance; improve estimations of remaining lifetime of used products; and inform design decisions to improve durability of products. Related to these opportunities, we identify implementation challenges faced by the company. The main IoT-specific implementation challenges in the case are (1) a lack of structured data management processes to ensure high quality data collection and analysis, and (2) the difficulty of designing IoT-enabled products for interoperability, adaptability, and upgradability, especially considering that IoT technologies develop at a high pace. By elucidating these challenges, this paper contributes with IoT-specific insights to the available literature about challenges in circular business model implementation. Moreover, this paper adds an important emphasis on real-world implementation challenges to the literature about digitally-enabled circular strategies.

This paper focuses on how the Internet of Things (IoT) could contribute to the transition to a circular economy (CE), through supporting circular business model and design strategies. While literature has highlighted the opportunities for IoT to support circular strategies in business, little has been published about actual implementations in practice. The aim of this study was therefore to understand how companies to date have implemented IoT for circular strategies, and how these implementations compare to the range of opportunities described in literature. To that end, a two-step approach was followed. Firstly, building on academic literature, a framework was developed which categorizes different IoT-enabled circular strategies. The framework recognizes tracking, monitoring, control, optimization, and design evolution as IoT capabilities. Efficiency in use, increased utilization, and product lifetime extension are distinguished as circular in-use strategies, while reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling are distinguished as circular looping strategies. The framework complements previously published work, as it adds additional detail to the categorization, and allows for easy mapping of diverse cases. Secondly, 40 cases from practice were analyzed and mapped to the framework. This way, practice-based insights were derived about the current distribution of IoT-enabled circular strategies implemented in practice. The results show that current implementation of IoT-enabled circular strategies mainly supports two strategies in the use phase: efficiency in use and product lifetime extension. Only a small number of the reviewed cases display IoT-enabled looping (reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling). Similarly, few cases describe 'design evolution' for CE, i.e., the feedback of data from products in use to support circular design. Based on these results, this study identifies the need for future research to further investigate why IoT-enabled looping strategies and design evolution for circular strategies have not been implemented to scale.