Quantifying the business benefits of a regenerative value chain

Embracing circularity in product design and production 

By shifting away from traditional linear value chains, circular business models keep products in circulation longer through mechanisms like maintenance, reuse, recycling, refurbishment, and remanufacturing. They also emphasize eliminating or reducing the need for emissions-intensive virgin materials in product or service design, which minimizes ecosystem degradation, waste, pollution, and GHG emissions.

Circular thinking creates environmental and business benefits across a variety of sectors, from technology to consumer-packaged goods.

For example, take Microsoft’s zero-water data centers. Data centers require large volumes of water (millions of gallons per day) for their cooling systems, potentially impacting watersheds and draining resources in water-stressed communities. To address its increasing need for water, Microsoft is rolling out a closed-loop water recycling system. This innovation in chip-level cooling technology allows Microsoft to decouple growth from resource use, ensure access to local communities, and save on utility bills.   

Implementing water replenishment projects

Water risks like scarcity and shortage are an existential threat to business continuity, whether you depend on water as a material input for your goods or have facilities in cities or states reliant on hydroelectric power. Already, a quarter of the world’s population and 60% of the world’s irrigated agriculture face extremely high water stress. These numbers will only become more dire as demand for water increases and the planet continues to warm.

Regenerative water practices such as replenishment or net positive can help ensure access to water for your business and the local community and deliver significant financial value. Water replenishment projects can take many forms, including wetland restoration, leak-detection, reforestation, high-efficiency irrigation, water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) improvements, and more.

One novel example demonstrating the concept of stacked benefits mentioned above is Intel’s Ocotillo chip manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona. The Ocotillo campus, which includes an innovative public-private partnership with the City of Chandler, features an on-site water reclamation facility that can treat nearly 10M gallons of water per day, and Intel’s community-based water initiatives have allowed the facility to return over 100% of its freshwater use to the local watershed.  

Protecting and restoring biodiversity

Understanding the link between ecosystem health and the availability of natural resources and services your company relies on is paramount to developing a regenerative value chain. For example, given that over 60% of contemporary anticancer drugs originate from natural sources, pharmaceutical companies might focus on local habitat restoration and preserving the diversity of plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Similarly, companies with crop-based supply chains might pay special attention to pollinator health. Over 75% of global food crops, including fruits, vegetables, almonds, and coffee, rely on pollinators. Unfortunately, pollinators are under rapid decline – already, over $500B in annual crop production is at risk from pollinator loss.

Investing in these biodiversity- and species-saving initiatives is crucial to long-term business continuity. One company that knows this all too well is KIND, which relies heavily on thriving almond populations. To help farmers more efficiently manage the time it takes to visit all 100,000 beehives on its Madera County ranch, KIND partnered with Beewise Technologies. Using AI- and robotics-powered BeeHomes to reduce colony losses at the farm level, honeybee losses fell from 40% to 10% in the first year.