EMMA Safety Footwear (B): Implementing the Circular Business

This case is the continuation of EMMA Safety Shoes (A): Designing a Circular Shoe. EMMA reached 100% circularity in shoe design at the end of 2019, but this impressive achievement did not mean its journey to the circular economy was over. EMMA Safety Footwear – Implementing the Circular Business maps out several milestones in the transition of its business model, recycling logistics, supply-chain management and internal culture to make the circular shoe a sustainable business. A series of events between 2019 and May 2020 push the company in the right direction, but to be truly successful means taking the lead for the entire safety footwear industry, getting stakeholders such as customers, dealers, business partners, and competitors on board.

. Understand what changes have to happen for the transition to sustainability and whether they make economic sense. Like any type of business transformation, applying ‘circular’ principles to making safety shoes involves a lot of change management. . Understand the complications of implementing a business model that sells circular products– what are the implications for different business units and how they work together? . Observe how a business model evolves to capture maximum economic benefits as circumstances change with a new circular product, and consider even more far-reaching changes such as product-as-a-service by leasing safety shoes. . Think about how mergers & acquisitions, alliances with key competitors and other types of partnerships will be part of the journey towards sustainability/circularity (and any other type of transition). . Link EMMA’s efforts to the broader concept of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.