CIRCULAR TRANSITION INDICATORSCASE STUDIES
We are using CTI to unlock the circular potential of our consumer
devices and packaging. The journey has been enlightening. CTI
provides a detailed analysis of our circular inflows and outflows, giving
us a baseline and means to quantify improvements and set targets.
The data and insights help us identify key circularity levers, enabling us
to make informed and meaningful improvements. CTI is versatile withthe ability to measure the circularity of a single product to an entirecompany, providing a much-needed lens for more sustainable decision
making.
Organization Name:
MicrosoftIndustry:
Software development
Number of employees:
163,000
Annual revenue (2020):
USD $143,015 million
Website:https://www.microsoft.com

Wendy Phippen,Sr. Director, Environmental Compliance and Sustainability
Why are circular metrics interesting to your company?

CTI has proven to be instrumental in supporting Microsoft’s goal to design
and produce devices and packaging that can be 100% recycled by materialcomposition. With CTI, we are able to swiftly identify the key levers that will
improve circularity, including recyclability and overall recoverability of ourproducts and their packaging at their end-of-life. In particular, the CTI assessment
encouraged us to look at new ways to recover our products. Hence, we are
expanding our voluntary take-back program geographically.
CTI calculates and quantifies circular performance while also providing efficient
tracking of improvements over time, which is critical to ensure progress yearon-year. The online tool is user friendly and can be used at any level of theorganization. Overall, CTI provides detailed insights on the necessary steps
needed to improve product and packaging circularity.

Key challengesSolutions

Results

Microsoft is working towards theambitious target to be carbon
negative by 2030. To reach thisgoal, we need to understand indetail the level of circularity ofour products. CTI enables us
to measure and set targets forour hardware business. Oncethe initial assessment had been
carried out, a key challenge wasto understand how CTI identifies
and prioritizes action areas thatcan significantly improve thecircularity of our products. As wemove forward, we need to ensurethat the investment and resources
to improve circularity are usedand allocated towards the mosteffective strategies to reach ouroverall sustainability targets.

CTI was used to measure thecircularity of our products andrevealed a sizeable opportunity toincrease the quantity of recycledresources in our products.
We assessed 5 representative
devices and their packaging:Xbox One X game console,Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro
7, Surface Pro X and Surface
Go. The CTI results, compiled by
KPMG, provided us with ranked
opportunities to increase thepercentage of circular inflows andpercentage of circular outflows
for all assessed products. Byprioritizing and comparing thecircularity levers identified through
CTI, we gained data and insightsthat enabled us to make informed
decisions at the design stage of
product development that will
maximize the opportunities for
improving the circular performanceof our products.

The insights from the CTI
assessment provided a very clear
picture of the areas where we need
to focus to improve circularity inproduct design and packaging
choices. We were able to identify
the key levers that would havehigh impact in improving thecircularity of the products weassessed. At the same time, wequickly understood which levers
would not result in a significantimprovement. Opportunities wereidentified that included increasing
recycled content in metals andplastics (e.g. for the aluminum inour device enclosures and for the
resins used in components). Other
opportunities included improving
product design for disassembly
and repairability and elimination of
coatings that inhibit recycling.