HO-Oxfam Novib Pilot component One of the ways to improve a company#s impact on society and the environment is by decreasing its climate footprint. A company#s footprint is, among other, determined by their use of resources, their energy consumption, the characters of the products they produce, etc. The circular economy offers great potential to decouple economic growth from material use and environmental impact. Key circular strategies include:

- To prioritise regenerative resources, e.g. to ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources.
- To preserve and extend what#s already made # e.g. to maintain, repair and upgrade products, to maximise their lifetime.
-  To use waste as aresource # i.e. to utilise waste from one process to become input for another, and to recover waste for reuse and recycling
Most companies are not designed in a circular way, their businesses models are based on the linear #take, use, waste economy#. Businesses can be supported to become more circular, when the right knowledge, services and expertise is provided. We call these #Circularity Services#. More specifically, businesses can be supported to:
- Design for the future - to use the right (e.g. non toxic, recycled, renewable) materials, design for extended future use.
- Rethink their business model # eg. Encourage business models that build on theinteraction between products and services, eg allowing waste from one process to become the input for another.
- Increase collaboration; work together within and in between supply chains, increase transparency
- Incorporate digital technology - Track and optimiseresource use and strengthen connections between supply chain actors through digital, online platforms and technologies that provideinsights.
A circular economy has the potential to contribute directly to achieving a significant number of SDG targets. The strongest relationships exist between CE practices and the targets of SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).

Purpose
With the objective of the Impact SME#s Development programme to strengthen and scale-up the contribution to the SDGs, this pilot aims at creating and testing a service package to SMEs that will enable them to become more environmentally sustainable. The services willinclude tools aimed at creating a circular business model.

Assumptions
These are the assumptions to create the service package (inrandom order) which are to be tested/validated during the pilot:
- SMEs are interested/ receptive to becoming (more) circular (understanding the benefits/ business case: contributing to the SDG#s, improving their climate story, decreasing costs, reducing #linear#risks )
- Circularity services are concrete, applicable change interventions for SMEs (towards# )
- (More) Circular SMEs create more jobs than similar non-circular SMEs, without losing on feasibility ratio#s (although it will be difficult to test this in a short timeframe).
- Youth are more interested in circularity and understand this better
- There is real appetite amongst companies/ policymakers/ local finance providers to embrace circular economy in Nigeria