Purpose
Analyze a specific product, service, or operational process to identify and rank concrete circular economy opportunities — mapping each to a recognized circularity strategy, scoring feasibility and impact, and sequencing them into a phased roadmap. Turns a vague "we should be more sustainable" mandate into a prioritized, defensible set of operational moves.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Evaluate a product or product line for circular design and material recovery potential
- Find ways to reduce material waste in a manufacturing or operational process
- Explore product-as-a-service, subscription, leasing, or take-back business models
- Design reuse, refurbishment, or remanufacturing loops for existing products
- Build a circularity roadmap tied to ESG or net-zero commitments
- Assess packaging, supply chain, or end-of-life handling for circular improvements
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Subject of analysis: The specific product, service, or process (e.g., "single-use coffee pods," "office furniture rental line," "injection molding process")
- Industry/sector: The market or operational context
- Current lifecycle: How the subject is sourced, made, used, and disposed of today
- Material composition: Primary materials, mixed/composite content, and known recyclability
- Business model: How revenue is currently generated (one-time sale, subscription, etc.)
- Constraints: Budget ceiling, regulatory requirements, timeline, or fixed infrastructure
- Primary goal: What success looks like — cost savings, emissions reduction, regulatory compliance, new revenue, or brand positioning
If material composition or current lifecycle detail is missing, make reasonable industry-standard assumptions and flag them explicitly.
Instructions
Step 1: Baseline Linear Flow Mapping
Map the current "take–make–waste" flow for the subject:
- Take: What virgin materials/resources enter the system and from where
- Make: Production/operational steps and where energy and material are consumed
- Use: How long the product/service is used and by whom
- Waste: What is discarded, at what stage, and where it goes (landfill, incineration, downcycling)
Identify the 3 biggest leakage points — where value, material, or energy is permanently lost. These anchor the opportunity search.
Step 2: Opportunity Generation Across the ReSOLVE Framework
Generate opportunities using the Ellen MacArthur Foundation ReSOLVE levers. Produce 2–4 concrete opportunities per relevant lever (skip a lever only if genuinely inapplicable, and say why):
Regenerate — Shift to renewable materials/energy, return nutrients to biosphere.
- e.g., renewable feedstock substitution, biodegradable material swaps, on-site renewable energy for production
Share — Increase utilization of existing assets through sharing, pooling, or extended life.
- e.g., shared-asset models, peer-to-peer platforms, second-hand/resale channels
Optimize — Increase efficiency and remove waste in production and supply chain.
- e.g., lightweighting, process waste recovery, predictive maintenance, yield improvement
Loop — Keep components and materials in closed loops via reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling.
- e.g., take-back schemes, remanufacturing lines, design-for-disassembly, closed-loop recycling
Virtualize — Deliver utility digitally to displace physical material.
- e.g., digital instructions/manuals, dematerialized packaging, service digitization
Exchange — Replace old materials/technologies with advanced non-circular-to-circular alternatives.
- e.g., mono-material redesign, modular components, product-as-a-service business model shift
Distinguish clearly between the two biological/technical cycles per the Butterfly Diagram — biological (consumables that safely return to nature) vs. technical (durables that must be kept in circulation).
Step 3: Feasibility & Impact Scoring
Score every opportunity on a 1–5 scale across four dimensions:
- Impact (waste/emissions/material reduction potential)
- Feasibility (technical and operational readiness given stated constraints)
- Cost to implement (5 = low cost, 1 = high cost)
- Revenue/savings potential (new revenue or hard cost savings)
Compute a composite priority score (sum of the four). Flag any opportunity that requires supply chain partners, regulatory approval, or new capital infrastructure as a dependency.
Step 4: Business Case Sketch for Top 5
For the five highest-scoring opportunities, provide:
- The move: What changes, in one sentence
- Circular value captured: Which leakage point it closes and how
- Rough economics: Directional cost, savings, or new revenue logic (order of magnitude, not false precision)
- Key dependencies: Partners, tech, policy, or capital required
- Circularity metric to track: e.g., % recycled content, product lifetime extension, material recovery rate, utilization rate
Step 5: Phased Roadmap
Sequence the top opportunities into three horizons:
- Now (0–6 months): Quick wins — high feasibility, low cost, minimal dependencies
- Next (6–18 months): Moderate builds requiring process change or partner onboarding
- Later (18+ months): Structural shifts — business model change, closed-loop infrastructure, redesign
For each horizon, name the enabling milestones that must be true before moving to the next.
Output Format
- Structure: Baseline flow map → opportunities by ReSOLVE lever → scoring table → top 5 business cases → phased roadmap
- Length: 1,000–1,400 words
- Format: Structured document — flow map as bullets, scoring as a table, business cases as structured bullets, roadmap as three labeled horizons
- Sections: Linear Baseline & Leakage Points → ReSOLVE Opportunities → Feasibility & Impact Scoring Table → Top 5 Business Cases → Phased Roadmap
- Tone: Operations and sustainability advisor — pragmatic, economically grounded, not idealistic; every recommendation ties to a business or compliance outcome
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] The 3 biggest value leakage points are named specifically in the baseline map
- [ ] At least one opportunity is generated for every applicable ReSOLVE lever (inapplicable levers are explicitly justified)
- [ ] Every opportunity is scored across all four dimensions with a composite score
- [ ] Opportunities are correctly assigned to biological vs. technical cycles
- [ ] The top 5 business cases each name a specific, trackable circularity metric
- [ ] The roadmap places quick wins in "Now" and structural shifts in "Later" — not the reverse
Notes
- The highest-value circular move is often a business model shift (Loop or Exchange, e.g., product-as-a-service), but these have the longest lead times — pair them with quick Optimize wins to fund and sustain momentum.
- Watch for downcycling disguised as recycling: material that gets recovered but loses value each cycle is a leaky loop, not a closed one — flag it.
- Regulatory tailwinds (Extended Producer Responsibility, packaging mandates, right-to-repair) can convert a marginal opportunity into a compliance necessity — weight these accordingly when scoring feasibility.
- If material composition is composite or mixed, design-for-disassembly and mono-material redesign usually unlock the most downstream circularity and should surface early.
How to use this skill
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Installing in Claude Code:
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- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills