The Sustainable Improvement Research Group of Tecnun has recently published a guide on how to apply the Economics Circular in the service sector. The guide has been developed within the project end of Degree of the student Leire Arin Gemme, with the support and supervision of Carmen Jaca, professor at Tecnun and Researcher in Economics Circular.

So far, actions to stimulate the development of a circular Economics in Europe have focused on industry and production, with little attention paid to consumers. Most guidelines and examples focus on the production industry and service companies are sometimes unclear on how to apply Economics circular to their business. The service sector has the potential to play a key role in the shift towards a circular Economics due to its strategic position between manufacturers and end-users. In addition, this sector represents a large amount of jobs and resources. Student Leire Arin tells us how this guide came about:

How did the option of making this PFG come about? 

Initially my intention was to do an internship in a company, in fact, I had already managed to get an interview at the Career Fair of Tecnun. However, in the end it was not possible because of the topic Covid. But in one of the last online classes of business management Mentxu Jaca told us that she had some project about this topic. I thought it could be interesting and decided to contact her. She told me that last year they did a guide on Economics Circular but that most of the examples were associated to productive companies and that it could be interesting to do something similar regarding the service sector.

What have you learned from this project?

I have learned that the social component in the Economics Circular (CE) is very important. Nowadays the Economics Circular is having entrance in many organizations due exclusively to the maximization of economic benefits it brings. We must not forget that the social part exists and that we must also reflect it. In final, the Economics Circular brings great economic, environmental and social benefits. In addition, this project has helped me to organize and plan better.

It is not very common that a PFG ends up becoming a guide, what are your feelings about this?

I believe that this format can help service companies to apply the CE in an easy and simple way since the guide sample clearly shows the steps to be followed. A first version of the guide was sent to different companies so that they could evaluate it. The clarity and practicality of the guide was very positively evaluated. I hope that in the future this guide will help companies in their transition to a Economics Circular.