Gorenje participated at the project ResCoM – Resource Conservative Manufacturing, co-founded by the European Commission. One of the aims of the project was to develop tools that would help companies with circular economy transformation. Aleš Dr Mihelič Innovation Leader, R&D Competence Centre Laundry Care, Gorenje Group emphasized that «through producing innovative products that cut energy and water use, and improved end-of life recycling techniques, the home appliance industry is already a proven driver of resource efficiency.»
But as no tools are available today that could assess economic and environmental performance of circular product systems, the purpose of research and case studies, prepared within the ResCoM project, has been to develop a multi-method simulation-based tool that would help evaluate economic and environmental performance of circular product systems.
During the ResCoM project, Gorenje developed and explored a service-based business model that not only brings value to the company and users but also has a strong impact on environment conservation. According to the company, it is a potential new service model for ASKO washing machines, which offers a leasing model for household users and the commercial market. Washing machines would be leased to three market segments cascaded through to the next segment over time: each washing machine starts as a premium new product (the 1st segment); is refurbished and offered as economy model (the 2nd segment); and then re-refurbished and offered as a budget or a used economy product (the 3rd segment). After this, the company takes back the product/materials for recycling.
