B2B Take-Back

In our series B2B Take-Back, we look at take-back programs that exist today. Every circular strategy depends on getting the product back. Refurbishment, remanufacturing, resale, parts harvesting and closed-loop recycling all need a return flow. Yet take-back sits between sales, service, logistics and procurement, often with no budget and no name on the org chart.

Each episode covers one part of the mechanism: the contract, the deposit, the incentive for the person handing the product back, the decision on which product gets which R-strategy, and the demand for what comes back. None of these companies started with circularity. Their programs began with a customer who would not sign without a return guarantee, a supply risk on rare earths, or a sales opportunity.

Our guests are:

• Antonia Goerg, Project and Sustainability Manager, and Markus Steppler, Managing Director at DERIX, on the contractual take-back obligation for glulam and cross-laminated timber (X-LAM) elements
• Thomas Meyer, responsible for remanufacturing, repair and reuse at Knorr-Bremse Truckservices, on the deposit system behind the EconX remanufacturing program for truck components
• Thomas Fetting, responsible for group-wide processes for technical warranty analysis, product recycling and circular economy at Wilo, on collecting used pumps through plumbers and wholesalers without contract, deposit or payment
• Julie Fournier, circular economy at Legrand, and Kevin Chen, Consulting Director at Circul’R, on choosing between refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling across 300,000 products, running take-back alongside an EPR scheme, and aligning the stakeholders involved
• Anthony Levy, Founder of Circularity First, on building demand for remanufactured network hardware through Cisco Refresh
  

Whether you already run a take-back program or are planning one, this series shows how companies in different industries get their products back.