GS1 Italy (ECR Italy) have developed Circol-UP, a circular economy measurement tool specific for FMCG companies. It is a web-based tool designed to help companies measure the level of circularity in their product life cycle and to facilitate the implementation of circular economic models across the business.

It is being used by a range of leading international and Italian retailers and brands including Nestlé, Barilla, San Pellegrino, Decathlon, 3M, COOP Italia, Colgate, Carlsberg.

The tool includes 60 qualitative-quantitative questions dealing with all phases of a product’s life cycle: Procurement, Design, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Waste Management (see graphic below). It also accommodate 3 main sectors within FMCG: Food and Beverage, Personal Care and Home Care, and Retail.

After completing the questionnaire, the tool provides the company with a set of circularity measures (or KPIs) including a KPI of the overall circularity of the company and individual KPIs for  each phase of the product life cycle. This set of KPIs can help the company to identify the areas in which it performs best and those in which it can make the necessary interventions to improve circularity performance while investing available resources more efficiently and effectively.

These types of tools are really important for being able to make strategic decisions within a business in transitioning from a linear to a more circular system.