Net Zero Goals Intertwine With A Viable Circular Economy, Says Sustainability Tech Expert

The concept of a circular economy has been around decades. But of late, it has come into its own underpinned by action in multiple markets and sectors.

For context, and for the uninitiated, the circular economy may be loosely defined as a processing, production and consumption model that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products, perhaps in perpetuity or at the very least for as long as possible.

And as the world of industry and commerce sets about pinning down its net zero emissions targets, for one sustainability expert, such ambitions ought to be meaningfully intertwined with viable circular economy pathways.

Meet Rasha Hasaneen, Chief Product and Sustainability Officer at specialist industrial software firm AspenTech (NASDAQ: AZPN), and a familiar name on the global net zero thought leadership circuit.

"For me it's all about circularity. You can effectively deploy circular concepts and processes not just to lower emissions and address concerns over climate change, but also in theory mitigate waste, loss of biodiversity and urban pollution," Hasaneen told your correspondent at OPTIMIZE24, her company's recent customer engagement event held in Houston, Texas, U.S., from April 29 to May 3, 2024.

"Technologies already exist to enhance circularity and make the world cleaner and greener. It's a question of will power and collaboration to take them on."

For their part, specialist industrial software vendors are re-tuning and re-purposing their process control software for circularity. Hasaneen offered such a case in point for what her and AspenTech describe as "co-innovation" in the sustainability and circularity sphere.

Providing a digital jump-start

"Two major refiners are using our digital modelling and advanced processing solutions to convert cooking oil and plastics to bio-fuels and synthetic crude respectively.

"Many such digital technologies can be deployed in non-traditional ways and are not limited by the physical location. So we can use technology or software for one thing, and then reorient the sustainable use case do something similar premised on enhancing circularity, lowering carbon emissions and raising energy efficiency somewhere else in the economic value chain."

Such a line of thinking all of a sudden opens up other entire industries for the deployment of intertwined circular and sustainable solutions than merely the ones they were originally conceived for. "Call it a digital jump-start if you will, and one that's timely following pledges at COP28 to double energy and process efficiencies by 2030," Hasaneen added.

The emerging circular economy already does, and will in the future continue to, rely on artificial intelligence (AI), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), predictive analytics and big data, for process optimization and multiple industrial use cases.

"And its our job [in the industrial software sphere] to ensure that those processes continue to be safe, reliable, repeatable, and innovative."

All about a just energy transition

However, on its path to circularity and a low-to-zero carbon horizon, the world also cannot afford energy poverty as well as digital haves and have-nots. "For me, it is all about a just energy transition and making sure that we don't use sustainability as a way to hold people back from advancement and development, especially in emerging and developing economies," said the AspenTech sustainability head.

Here too, innovation will play a role in overcoming the energy trilemma of sustainability, security and affordability. "For instance, emerging economies have a real opportunity to do things from the ground up in stark contrast to developed economies where a system predicated on fossils already exists.

"There's an opportunity to leapfrog - like for instance many African markets did with mobile telephony without meaningfully having to go down the route of fixed-line telephony. Leapfrogging of this sort can be, and is already being, applied to power grid solutions and renewable energy in Africa."

Hasaneen added that technology can also ensure resource rich emerging markets are not penalized for wanting to use their resources. "We know more about mining, minerals and hydrocarbons, and how to extract as well as use them more efficiently than we did say 50-odd years ago.

"These learnings can be taken and deployed in emerging markets to ensure that both extraction as well as utilization of natural resources is greener and more efficient, without the perception of penalizing them for wanting to use their resources for economic advancement.

"Additionally, developing economies can process and build greener from the ground up and provide case studies for the next wave of low-carbon deployments in the developed world making for a just and inclusive carbon transition."