Multi-Life-Products – towards a new paradigm of product development aligning on module's multiple usage-scenarios

Successfully applying the principles of Circular Economy (CE) to products is predicted to save 53% of primary raw materials and 83% of CO2 emissions by 2050. Since 80% of the environmental impacts of a product result from its design, product design is one of the most decisive drivers for CE. This paper proposes the concept of "Multi-Life-Products" - a promising approach to designing products for a high level of circularity. It aims to maintain the value of obsolete products while saving energy and CO2 emissions. The "Multi-Life" concept intends to design products modularly so that their modules can be economically and ecologically applied in multiple usage scenarios (lives) after their first application's End of Life. As these modules are designed to be integrated into other technical systems after their life in the first application ends, multiple business cases can be built around them. "Multi-Life" is derived from the high-value strategies of reuse and repurpose, which are rethought in the context of product design. Different modules of a product may have different usage scenarios after their first application's End of Life. Products are thus to be understood as temporary configurations of modules, which will take different paths into different next-life applications. The potential of the concept is evaluated using existing performance criteria of CE and existing product examples. Some implications for the identification and design of "Multi-Life-Products" are discussed for further research work.