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While the discussion around the circular economy has reached megatrend status, the reality is that consumption continues to accelerate.
Source: Global Footprint Network
Rising material extraction has shrunk global circularity from 9.1 percent in 2018, to 8.6 percent in 2020, and to 7.2 percent in 2023.1 Without radical transformation of the materials used to satisfy humanity’s needs, we cannot meaningfully cut emissions.
How can this be done? Circular economy solutions can address roughly half of the climate and three quarters of biodiversity loss.
ABB’s strategy focuses on preserving resources at every stage of a product’s lifecycle, from design and sourcing, through production and use, all the way to responsible end-of-life services. It is a key element of ABB’s sustainability agenda and business models based on circularity can play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Our circularity model aims to minimize waste and maximize resource efficiency by recycling, reusing, and regenerating resources. It moves beyond the wasteful linear model of "take-make-dispose", to embrace the circular model: "reduce-reuse-recycle". By valuing waste as a resource, we can reduce dependence on virgin materials, lower emissions, and restore ecosystems.
"Collaboration with suppliers and partners is essential for circularity-driven innovation. Each of us has a distinct role to play in transitioning to a fully circular economy. By preventing resource waste and reusing materials, we protect the environment and ensure resources for future generations. Let’s move away from linear systems and work together to build sustainable models."
- Anke Hampel, ABB Head of Sustainability
ABB’s Circular Economy: what happens to your old motors and drives
EcoSolutions™: Circularity in Action at our Frosinone Factory
ABB has more than 20 product families represented in the EcoSolutions program. ABB EcoSolutions products meet our circularity criteria in each stage of the product life cycle, as defined in ABB’s circularity framework, and have Type III Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) which are third party verified. This is part of our commitment to making our products more circular and supporting our customers' sustainability journeys by offering more sustainable product choices.
The LCA is a methodology for calculating/assessing the environmental impact of products. An EPD is a document which transparently communicates the environmental performance of a product over its lifetime. EPDs allow companies to substantiate claims with third-party verified data.
These are all important tools to make our products more sustainable and reduce ABB’s impact on the environment. LCA and EPD declarations can help us all make informed decisions about our solutions.
ABB's Circular Business Model is split into two halves – what we do (covering our own design, manufacturing and logistics processes) and what we enable (covering a product's lifetime, use by the customer, and eventual recycling). Read about our actions and solutions each step of the way below.
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Select one of the boxes above to see more.
Globally
ABB is working with Boliden, the Swedish mining and smelting company, to build a strategic co-operation to use low carbon footprint copper in its electromagnetic stirring (EMS) equipment and high-efficiency electric motors. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while driving the transition to a more circular economy.
lower carbon footprint than industry average
CO2 emission reduction for each motor manufactured
of SynRM and e-mobility motors produced in Europe use this copper
Our product portfolio embraces circularity. For example, our synchronous reluctance motors deliver IE5 ultra-premium energy efficiency and avoid rare-earth materials. Also our digitalization and modernization services extend lifetime, optimize performance and reduce waste. Within the realm of recycling, our motors and drives are 90 percent to 98.5 percent recyclable.
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Finland
ABB is actively transitioning to REZYcom PP, a recycled plastic material, supplied by Polykemi, the largest producer of customized thermoplastic compounds in Scandinavia. This has led to a 40 percent carbon reduction and minimized water usage across the lifecycle.
Sweden
ABB is partnering with ArcelorMittal to introduce XCarb® steel made with high levels of recycled steel and 100% renewable energy for its trusted Kabeldon power distribution system. The sustainable sourcing agreement helps reduce the carbon footprint of key electrification equipment by 29%. Low carbon-emissions steel which has a lower environmental impact than conventional steel, is an important raw material for the transition to more sustainable material sourcing, a KPI in ABB’s Circularity Approach.
ABB has been selected by GreenIron, an innovative Swedish company working in the mining and metals industries with its patented materials reduction technology, to provide automation and control system solutions for a first commercial facility in Sandviken, Sweden. GreenIron’s hydrogen-based reduction technology will be industrialized for fossil-free and energy-efficient production of metals, producing fossil-free sponge iron that can then be used in industries such as steelmaking.
This order supports GreenIron’s ambition to lead the industries’ transformation to a circular economy and reduce CO₂ emissions.
United States of America
To help address dangerous marine pollution, ABB Installation Products pioneered industry-leading cable protection crafted from 50 percent recycle-based polyamide using primarily recovered fishing nets. This ABB’s PMA® EcoGuard™ PA6 RPPA conduit requires less energy and water to produce, reducing 30 percent of upstream Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and 50 percent of net freshwater use.
Globally
Closed loop and other recycling processes have saved 65 percent of industrial water use and 80 percent of cooling water use at ABB sites worldwide through 2022; we have 13 projects under way to improve water management, with projected annual savings of 17 kilotons.
India
Parason, one of the largest manufacturers & suppliers of pulp and paper machinery has collaborated with ABB in India to automate and up-scale production of sustainable and compostable packaging solutions. ABB robots, integrated with Parason’s machinery, will help to facilitate the effective manufacturing of agro-waste products - creating 100 percent eco-friendly compostable packaging solutions. ABB initially deployed 10 robots at Parason’s five forming machine cell and added another 20 robots at the end of last year.
Australia
In partnership with one of its' key channel partner IPD, ABB has implemented a new sustainable packaging practice to reduce, reuse and recycle. By switching to reusable crates for shipping products to IPD, the ABB Warehouse team has been able to reduce their use of packaging material. By eliminating the need for cartons, void fill or packaging tape for those products they’re using crates for, the team has seen reduction of about 20% of their packaging material over the last year.
Finland
ABB’s electrical installation products manufacturing site in Porvoo, Finland, has reduced its mixed plastic waste by 50 percent and improved its recycling rate by almost 20 percent in 2023 by adopting innovative processes for reusing waste products.
Netherlands
ARN’s waste-to-energy plants help to drive a circular economy in the Netherlands and Europe. The plant has been using the ABB Ability™ Distributed Control System 800xA® since 2008. In June 2023, ABB upgraded the distributed control system (DCS) to a newer system version.
United States of America
ABB Motion plant in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), identified a way to reuse scrap from the manufacture of motors, recovering more than 26,000 metric tons of electrical steel per year.
In 2022, the plant’s primary electrical steel supplier purchased a local recycling company, which now allows us to sell all electrical steel scrap produced during the manufacturing process back to the primary steel supplier.
Globally
The Circular Water Economy is an innovative approach to managing water resources sustainably and efficiently. It aims to mimic the circular principles found in nature, where resources are continuously recycled and reused. In contrast, the Traditional Water Economy is the conventional linear approach, where water is used once and then discarded as wastewater without much consideration for recycling or conservation.
The Circular Water Economy is built on the so-called six Rs: "Reduce," "Reuse," "Recycle," "Reclaim," "Recover," and "Restore". The six elements represent different strategies aimed at sustainable water management and conservation.
Germany
Reconditioned robots turned out to be the right choice to preserve sustainable and efficient operation, while minimizing production downtime for one of our customers. Refurbishing a robot generates around 75 percent less CO2 than producing a new one.
Three GoFa cobots are helping a German start-up, Repartly, in repairing and refurbishing electronic circuit, giving old and defective household appliances and home electronics a new lease of life. The company has used ABB’s monthly leasing model (Robotics as service) to rent these cobots and to test automated soldering, sorting, and visual inspecting of these boards. The company follows a sustainable business model and has a mission to drive circular economy by repairing used appliances and helping customers in reducing waste.
Egypt
A project to modernize an ACS600 multidrive at Al Bardi Paper Mill in Egypt has upgraded it to the latest drive technology, increasing its reliability by approximately 30 percent and extending its lifetime by at least 12 years.
Belgium
ABB helped ENGIE, a leading energy supplier in Belgium, to ensure continuous and safe operations in its innovative heat and power plants. This is a tangible example of how the circular approach can extend asset lifespan and reduce operating equipment costs, bringing short and long-term benefits to the company, society, and environment.
Sweden
ABB provided life cycle services for the motors and drives that control critical equipment at Jämtkraft’s factory for more than 20 years. Performed modernization services prolonged the equipment’s lifetime and helped to avoid premature scrapping and reduce waste, by reusing the existing infrastructure.
South Africa
The City of Cape Town, which is responsible for delivering energy to the 4.8 million residents of the Western Cape, has awarded ABB a three-year contract for a phased retrofit of legacy medium voltage (MV) switchgear within its electrical infrastructure. ABB’s electrification service experts design, install and commission switchgear upgrade solutions to support safer, more sustainable power supply for Western Cape residents. These new devices replace oil and SF6 insulated products, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and release of potent greenhouse gas.
Globally
We offer a take-back service for switchgears and components including breakers. We have piloted it in several countries and will scale it up in 2024.
Brazil
ABB Motion Brazil’s Circularity of Inverters, Electric Motors, and Generators Project is helping industries transform production for greater sustainability and efficiency. This initiative optimizes natural resources by promoting the replacement of outdated equipment with high-efficiency alternatives, while ensuring responsible disposal of obsolete, low-efficiency equipment. This approach not only enhances manufacturing efficiency but also reduces carbon emissions, energy consumption, and overall environmental impact.
The project’s results are already impressive. At just one client site, ABB recycled 74 small engines, reintegrating 5.45 tons of materials back into production and achieving 99% reuse of obsolete equipment. This action alone conserved enough energy to power 20,000 homes for a month.
Learn more
Germany
In 2023, we partnered with Germany's Remondis, which recycles old inefficient motors and sends the retrieved metals to selected companies that ABB can then use as suppliers to manufacture new products.
Sweden
ABB Large Motors and Generators in Sweden have joined forces with Stena Recycling to offer our customers an opportunity to recycle their old machines. The deal ensures that end-of-life motors/generators are recycled in an environmentally friendly way and the metals are reused in new products made in Europe.
Türkiye
ABB has completed the retrofit conversion of a Nuh Cement-owned diesel-fueled Euclid R85B haul truck into a fully electric, zero-emission vehicle. The two companies worked together closely to design and build this retrofit project, making this the first time in the world that a vehicle of this size and class type has been fully electrified.
United States of America
ABB Robotics is collaborating with US start-up Molg to create robotic microfactories to recover and recycle data center operators’ disused electronic equipment, commonly known as e-waste. With global e-waste projected to rise to 75 million tons by 2030[1], the microfactories will play a vital role in reducing the electronic waste, helping the data center sector operate more efficiently and sustainably.
Sweden and the US
The ABB Energy Industries Service Parts Circularity Program aims to extend the life of used parts, conserving resources and minimizing electronic waste. The initiative focuses on the repair, reuse and recycling of faulty parts to extend their life. Data collected by ABB Energy Industries reveals that the amount of industrial electronic waste sent to landfill reduced from 214.5 kg in 2020 to 14.2 kg by the end of 2023, this means a decrease in 93% over a four year period.
The program creates significant value for customers through collaboration with recycling experts Stena Recycling in Europe and Ohio Drop Off in the US, who provide certified reports that assess the material properties of each part across various categories, offering transparency in sustainability reporting.
