Google has outlined plans for a ‘circular Google’ by changing the way it manages its entire supply chain in its report “A Circular Google.”
Its mission is “to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in which business creates environmental, economic, and community value through the maximum reuse of finite resources.” And it intends to achieve this via a circular supply chain.
Google’s main circularity goal is to “maximize the reuse of finite resources across our operations, products, and supply chains and enable others to do the same.”
It intends to achieve this is by maximising the reuse of finite sources in its supply chain via sub-goals. Google will “intercept each resource flow at its optimal time to promote the most favourable circular outcome.” For example, it will “recover and restore products, components, and materials through strategies including reuse, repair, remanufacturing, or recycling.”
And going forward, Google believes that artificial intelligence can enhance and enable circular economy innovation by designing circular products, operating circular business models and can “help build and improve the reverse logistics infrastructure required to ‘close the loop’ on products and materials by improving the processes to sort and disassemble products, remanufacture components, and recycle materials.”
“Ultimately, AI could be applied to the complex task of redesigning whole networks and systems in any sector, from rewiring supply chains to creating global reverse logistics infrastructure,” it said.
