Theme3: Planning of standardization strategies/proposal of measures

A smooth transition to a circular economy cannot be achieved through the initiatives of individual companies; rather it requires efficient cooperation across the entire ecosystem. Accordingly, this study aims to develop rules as the basis for communication enabling the efficient social implementation of a circular economy ecosystem.
To achieve the above objective, in this study, we conducted following:
(1) outlined and overviewed the circular economy related standardization activities in both cyber and physical layers, which are ongoing in the world from the perspective of three aspects: environment, society and economy. Also, hypothesized that there will be opportunities to recycle resources across industrial sectors. 
(2) gained an understanding of market opportunities and standardization opportunities that will help realize them through additional research, and tested the hypothesis.
(3) Considered standardization item proposals that correspond to the hypothesis and the newly discovered needs for indicators to appropriately evaluate the effects of reuse, remanufacturing, etc. Also, identified ISO/TC 323 (Circular Economy) as the main place for the standardization, also considering other alternative committees.
(4) networking with partners such as industry groups, research institutes and universities which will work with us on standardization in the future. 
Leveraging the existing standardization footprints of AIST and Hitachi respectively, we plan to collaborate with these partners on the proposal of more refined standardization items and on the social implementation of the ecosystem.