Circular services are not about labels – they are about making circular choices work in everyday life

How can households become more circular in practice?
The answer is not simply “more information” or “more motivation”.

One of the key findings from the Circ@Home project is that circularity happens only when sustainable choices become visible, trusted, affordable and easy enough to use in everyday situations.

Smart & Lean Hub Oy contributed to the development of the Circ@Home Circular Services Model (CSM), which explores how services, municipalities and local ecosystems can enable households to move from circular intentions to real actions.

Circular services are not circular by name alone

A repair service, sharing platform, second-hand shop or recycling solution does not automatically create circular behaviour.

The key question is:

Does the service help people find, trust and complete a more circular action?

The Circular Services Model introduces a functional perspective:

A circular service is not only an offer.
It is: Service offer + access mechanism + enabling ecosystem

For example:

• Can people find the service when they need it?
• Is the price and process understandable?
• Can they trust the quality?
• Is choosing circular easier than buying new or throwing away?

Circularity often fails because of everyday friction

Many circular solutions already exist — but they remain unused.

Why? Because households face practical barriers:

• “Where can I repair this?”
• “Is repair worth the cost?”
• “Can I trust second-hand quality?”
• “How much time will this take?”
• “Where do I start?”

The challenge is often not attitude, it is usability. Circular choices must compete with the convenience of linear options.

Four things make circular services work

The Circ@Home Circular Services Model identified four key conditions:

1. Visibility & access: People need to find circular options at the right moment.
2. Capability & trust: People need confidence about quality, responsibility and outcomes.
3. Reduced effort: Circular choices must reduce uncertainty, time and complexity.
4. Infrastructure connection: Individual services need support from local ecosystems — hubs, municipalities, logistics and cooperation.

Together these create what Circ@Home calls:

“Readiness-to-do” — the practical ability to act circularly.

What benefits can others take from this?

The Circular Services Model provides a practical framework for:

• Municipalities: to understand how policy, infrastructure, incentives and local coordination can make circular services stronger.
• Service providers: to design solutions that customers actually use — not only environmentally good concepts.
• Circular economy projects: to evaluate why some solutions scale while others remain niche activities.
• Local communities: to build ecosystems where circular living becomes a normal part of everyday life.

From individual services to circular ecosystems

A key conclusion from Circ@Home: Circular transition happens when: usable services + supportive ecosystems → household readiness-to-do → circular actions

The future of circular cities is therefore not only about creating more circular services. It is about creating conditions where circular choices become the easiest and most natural choices.

Smart & Lean Hub Oy continues this work in the Circ@Home project by developing and testing practical solutions that help connect households, circular service providers and local ecosystems.

The deliverable D1.4 is foundable here: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/circhome/ and here: https://zenodo.org/records/20356176