Circular Economy, Recycling & Remanufacturing worked example

Circular Design Readiness with design-for-circularity gap severity score of 20 score: a worked example

What does the result look like when design-for-circularity gap severity score reaches 20 score? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. a team needs to prioritize design changes that improve reuse, repair, remanufacturing, or recycling for a design review

The inputs for this scenario

  • Design-for-circularity gap severity score: 20 score (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 8)
  • Likelihood the gap affects recovery score: 4 score (unchanged)
  • Weakness of current design review controls score: 5 score (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Circular Design Readiness score = design-for-circularity gap severity score × likelihood the gap affects recovery score × weakness of current design review controls score) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 10.65 score for circular design readiness score, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 20 score for design-for-circularity gap severity score.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 4 score for likelihood the gap affects recovery score.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 5 score for weakness of current design review controls score.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where design-for-circularity gap severity score sits at 8 score and the headline result is 5.85 score, this scenario comes in 82.05% above the baseline at 10.65 score.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when design-for-circularity gap severity score is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. The score is only as consistent as your scoring scale — it ranks relative risk, it does not predict an absolute recovery rate or cost, and unscaled scores from different reviewers are not comparable.

Results at a glance

  • Circular Design Readiness score: 10.65 score (headline result)
  • Design-for-circularity gap severity score: 20 score
  • Likelihood the gap affects recovery score: 4 score
  • Weakness of current design review controls score: 5 score

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Circular Design Readiness calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.