Peter C. Evans at MIT: Closing the Circularity Delta in Electronics

This video, “Closing the Circularity Delta in Electronics,” features a keynote address by Dr. Peter C. Evans, delivered at the 2025 MIT Platform Strategy Summit at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.In his keynote, Dr. Evans explains how businesses can apply circular economy principles to the electronics sector to increase sustainability, extract value, and comply with changing regulations.A key concept introduced in this talk is the Circularity Delta, a measure of the difference between what a company spends on electronic hardware each year and the net value it recovers when the asset is retired.For example, if a company spends $1 million on electronics but only recovers $100,000 when those assets are retired, its circularity delta is 90%. This high delta reflects the lost value often resulting from informal disposal practices that recover only 10–15% of the original asset spend.Dr. Evans demonstrates how purpose-built circular platforms can increase recovery to over 30%, effectively cutting the circularity delta in half and transforming IT asset disposition into a value-generating operation.To help organizations close this gap, Dr. Evans introduces a three-stage approach that moves from initial assessment to full-scale integration. The Pilot stage focuses on evaluating current recovery systems and identifying opportunities for improvement. During Integrate, organizations align stakeholders, scale systems, and embed circular platforms into daily operations. Finally, the Optimize stage uses data-driven insights to extend circularity into broader strategic functions such as procurement, customer programs, and sustainability initiatives, transforming circular practices into a core component of business strategy.Throughout his presentation, Dr. Evans highlights how digital circular platforms are critical enablers of this transformation. Beyond resale, they deliver additional value through transparency, compliance, secure data handling, and multi-channel resale approaches. These platforms also support diverse market geometries, including B2B, B2C, and C2C, helping organizations achieve greater scale and geographic reach.The Circularity Delta is a concept developed by Dr. Evans and Guennael “G” Delorme in their white paper, Scaling the Circular Economy for Electronics: Why Every Business Needs a Platform Strategy.Visit our website to learn more: allthingscircular.comConnect with Peter:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-c-evans-phd-217b8/Read the paper: https://allthingscircular.com/scaling-the-circular-economy-for-electronics/The MIT Sloan Management Review has also recapped Dr. Evans’ keynote: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/ai-agents-tech-circularity-whats-ahead-platforms-2026