So, when we became part of the Nordic Circular Design Programme, it wasn’t to make a statement. It was to get better. The programme brought together 130 Nordic companies across industries, each exploring circularity through their lens, from product and system design to business models and internal targets.

It culminated in a final event at Kulturhuset in Stockholm on May 13, where twelve of the participants shared what they’d been working on and how their thinking had evolved. It was a working session with a rare opportunity to hear directly from peers trying to put circularity into practice.

Kanthal’s circularity roadmap

Erika Miholich, our Global Head of PMO, joined the executive panel on “Circular business as a competitive edge”. She shared what it takes to move from intention to implementation, and what Kanthal is doing internally to make the shift.

Erika Miholich, Global Head of PMO, Kanthal.“We’ve piloted circular goals focused on reducing Scope 3 emissions and are embedding checkpoints into our internal processes to make circularity part of our day-to-day operations. We’ve also started tagging materials with CO₂ data to better prepare us for what’s ahead,” Miholich explained.

She explained that at Kanthal, circularity is no longer handled by one function. It now involves R&D, product management, procurement, and strategy. This cross-functional approach was reflected in Stockholm, where Caroline Nilsson (Head of Strategy), Nicolai Schaaf (Sustainability Manager), and Jesper Ejenstam (Head of R&D) joined the Kanthal team to represent different parts of the business.

“However, there’s a catch,” Miholich exclaimed. Although we have a long history of scrap-based metallurgy, the materials we rely on are quite complex. Sending a variety of alloys with many different compositions back to the recycling systems is a challenging task. That's why we joined NCDP to get a better understanding and examples of circular business models from peers.”

It only works if it works for the customer

We are focused on prolonging the life of our products, which can be returned to their initial form. This offers a great value proposition for our customers.

Even so, there’s progress, significant progress, circularity must make sense in real-world conditions. It must work for the customer, not just on paper. And that goes far beyond how much material we can recover. It’s about the performance and longevity that our customers can count on.

As Miholich put it, “We are developing solutions to reduce emissions and facilitating several industries to adopt these solutions. We are focused on prolonging the life of our products, which can be returned to their initial form. This offers a great value proposition for our customers.”

“Circularity, for us, is closely tied to product life. If something can be repaired, returned, or rebuilt instead of discarded, it takes pressure off resources and gives customers more control over cost and planning. That’s why we’re paying attention to the early stages, like design, traceability, and other small decisions that shape the bigger outcome. If we get those right, the rest becomes easier to deliver,” she stressed.

And let’s be honest, it also makes a lot of business sense

Circularity is much more than better materials. It is a business framework. It changes how we design, plan, and create value. It helps reduce reliance on raw inputs, lowers long-term costs, and makes the company more resilient. It opens new revenue streams, prepares us for regulation, and helps us serve customers who are planning for the long term.

“A product can be 100 percent circular only if the system around it is built for circularity. A circular product can only succeed if the customer wants it. And it can only win in the marketplace if the business model works,” Miholich said, quoting one of the key messages from the programme.

She continued, “By participating in this programme, we have identified activities such as circular product design, business model integration, and more that will make us more circular in our approach. The programme helped us make those connections more visible. And it gave us real structure to build on.”

This is not a side project

“We are not doing this to check a box. We are doing this to empower our customers and make the business stronger. Circularity helps us reduce risk, create lasting value, and build a company that keeps moving ahead, especially when the world around us keeps changing,” Miholich concluded.