The Conseil Europeen de Remanufacture (ERC) was formally launched in Brussels on Friday.
The council reported that its launch, held at the Stanhope Hotel in Brussels, saw it announce plans to “represent companies which produce” €30 billion ($32 billion) in terms of remanufactured products, as well as “employ 190,000 people across Europe”. The organisation’s work programme meanwhile is “aimed at global institutions such as the UN, the OECD and the World Bank”, and aims to increase “the proportion of manufactured output that achieves an extended life through remanufacturing” to five percent.
At this point, the rate is “a mere two percent”, and the unveiling of the council “looked much like any other until a last-minute plot twist”, with the council noting that it launched “with a nod to Hollywood” as contact had been made with the producer of the animated movie Robots. Keynote speaker Walter Stahel is “widely regarded” as the “grand vizier” that “first highlighted the resource savings that could be achieved by extending product life”, and wished the council “every success” in his speech.
In turn, Dr. Nancy Bocken from TU Delft “presented results” from the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN) project while acknowledging the “funding support from the EU Horizon 2020 programme”, with the ERN having “enabled researchers from across Europe to deliver a comprehensive market study designed to be directly comparable with one carried out in the USA”. Remanufacturing industry association ETIRA also attended, with delegates including Secretary General Vincent van Dijk and member Javier Martinez.
Finally, Oakdene Hollins’ David Parker set out recommendations from the ERN’s partners “aimed at enabling faster growth in remanufacturing sales”, with the council to “liaise with the research community in the ERN whilst welcoming member companies from the automotive, transport, imaging and technology sectors”. It also encouraged small and large businesses to join to “assist in building a new generation of remanufacturing innovators and advocates”.
The link to Robots came from Council Director David Fitzsimons, who had stated that “our ambition is to make remanufacturing a normal part of a product’s life cycle, but before that can happen we need to inspire a new, young generation. That’s why one of our strategies will be to promote the character of Rodney Copperbottom”.
Fitzsimons had contacted producer Jerry Davis, who helped produce Robots in 2005, with Copperbottom the “teenage inventor who, outraged by the waste of the world’s resources, champions innovation and thoughtful manufacturing practices. Fighting against the ruthless business model imposed by a self-serving company president, he finally safeguards a lifetime supply of spare parts for robots threatened by inbuilt obsolescence”.
As part of this, companies joining the council “are being offered a DVD of the original Robots movie and a chance to be a part of something more animated than they may have expected”.