Project/company overview
The client is a global supplier of a portable consumer electronic device with a lithium battery. The device makes up a significant share of a multi-billion-dollar product market.
Problem
The client was dealing with several strategic questions and dilemmas related to the 5-year strategy for their product. These included questions about:
- The device battery’s financial and sustainability footprint, risks and value chain implications (cradle-to-grave)
- Raw material production impacts, manufacturing, product transport emissions, customer behaviours, and repair / recycling rates and techniques
- Impacts, benefits and risks of incorporation of rare earth elements (e.g. nickel vs. cobalt) in the battery system
- Opportunities to deliver a more sustainable battery system to improve ESG performance
- Communication to decision-makers of the business case for selecting certain concepts, considering financial and non-financial value drivers
Outcome
Adaptus delivered three outcomes which successfully improved the client’s decision. These included:
- Value chain mapping (Sankey diagrams) of emissions and waste volumes across the client’s international battery supply chain. This included battery minerals extraction, manufacturing, transport to consumers, recycling and repair impacts, and landfilling. Provided recommendations of target areas for emissions reductions.
- A triple-bottom-line economic decision model. This showed the quantified financial and sustainability benefits of initiatives the client could undertake to improve the battery materials’ circularity and ESG performance.
- Training and support for the battery business unit’s team in decision modelling, and in the use of Adaptus’ interactive economic model (Pyxus)
Value
The piloting of structured decision-making, combined with triple-bottom-line economics, provided the business with proof of concept that these techniques could be successfully applied to strategic product decisions. This provided the client with justification to apply the decision modelling framework at the whole-of-device level. The client is exploring the opportunity to apply this framework across their device business, to evaluate product changes using both financial and ESG lenses.
