This report presents key findings on chemical leasing—a business model that decouples the supplier’s income from volume sold, as the customer pays for the results the chemical use generates, not the volume of chemicals used. A wide adoption of the circular economy concept through practical approaches, such as the chemical leasing business model, could reduce environmental impact through reduced chemical discharges, emissions, and waste locally and contribute to a global reduction of chemical use.
This study explores the potential for and the required conditions to achieve a wider adoption of the chemical leasing business model. It has four objectives:
1. To evaluate the results of applying chemical leasing in four selected applications through a case study approach;
2. To exemplify the environmental impacts of applying chemical leasing more widely within these applications through a scenario approach;
3. To discuss the necessary conditions and the potential obstacles for wider adoption of chemical leasing in the selected industrial and service sector cleaning operations, based on interviews with involved companies and national centres for cleaner production; and
4. To discuss the potential of chemical leasing to contribute to a reduction of global chemical use in and chemical impact on the environment and health from the selected operations.