Optimass business model for scaling up

Soil and rock materials, which are excavated in construction and civil engineering projects, and taken in as raw material from quarries in the same project, are one of the major material flows in society in terms of volume. The handling and transport of soil and rock materials generates climate emissions and costs.

The production of soil and rock materials involves the extraction of natural resources, which can conflict with local and national environmental goals.Circular rock and soil management means reducing the extraction of natural resources by recycling excavated soil and rock materials as much as possible and matching them to the need for soil and rock materials in construction projects.

After sorting, washing, and crushing, the excavated material can be used as a construction material that meets the requirements of the construction project.

When the excavated material replaces another soil and rock material, the production of virgin material decreases and there is an environmental gain.Circular rock and soil management requires planning; Sorting, washing, and crushing require access to places where such activities are allowed, you need to hire and develop the skills of staff, and make decisions about investments in equipment.

Developers, whether private or municipal, can sum up their intentions in a rock and soil management strategy.A rock and soil balance forecast at the comprehensive or detailed development plan stage provides a picture of the types of rock and soil materials that will arise, and be needed in an area, of what quality the materials are, and when the material or need will be occur.

It provides the opportunity to see how much of the material can be recycled (because it matches in terms of quality and time) and what kind of activities, places and equipment are required to do the recycling.

A rock and soil balance forecast is therefore an important basis for a rock and soil management strategy.Ecoloop has worked together with many municipalities and regions to develop rock and soil balance forecasts, rock and soil management strategies and proposals for measures that increase the reuse and recycling of materials.

Since 2013, we have developed and used the Optimass tool, www.optimass.se, to be able to translate the construction forecasts of comprehensive plans and detailed development plans into mass balance forecasts, with associated calculations of transport costs and climate impact.

The tool also provides the opportunity to match excavation material with the need for soil and rock material in terms of quality and time and is therefore often used to make an early assessment of the costs and benefits of reuse measures or business offers from private actors.We now want to move forward in the development of Optimass, to be able to scale up the benefits of providing rock and soil material balance forecasts.

We want to use the opportunities that digitization offers to go from an expert tool that is limited by how much time a few consultants have, to a service that is offered online and can be used by many customers at the same time.The goal is to explore different business model ideas that use digitalization to scale up the benefits, and then identify a business model among those that have the potential to become financially sustainable.The purpose of the project is to improve the conditions for circular rock and soil management by giving more officials in the municipal planning process access to information about how the mass balance of soil and rock materials as a result of planned construction in a municipality´s geographical area will look like over a multi-year period of time.