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Master Thesis for Sustainable Management 2019/6/5

The challenges of “cradle-to-cradle” strategy - A case study with Huawei company Authors: Xiaoyu Zhang Shuai Huang Supervisor: Emilene Leite

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Abstract The cradle to cradle (C2C) is a sustainable business strategy that mimics the natural recycling cycle and waste is reused, the question of when and how to apply the C2C concept successfully in business is still controversial. This thesis takes Huawei, the leading enterprise in the mobile communication industry, as an example, and to investigate the challenges for Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing an effective C2C strategy to achieve a sustainable development. This study used the semi-structured interviews in the qualitative data collection method to interview both Huawei and China Telecommunications’ managers. Data analysis shows that for the electronics industry with low recycling rate and high pollution, Huawei still faces many challenges in adopting the C2C strategy，which includes alloy recycling, recycling of electronic products in consumers' hands, disassembly problems, and recycling of electronic products by value, Another challenge is the mismatch between C2C evaluation mechanism and China's mobile communications industry. Only fully considered cradle to cradle, cradle to Grave, and Life cycle, the sustainable mode of the mobile communications industry would be reached.

keywords: Cradle to Cradle, Cradle to Grave, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Circular economy, Linear economy, Upcycle, Technical cycle, Disassembly, Material composition, Reverse logistics, Recycling behavior. key Abbreviations: C2C: Cradle to Cradle C2G: Cradle to Grave CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility LCA: Life Cycle Assessment MBDC: McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry EPEA: Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency

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1.Introduction 3 1.1 Problem discussion 4 1.2 Research question 5 1.3 Purpose 5 2. Theoretical framework 5 2.1 Upcycle-Core idea of C2C 5 2.2 C2C and Circular economy 6 2. 3 C2C and LCA 7 2.3.1 Comparison between C2C and LCA 7 2.3.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA 7 2.4 C2C evaluation mechanism 8 2.4.1 Defects of C2C evaluation mechanism 8 2.5 Biological cycle and Technical cycle 9 2.6 Design for disassembly 10 2.7 Material composition 11 2.8 The system of reverse logistics 11 2.9 Determinants of recycling behavior 12 2.10 The research model 13 3. Methodology 14 3.1 Research design 14 3.1.1 Case background 15 3.2 Research approach 15 3.3 Sampling type 16 3.3.1 Sampling frame and sample selection 16 3.3.2 Sample background 17 3.4 Data collection 18 3.4.1 Date source-Primary and Secondary Data collecting 18 3.4.2 Semi-structured interview 18 3.5 Ethical and procedural considerations 19 3.6 Data analysis 19 3.7 Operationalization 20 3.7.1 Huawei Company 20 3.7.2 China Telecommunications Corporation 21 4. Empirical data 22 4.1 C2C and Circular economy 22 4. 2 C2C and LCA 23

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4.2.1 comparison between C2C and LCA 23 4.2.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA 24 4.3 C2C evaluation mechanism 25 4.4 Biological cycle and Technical cycle 26 4.5 Design for disassembly 27 4.6 Material composition 27 4.7 The system of reverse logistics 28 4.8 Determinants of recycling behavior 29 5. Discussion 30 5.1 The system of reverse logistics 30 5.1.1 Material composition 30 5.1.2 Determinants of recycling behavior 31 5.2 Circular economy 31 5.2.1 Technical cycle 32 5.3 C2C evaluation mechanism 33 5.4 Sustainable Mode of telecommunications industry 33 5.4.1 Design for disassembly 34 6. Conclusion 35

7. Recommendation for company 35

8. Limitation and Suggestions for future research 36 Reference 37

Appendix: 43

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1.Introduction Most developed countries have environmental regulations that stipulate that chemical manufacturers, power plants and users have a responsibility to handle chemical waste properly. In the mid-1980s, this was often referred to as "cradle to grave" resource management.Today, modern environmental management sets out sustainable manufacturing practices that highlight preventing waste and responsible care for the planet's natural resources. The focus on recovery of resources, recycling and reuse can be described as "cradle to cradle" resource management （Kumar & Putnam,2008). The cradle to cradle (C2C) is a sustainable business strategy that mimics the natural recycling cycle and waste is reused. The concept has been created by an American architect named William McDonough and a German chemist named Michael Braungart. The goal of the cradle-to-cradle approach is to create a circular resource management process rather than a linear process like a cradle to a grave. The cradle-to-grave concept is simply the process from birth to death, and its main goal is to reduce waste. The cradle to cradle method goes a step further, trying to eliminate waste completely (Study.com, 2019). In C2C strategy, there are two types of nutrients cycle. There are: i） biological cycle: materials are expect to return to the biosphere in the form of compost or other nutrients, from which new materials can be produced; and ii） technical cycle: materials that are not used up during the process of product use can be reprocessed to allow them to be used in new products (EPEA, 2019). In order to achieve a sustainable world based on the concept of “cradle to cradle”, products should be beneficial in terms of health, environment and economy (Toxopeus, De Koeijer&Meij, 2015). The attitude of Zero waste of C2C has attracted many new enterprises to get into the field of sustainable development (Bakker, Wever, Teoh& De Clercq, 2010). In recent years, the improvement of people's living standard is due to the development of science and technology, more and more consumers pursue personalized commodities and diversified commodities, which is reflected in the consumption of electronic products. Due to the change of industrial competition environment and consumer demand, the upgrading speed of high-tech electronic products is accelerated to meet consumer demand. Since the 1980s, many developed countries have been working on how to reduce the adverse impact on the environment in the process of disposing of waste products, and many foreign researchers have studied these issues, especially the recycling of electronic products: How to select the method of recycling, optimization model and related theoretical analysis.With the growth of awareness of environmental protection, many consumer begin to pay close attention to the company whether to make the use of sustainable materials in their products or services, whether they take corporate social responsibility (CSR) to protect the environment and society, which makes the traditional industry model "cradle to grave" is not enough to satisfy the consumers demand of reducing adverse effects on the environment.Therefore, the concept of supply chain management has been transformed from "cradle to grave" to "cradle to cradle"（Khan, Dong, Zhang & Khan, 2017）. However, in the electronics industry, success in achieving ecological and economic goals is a challenge (Weznek, 2003).The waste stream of e-waste is now expanding, but due to the low level of recycling, many electronic products are eventually thrown into landfills. The toxins released by burning e-waste cause pollution

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and health problems (O'Lear, 2010).By 2010, the International Electronics Association's recyclers estimate that 1 billion computers will be discarded. They also claim to recycle 1.5 billion pounds of electronic equipment each year, including 40 million computer devices, including processors, displays and printers, Half of the recyclable material is recycled metal (Reverselogisticstrends.com, 2019). Due to the short life cycle of electronic products and the large number of defective products, traditional incineration, crushing, burying and other processes have caused serious harm to the environment due to mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead and other heavy metal elements contained in the products. If the C2C model is implemented in the product design process, recycled materials can be recycled （Khan et al. 2017). In order to answer the research question, a case study of Huawei will be used.

1.1 Problem discussion The main value of C2C is that it raises many questions about current business practices. However, the question of when and how to apply the C2C concept successfully in business is still controversial（Bocken, de Pauw, Bakker & van der Grinten, 2016). O'lear (2010) discusses the C2C business model in chapter 5 of her book about environmental politics. Different from the mainstream ideas, O'lear (2010) critically considered the social problems that might arise from C2C. The main emphasis is on the power of ideology. The author believes that ideology affects consumers' values and ultimately changes consumer spending habits. In order to shorten the service life of products, businesses have created the concept of "planned obliteration", that is, using inferior raw materials to produce products, thus accelerating the repeated purchase frequency of consumers and resulting in a larger amount of garbage. As a result, companies are designing the recycling of commercial waste to 'whiten' the rise in total waste. Consumers are beginning to see their spending habits as harmless and considering the resulting waste as legitimate. Consumers no longer think about the environmental costs caused by early scrapping, nor do they delved into the fate of recycled waste. The power of this ideology is dominated by corporations, and they can even gain a good reputation from it.In such a business mindset, even a shift in strategy to a cradle-to-cradle model would not help, as planned obliteration still exists and consumer habits have changed already. When environmental protection becomes a means of commercial marketing, benefits will be the primary factor for business consideration. Recycling policies for this purpose only exacerbate the consequences of inefficient resource allocation. It is difficult to realize the ecologically effective sustainable operation mode that is imagined in the C2C theory. However, the literature on how to combine C2C concepts with practice to achieve ecologically effective sustainable development is limited. This creates barriers and a lack of guidance for companies that want to implement a C2C strategy. Furthermore, Toxopeus et al. (2015) still points out that C2C production requires a systematic certification process to obtain certification labels. The C2C certification label will also have a positive impact on the reputation of the organization as a reward to the company that implements the C2C development model effectively. It can be found from Huawei's 2014 sustainable development

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report and the company's official website that the C2C business model of circular economy was advocated and promoted by the company, which formed an output of ideology virtually simultaneously. If so, will this kind of C2C ideology output have a positive impact on the Huawei company's sustainable development? On the other side, Huawei set up more than 190 waste electronic product recycling sites in the Asia-pacific region to help promote the implementation of C2C strategy, but the follow-up progress of this project is not shown in the company's annual sustainable development report (Building a better connected world, 2014). The study found that, in 2015, there were nearly 7 billion mobile phone users worldwide (ITU, 2015). Meanwhile, the global mobile phone recycling rates have not reached 10% (Tanskanen, 2012). The previous data apparently does not meet the requirements of C2C design paradigm for product recyclability, which means the current situation of mobile communication industry is not conducive to the realization of C2C strategy. This also brings challenges to Huawei's C2C development.

1.2 Research question What is the current status of Mobile Communications Enterprise's "cradle to cradle" strategy in China? - a case study with Huawei as an example.

1.3 Purpose To investigate the challenges for Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing an effective C2C strategy to achieve a sustainable development.

2. Theoretical framework

2.1 Upcycle-Core idea of C2C Braungart and McDonough (2013) point out that pollution is not the core problem behind environmental disasters, but the real culprit is flawed design. The author proposes a concept of "upcycle", which aims to encourage people to take good care of all creatures, love all children and let products interact with nature in the process of product design and manufacturing. The idea of upcycle requires humans to place themselves in nature to think, which means to be part of nature rather than to separate ourselves from environment (Kopnina, 2018). Traditional thinking holds that human beings can only cause damage to the earth, and the upcycle is similar to C2C philosophy, encourages people to think positively about the relationship between human beings and nature. We should not limit ourselves to how to reduce harm, but think optimistically about how to create common interests to increase eco-effective. The idea that simply treating nature as something need to be protected is a closed and arrogant thought. It would never harness power from natural such as microbes

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and solar energy. The upcycle encourages entrepreneurs to redefine their business models with open and innovative thinking, and only by people-oriented manufacturing can develop C2C products in a real sense. Do not be afraid of failure and frustration is also an important spiritual force for enterprises in the process of seeking C2C model. Because the nature of C2C is innovation, it must be based on numerous examples of failure. Therefore, in order to establish a C2C development model, the entrepreneurship that is brave to accept challenges and optimistic to face failure is also an important influencing factor. Braungart and McDonough (2013) criticizes the idea of 'ecologism' that the earth can only be protected by minimizing people's needs. The authors believe that such a short-sighted idea limits the development mode of interdependence and common prosperity of human and nature.

2.2 C2C and Circular economy

C2C is regarded as a form of circular economy. A circular economy is an economic development model characterized by resource conservation and recycling and harmonious with the environment. The circular economy emphasizes organizing economic activities into a "resource - product - renewable resource" feedback process (Kopnina, 2018). In order to achieve this feedback process, it is important to integrate circular economy issues in the early stages of the product design process. Because once product specifications are developed, usually only small changes are possible (Bocken, Farracho, Bosworth & Kemp, 2014). Thus, as a design paradigm of circular economy, C2C should be considered at the very beginning of product design. The circular economy has been seen as a promising way to help alleviate the pressure of global sustainable development. Since the circular business model can continuously reuse products and materials in an economically feasible way and use renewable resources as far as possible (Geissdoerfer, Savaget, Bocken&Hultink, 2017). Europe and China have adopted the principle of circular economy as part of their future strategy (Su, Heshmati, Geng& Yu, 2013). However, different opinions hold that the core concept of how to conduct with circular economy is to slow down the flow rate in the closed loop, that is to say, extending the life cycle of products is the key to the success of the circular economy (Bocken et al. 2016). A closed loop that moves too fast in a circular economy even put more pressure on the environment than a traditional linear economy. However, the C2C concept is not focus on the product life cycle, that is to say, the main role of C2C is just to close the whole loop without paying attention to the effectiveness within the cycle. Bocken et al. (2016) indicated that, as a typical representative of circular economy, C2C's pursuit of more cycles without considering the service life of products will lead to further acceleration of linear resource flow (selling more and more effective products), resulting in very limited saving of total resources. Therefore, in the initial product design, enterprises should try to use environment-friendly and recyclable materials to process the recycled products, improve product quality and make them enter the recycling cycle. (Khan et al. 2017).

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2. 3 C2C and LCA

2.3.1 Comparison between C2C and LCA The Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept has become a more mature alternative to the eco-efficiency concept based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The concept of eco-efficiency is often defined as “increasing maximum value with minimal resource utilization and minimal pollution” (Huesemann, 2004). C2C concept challenges traditional methods by looking to the future of absolute environmental sustainability，the way to achieve it is to increase the positive impact on the environment by designing “eco-effectiveness” products rather than designing “Eco-efficiency” products to reduce negative impacts, because Eco-efficiency aims to reduce the negative environmental footprint of human activities, while C2C attempts to increase the positive footprint (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). The concept of eco-efficiency does not involve a long-term vision or strategy, the link between resource consumption and waste discharge is not well linked to the state of sustainable development, increased eco-efficiency may lead to an increase in consumption levels. In summary, eco-efficiency focuses on reducing impacts, thereby increasing the relative environmental sustainability of products, C2C's sustainability approach is to “maximize the effectiveness of ecosystems” rather than eco-efficiency methods that reduce damage (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).

2.3.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA The concept of C2C is very focused on material strategy，which is inspired by nature and shows the future of sustainable development (Bakker et al. 2010). While the C2C concept represents an inspiring vision for future product design for more continuous material loops and renewable energy-based energy systems, the performance of C2C products in LCA is not guaranteed to be good. C2C emphasizes innovation in the direction of continuous up-cycle at the expense of energy efficiency (Braungart, 2011). C2C tends to generate planned scrapping. "planned scrapping" refers to the fact that the service life of the products produced is so short that there is no economic benefit. Therefore, consumers will have to repeat the purchase, which will promote consumers to buy more products and make the environment unsustainable (Bulow, 1986). C2C does not see waste itself as a problem, but care about how to deal with it (Pauli, 2010). The main negative criticism related to C2C is that its process is related to establishing physical restrictions, instead encouraging to use materials creatively and extravagantly to shorten product life (Braungart, McDonough &Bollinger, 2007).

Since the eco-efficiency of C2C products is not considered, from the perspective of LCA, C2C products are often not as sustainable as eco-efficiency reference products (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). Increasing the durability of a product means that it can withstand longer, more demanding use, making possible a product-service system and a sharing economy from which owners can derive more value. This contrasts with planned

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obrogation (Brennan, Tennant&Blomsma, 2015). For companies that choose to apply the C2C concept in product innovation, they cannot record the sustainability of their products （Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013). However, Braungart et al. (2007) pointed out that the analysis of eco-efficiency should be condemned, because although eco-efficiency can provide short-term economic and ecological advantages, it lacks a long-term perspective to establish a truly positive relationship between industry and nature.

2.4 C2C evaluation mechanism The company can also choose to apply for C2C certification for its products, this certification has been managed by Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), but now assigned to non-profit organizations (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).MBDC evaluates products and materials for companies of any size, MBDC is the creator of the cradle-to-cradle design framework and the cradle-to-cradle certification product program, helping businesses gain business value from products designed For the emerging circular economy（Dyllick&Rost, 2017)， and the goal of EPEA is to provide high-quality products that are safe for human health and the environment and can be reused in the fields of biotechnology and biotechnology Gorman (Gorman, Mehalik, &Werhane, 2017). Certification is divided into five different levels: basic, copper, silver, gold and platinum, of which gold and platinum have the most stringent requirements (MBDC, 2019)

2.4.1 Defects of C2C evaluation mechanism When developing C2C products, enterprises must consider the final destination of each material in the process of product design. Toxopeus et al. (2015) believes that the company cannot independently develop a C2C product, and must seek the cooperation of professional C2C evaluation agencies. However, the study points out that the existing C2C authority still has some imperfections, which leads to errors in the final evaluation results (Toxopeus et al. 2015). For example, EPEA- a certification agency founded by C2C philosophy creators William McDonough and Michael Braungart, its expert group mainly consisting with material experts, the situation has led to the tendency of evaluation agencies to focus on material (product) optimization rather than encouraging the development of innovative products (Toxopeus et al. 2015). This goes against the basic concept of C2C - 'eco-effectiveness rather than eco-efficiency'. The C2C products evaluated by this standard may only meet the eco-efficiency, but fail to produce eco-effectiveness results. As a matter of fact, products with C2C 'tags' may not fundamentally fit the cradle-to-cradle theory due to lack of innovation. EPEA ratings target companies' specific products based on five criteria- material health, material reutilization, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness (EPEA, 2019). Judging from the cases targeted by Toxopeus et al. (2015)’s research, companies tend to mainly consider material health and material reutilization into product design, resulting in the risk that the other three criteria will be neglected. This led to among the three principles

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of C2C - no waste, only sustainable energy and the promote diversity, only the first principle is actively implemented. On the other hand, due to the lack of energy consumption assessment in the concept of C2C, C2C products may have the weakness on product life cycle. Toxopeus et al. (2015) therefore suggest that when designing and manufacturing C2C products, LCA should be included to improve product sustainability.

2.5 Biological cycle and Technical cycle Maximizing recycling is often described as a "closed loop," which concept known as a "cradle-to-cradle" approach (McDonough&Braungart, 2002). There are two broad recycles: "biology" and "technology". Gaps remain in the development, implementation and dissemination of effective product solutions and design solutions to support the transition to a circular economy. The circulatory system approach needs to be adopted at both technical and biological levels. Within the framework we propose, these levels are called "design for the technical cycle" and "design for the biological cycle" respectively (Mestre& Cooper, 2017).

"Biological cycle design" represents biological design solutions that occur (or are inspired by) in natural ecosystems, in which materials are recycled over time in nature.Bio-based recycling strategy, using biomaterials, at the end of its life cycle, can safely return to the biosphere to provide nutrients for (micro)biological life without waste (Mestre& Cooper, 2017).

"Technology cycle design" means the use and conversion of materials and energy and/or technologies and the optimization of their design to the highest possible level of efficiency. The goal is to minimize material and energy inputs and emissions emissions throughout the product's life cycle, while maximizing value propositions for users and society (Mestre& Cooper, 2017). Technical cycle strategies include "slow the loop strategies" and "close the loop strategies". "Slow the loop strategies" include slowing down the flow of material at each stage of the life cycle, such as the design of durability and extended product life (Vezzoli and Manzini, 2008); It also addresses recent developments from the perspective of value added users, such as emotionally durable designs (Chapman, 2005). "Close the loop strategies" includes recyclability design strategy, detachable design strategy and appropriate material selection strategy. It is worth noting that there may be tensions between the policies that need to be addressed (such as between durability and recyclability). "Technology cycle design" solutions can be developed at a progressive level of innovation in the short or medium term (Mestre& Cooper, 2017). ‘slow the loop strategies’ and ‘close the loop strategies’ can be implemented in existing business models to optimize their current level of efficiency, although in some cases more radical solutions may be required.

Setting an example that combine the "slow the loop strategies" and "close the loop strategies", Fairphone represents a new approach to the design and manufacture of mobile phones. Founded in the Netherlands in 2013, Fairphone aims to "create positive social and

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environmental impacts from the beginning to the end of the life cycle of mobile phones" (Fairphone, 2019) by four main principles: durable design, fair materials, good working conditions, and reuse and recycling. The qualities associated with Fairphone's looping focus on the later stages of its life cycle and emerge from its modular design. Fairphone also highlights its social responsibility in managing the end-of-life of its and other brands of phones. Its partner, Teqcycle, receives refurbished phones (used in the second-hand market) and recycled them (when the refurbished cost exceeds the phone's value).

2.6 Design for disassembly "Design for disassembly" is a strategy that overlaps technology and biocycle design and is a contribution to technology and biocycle design to ensure that products and components can be easily separated and reassembled. This strategy is also critical for the separation of materials entering different cycles (biological and technological) (Reijnders, 2008). Design for disassembly technology is crucial to allow for higher technical efficiency (Chiodo, 2005). Thus, disassembly should be considered in the process of product design. Specifically, during disassembly, toxic and hazardous substances in the product may increase the potential impact on human and environmental health (Huang, Liang& Yi, 2017). Despite to that, The product disassembly process also could bring a positive impact on the environment (Deniz&Seckin, 2002). Effective disassembly design enables the recovery of valuable components, and the rest can be recycled, re-sold, or stored for future use (Brennan, Gupta&Taleb, 1994). At the design stage, product modularization should also be considered to simplify the product and improve disassembly efficiency. Product modularization is dividing the product into several parts- namely several modules. Each part has independent function but geometric connection with a consistent interface and consistent input and output interface unit. The same type of module can be reused in the product family and swaps. Due to the modularity of the product, the components are highly common, so the product disassembly efficiency can be accelerated. Some studies have shown that the disassembly efficiency of products has a direct impact on the economic benefits of environmental protection products. In most cases, 80% of the manufacturing cost of products can be determined at the design stage (Tuncel et al., 1993).

The key point of disassembly design is that it is easy to disassemble and can remove parts and materials without damage (Chiodo and Boks, 2002). Since most of today's used products are comminuted, designs that are easy to disassemble may irritate for reuse and recycling. From a C2C perspective, it makes sense to redesign products that are easy to disintegrate and upgrade, otherwise the most likely scenario for their obsolescence would be landfill and/or incineration (Bakker et al. 2010). The C2C model is a new perspective of sustainable development. Its basic idea is that the safe recovery and use of raw materials should be considered in product design, and nutrition management should replace traditional waste management. C2C pursues green and innovative design; That is, from the first stage of product design, research and development, the product should be carefully designed and easy to disassemble, so that the raw materials are easy to be recycled, can establish a recycling system and raw material recycling network platform, so that the raw materials back to the biological cycle or processing cycle, which can effectively avoid the waste of raw materials

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and energy, but also can reduce the cost. Clean energy should be used whenever possible in the manufacturing process. In the sales stage, the C2C model is helpful to open up new markets for raw materials, transform wastes into valuable materials, and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises through innovation (Khan, et al. 2017).

2.7 Material composition Cost-effectiveness may be the biggest problem facing enterprises in implementing C2C. A cost-effective analysis is a way to assess the value of a project by comparing the full cost and benefits of the project. Dutch companies such as Oce (copiers and printers) That lease high-end copiers may find it relatively easy to implement C2C principles because of a 100% return (Bakker et al. 2010）.C2C material strategy involves both material composition and material flow management.It is a challenge for industrial designers to understand the exact composition of materials in products (De Clercq，2008).

One issue here is product complexity. For example, electronic products contain printed circuit boards, which require hundreds of components and materials (Mazurek， 1999). C2C requires that products be designed to be easily separated into their pure material parts. In practice, this means that certain composite materials are not acceptable in C2C design, which may compromise the overall sustainability and functionality of the product （Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013） . The use of composite materials and special metal alloys enables lightweight designs, and important characteristics such as heat and corrosion resistance. Composite materials are generally not capable of continuous recycling (Daniels et al. 2004). Although individual alloys can process continuous loop recycling theoretically, but the premise is that they are not mixed with other alloys, if a product has too many kinds of alloys, Recycling is not logically possible (Nakajima et al. 2010). LCA research shows that the environmental benefits of lightweight components far outweigh their lack of recyclability, while this conclusion relies on automotive fuels, some products rely on the properties of composites and alloys (such as strength, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance) (Song et al. 2009). Thus, even in an ideal future, the demand for these materials will not be eliminated. Therefore, banning the use of composite materials will strict limit the possibility of developing new designs based on heterogeneous materials, thereby limiting innovation. Supporters of C2C may reply that they praise innovation but not "the wrong technology". In an ideal C2C future, it is hard to say whether it is realistic to abandon the "wrong technology" entirely （Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).

2.8 The system of reverse logistics Reverse logistics is the process from recycling to final processing of the outdated or damaged products and packages that have been used by the customer. If the company has a "reverse logistics" system, then the implementation of the C2C principle is even more realistic. The flow of reverse logistics includes the flow of products, packaging, parts, materials and other raw materials in the customer's hands, and flows back from the end of the supply chain along

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the supply chain to the corresponding nodes (Lu＆Bostel，2007）.Green reverse logistics is proposed from the perspective of resource conservation and environmental protection, and is conducive to the sustainable development of society. The implementation of green reverse logistics by enterprises reflects the willingness of enterprises to assume social responsibilities. For electronics manufacturers, what they need to recycle is products that contain too much metal. If there is a problem with recycling activities, it can seriously damage the environment (Mishra, Kumar & Chan, 2012).

The object of reverse logistics of electronic products is mainly the products purchased by customers, including the products with serious problems or returned products, which need to be recycled. These products include not only recyclable parts, but also parts that are harmful to the environment and cannot be recycled. Therefore, green reverse logistics can reduce environmental pollution as much as possible. It is not simply abandoning the “cradle to grave” industry model, but combining C2C with it to rationally implement the decision of reverse logistics activities under the concept of environmental protection (Hazen, Wu, Cegielski, Jones-Farmer & Hall, 2012). Because of the electronic product life cycle is shorter, the number of the defective product, in the electronic product recycling the process, some of the products and parts cannot be recycled is inevitable, in this case, the enterprise under the condition of considering the cost, technology and other issues, should choose the best way to handle with minimum damage to the environment, give them the processing of low pollution. However, because the products contain mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead and other heavy metal elements, the traditional incineration, crushing, burying and other processes have caused serious harm to the environment. If the C2C model is realized in the product design process and the recyclable materials are used to the maximum extent, enterprises can recycle some components and reduce the adverse impact on the environment during product recycling. Some products will release less pollution in the cradle-to-grave process after proving to be of no use value. The effective combination of the two models will be more suitable for the manufacturing activities of enterprises （Khan et al. 2017).

2.9 Determinants of recycling behavior The reverse logistics system also requires consumers to take the initiative to recycle, but the recycling rate of mobile communication products such as mobile phones continues to be low. This is in sharp contrast to the rapidly expanding mobile communication market in recent years. (Welfens, Nordmann&Seibt, 2016). In the study of drivers and barriers to recycling behavior, Hornik et al. (1995) pointed out that in addition to environmental knowledge, another important motivator is social impact. Research suggests that recycling can be a motivating factor if it is considered desirable behavior within a social group or society. If recycling is socially desirable, then there is social pressure to recycle. On the other hand, the recycling infrastructure of mobile devices, such as the recycling bin of mobile devices, is also an important factor affecting the recycling culture. Kollmuss and Agyeman(2002) believe that the desire for comfort and convenience is a major driving force affecting consumption patterns. Therefore, whether the recycling infrastructure is easy to use and whether it causes high recycling costs for consumers are also key factors in determining the recycling behavior.

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Another obstacle to recycling for mobile devices connected to the recycling infrastructure is a certain mistrust created by the opacity of the recycling process. People are afraid that others will access their personal data through their old mobile phones, thus causing an invasion of personal privacy. Consequently, they prefer to keep their old mobile phones. In the meantime, because of the small size of mobile devices, consumers are more likely to store their unused phones at home than to recycle them. In general, the social environment will be an important factor if the recycling rate of mobile devices is to be increased, and a complete recycling infrastructure system is necessary. At the same time, a social atmosphere encouraging recycling will also promote the formation of recycling pressure at the social level, so as to promote the recycling behavior of consumers (Welfens et al. 2016).

2.10 The research model In order to more intuitively show the relevance between previous theories, based on the theoretical framework obtained from literature review, the research model was established. Figure 1 below illustrates the characteristics of a C2C strategy that is ideally closest to a sustainable development model. Figure 2 takes the existing literatures and researches as the benchmark, illustrates the challenges that enterprises may need to face in the implementation of C2C strategy and the relevance between them. Figure 1: The Ideal C2C hypothesis model

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Figure 2: Conceptual framework

3. Methodology This chapter introduces and demonstrates the research methods and designs used in this study. The Methodology chapter further describes the data collection process and the selection tools associated with it. In addition, it provides an operational method of turning theory into practice, which lays the foundation for the collection of empirical materials. This chapter concludes with the theory and argumentation of validity, reliability, and ethical considerations of this study. A comprehensive description of theory and practice supports the transparency and consistency of research, which guarantees the quality of research (Yardley, 2000).

3.1 Research design This study has explored what is the current status of Mobile Communications Enterprise's "cradle to cradle" strategy in China through the method of case study. Case study method refers to the study based on a specific individual, community, phenomenon or subject. This

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type of research extensively collects the related data for the detailed understanding, the reorganization and the analysis research object. The subjects of case study could be individuals, or individual groups or institutions. Case study method is a very popular and widely used research design in business research, which focuses on the complexity and particularity of cases (Bryman& Bell, 2014). The research object selected in this study belongs to a typical or representative case. As a leading private enterprise in China and a large multinational company, Huawei can represent a typical operation mode organized by large companies in Chinese commercial society.

3.1.1 Case background Huawei is the world's leading provider of ICT (information and communication) infrastructure and smart terminals, and is committed to bringing the digital world to everyone, every family, every organization, and building a smart world of Internet of Everything. In 2014, Huawei launched a green recycling operation for used mobile phones. By setting up recycling networks in various countries, recycling of used mobile phones in consumers' hands, and giving mobile phones a new life, thereby realizing recycling of resources and promoting the development of circular economy.At present, Huawei has carried out green recycling activities in 8 countries including China, India and Thailand, and has set up more than 190 collection points. Consumers can check the nearest recycling outlets through Huawei's official website. Consumers can deliver any brand of used mobile phones to recycling outlets. Huawei will collect the used mobile phones at each collection point for free and hand them over to internationally renowned recycling manufacturers to maximize the recycling value of used mobile phones.Through the implementation of the “cradle to cradle” circular economy practice, Huawei has argued that they have increased the proportion of product reuse and reduced the environmental impact of waste (Huawei, 2014).

3.2 Research approach Hyde (2000) believes that there are two ways to obtain knowledge, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. He pointed out that inductive reasoning is a “theoretic construction process”, by starting the investigation with observations, and through these observations to try to establish a generalization of the investigation phenomenon. The researchers opted to use qualitative research design and inductive approach to investigate the case study. Qualitative research is characterized by exploratory, diagnostic, and predictive characteristics. It does not pursue certain conclusions, but only understands where the problem is, understands the situation, and then gets a perceptual understanding (Bernard, 2013). Since the purpose of this research is to investigate the challenges for Chinese mobile communication companies in implementing C2C strategy, which the challenges have not been explored in the previous literature. Researchers have summarized the challenges as new findings after collecting the data. Thus, the most suitable research

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method for this study is inductive method. On the other hand, this study is not aiming on finding the perfect solution to C2C implementation challenges, but aiming on finding out general direction of the problem for future researches. Therefore, qualitative research is more suitable for this study to have a general understanding of C2C implementation challenges for the mobile communication industry in China.

3.3 Sampling type The most commonly applied form of sampling for purposive samples is non- probability sampling (Guest, Bunce& Johnson, 2006). and researchers intend to proceed the snowball sampling of non-probability sampling. In this sampling method, the researchers first contacted a small group of people related to the research topic and then used these people’s networks to connect with others (Bryman& Bell, 2014). Authors contacted a senior management of Huawei, and through him, researchers contacted 6 department heads of relevant C2C departments. Also, authors contacted another China telecom employee, and then researchers got the contact information of the two interviewees.

3.3.1 Sampling frame and sample selection As one of the largest domestic equipment manufacturers in China's communications industry, Huawei is also the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world (IDC, 2019). As an organization with a large resource, Huawei has a need and has developed a C2C strategy to improve the recycling rate of electronic products. Therefore, for the topic of this research, Huawei has a lot of experience and knowledge to be tapped. However, Huawei's experience is limited to internally- how an individual company designs products to increase its recyclability. Since Huawei is not a professional recycling company, therefore, from a external perspective, Huawei lacks relevant knowledge on how the e-waste recycling system operates throughout the industry. In view of this situation, China Telecom as one of Huawei’s crucial partners, it has also been added as one of the respondents. China Telecom Group Co., Ltd. is a large-scale state-owned communication enterprise and central enterprise established in accordance with the People's Republic of China's telecommunications system reform plan. It is China's largest fixed-line and data communication operator and the third largest mobile communication operator. China's fixed-line and fixed-line broadband market share exceeds 50%, and has the world's largest fixed-line and data communication network, covering the entire urban and rural areas, reaching all over the world. China Telecom also acts as an agent for major mobile phone brands in China, and sells mobile phones at the same time as the "mobile phone trade-in" business. Responsible for handling the recycling of various brands of used mobile phones, with more experience in electronic waste recycling (Ctsi.com.cn., 2019).

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3.3.2 Sample background The following table introduces the basic information of participants to prove that they have special industry experience which is make them valuable to be interviewed. Overall, all of the participants are males and come from China. Due to ethical considerations, the job information of participants has been blurred, but the job nature remains the same.

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3.4 Data collection In order to collect the data, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with six respondents at Huawei's employee training base in Shanghai, China. The researchers then went to the Shanghai branch of China telecom to conduct semi-structured interviews with two China telecom employees. Each participant was interviewed individually by the researchers. All of the interviews have been face-to-face and the average interview time was one hour.

3.4.1 Date Source-Primary and Secondary Data collecting Data can be collected in two different ways, primary and secondary. Primary data is usually collected in the form of information that researchers can directly provide, such as inquiries, focus groups and observations (Ghauri and Grønhaug，2005). Secondary data refer to existing studies, i.e. collect information and knowledge from previously written studies in order to analyze the data collected for other purposes. (Appannaiah, Reddy &Ramanath, 2009). In this study, researchers collected secondary data from Huawei's annual sustainable development report in order to have a preliminary understanding of the company's current situation and background. Based on that, researchers then designed a semi-structured interview in order to collect the primary data for current study case- Huawei Company. The secondary data has been used as the comparison reference value of the primary data, so as to establish a new C2C theoretical discovery.

3.4.2 Semi-structured interview Interviews provide effective and reliable information and are an effective way to enter social networks (Sinding& Aronson, 2003). To conduct this study and generate valid data, this study has taken qualitative interviews, which is semi-structured interview (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). In qualitative interviews, “talking” is usually encouraged, so that the researcher can gain a deeper understanding of what the respondents think is important and relevant, and the researchers will get richer and more detailed answers (Bryman& Bell, 2011). Semi-structured interviews refer to informal interviews based on interview outlines (Bryman& Bell, 2011).This method has only a rough basic requirement for the respondent's conditions and the questions to be asked. The interviewer can flexibly make the necessary adjustments based on the actual situation of the interview. There are no specific requirements for the way and order of questions, the way of interviewee answers, the way of records, and the time and place of the interviews. But in general, all pre-designed questions will be asked (Bryman& Bell, 2011). In a semi-structured interview, a guide that questions and topics that must be covered. Interviewers have some discretion about the order in which questions are asked, but questions are standardized. When researchers want to delve into a topic and thoroughly understand the answers provided, they usually use semi-structured interviews (Harrell & Bradley, 2009).

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This study used the semi-structured interviews in the qualitative data collection method to interview both Huawei and China Telecommunications’ managers. In this study, semi-structured interviews did not prevent researchers from asking more questions based on participants' responses to get more detailed information. At the same time, designing a certain number of questions in advance can help control the overall rhythm of the interview and prevent off-center thinking.

3.5 Ethical and procedural considerations When conducting any type of research, ethical issues can occur at several different levels, and if people are included, the situation will be even more complicated. Considering ethical issues and sensitivity to the environment improves the quality of research (Yardley, 2000). The relaxed environment is beneficial. It is easier for respondents to tell their true thoughts. In order to ensure privacy, the interviews for Huawei has took place at Huawei's internal staff training base. At the same time, the interviews for China Telecommunications Corporation has took place at its branch office in Shanghai. Both of them are relatively closed and quiet private spaces. Ethical aspects need to be considered, one of which is anonymity and confidentiality (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Therefore, before the interview, researchers have told the participants that they would be anonymous and the whole process would be recorded and transcribed. Interviews have been conducted only with the consent of the participants. If they do not want to answer certain questions, they can refuse, and the participants can terminate the ongoing visit at any time. Given that participants have the right to know (Andersson, Shivarajan&Blau, 2005). The researchers have also informed the participants what the interview would be used for and what is the purpose of this interview.

3.6 Data analysis First of all, given that all interviews with Huawei in this interview are conducted in Chinese, we will translate the audio recording of the interview into text and then translate it into English. It is important to prepare qualitative data before starting the analysis. This includes some form of transcription, such as recorded in interviews (Greener, 2008). Next, we will read the recorded text materials repeatedly, identify the categories in the transcribed text, and use concept as a specific code to classify the interview contents according to different concepts. In other words, similar interview contents are grouped into the same concept as a category for easy analysis. As researchers review the data collected, repeated ideas, concepts or elements become apparent, and marked by code (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). The code is described as a word or phrase that represents the longer part of the text in symbolic or visual terms (Bryman& Bell, 2014). As more data is collected and reviewed, the code can be divided into concepts and then classified (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). Open question coding usually requires repeated reading of respondents' response texts and forming different themes in their answers (Bryman& Bell, 2014).

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3.7 Operationalization This section build the operationalization aim to define abstract concepts, make theoretical concepts clear and measurable, and then understand them through empirical observation (Campbell, 1957).This study conceptualizes the factors influencing and implementing the C2C strategy, and designs corresponding interview questions for each concept.

3.7.1 Huawei Company

Concept Sub-concept Conceptual defination Questions

C2C and LCA Eco-efficiency Increasing maximum value with minimal resource utilization and minimal pollution (Huesemann, 2004).

Do you think your company's C2C strategy includes the pursuit of ecological efficiency? Why?

Complementarity of C2C and LCA

LCA Reduce the negative environmental footprint of human activities, increasing the relative environmental sustainability of products (Bjørn&Hauschild, 2013).

How do you see the difference between LCA and C2C? What is the relationship between the two concepts?

C2C Upcycle Braungart and McDonough (2013) redefine business models with open and innovative thinking, and only by people-oriented manufacturing can develop C2C products in a real sense.

How is the product recreated after the product is recycled in your company's c2c program?

Defects of C2C evaluation mechanism

EPEA The existing C2C authority still has some imperfections, which leads to errors in the final evaluation results (Toxopeus, DeKoeijer&Meij, 2015).

Does your company have any C2C certification? What do you think of the existing C2C rating agencies?

Material composition

Product complexity

Composite materials are generally not capable of continuous recycling …(but)some products rely on the properties of composites and alloys (Song et al. 2009).

How do your C2C products solve the problem of composite material recycling?

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Reverse logistics

Design for disassembly

Proper management of material flow will require the dismantling and recycling of products and materials (Reijnders, 2008).

Does your company have disassembly design for C2C products? Why is that?

C2C and Circular economy

Flow rate in the closed loop

C2C's pursuit of more cycles without considering the service life of products will lead to further acceleration of linear resource flow (selling more and more effective products), resulting in very limited saving of total resources (DE Pauw et al. 2016).

How long is the cycle of your company's c2c products? What is the overall resource savings associated with developing a C2C product chain?

Biological cycle and Technical cycle

Biological cycle

at the end of its life cycle, can safely return to the biosphere to provide nutrients for (micro)biological life without waste (Mestre& Cooper, 2017).

How do you think about biodegradable cycle in C2C strategy?

Biological cycle and Technical cycle

Technical cycle

The use and conversion of materials and energy and/or technologies and the optimization of their design to the highest possible level of efficiency (Mestre& Cooper, 2017).

How do you think about technical cycle in C2C strategy?

Table 2: Operationalization- Huawei Company

3.7.2 China Telecommunications Corporation

Concept Sub-concept Conceptual defination Questions

C2C Upcycle Braungart and McDonough (2013) redefine business models with open and innovative thinking, and only by people-oriented manufacturing can develop C2C products in a real sense.

How is the recycled electronic waste reused or recreated?

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Material composition

Product complexity

Composite materials are generally not capable of continuous recycling …(but)some products rely on the properties of composites and alloys (Song et al. 2009).

In the recycling process of electronic products, how does the recycling system deal with composite materials?

Determinants of recycling behavior

Recycling infrastructure

whether the recycling infrastructure is easy to use and whether it causes high recycling costs for consumers are also key factors in determining the recycling behavior (Kollmuss&Agyeman, 2002).

Whether China's electronics recycling infrastructure is adequate for consumers?

Table 3: Operationalization- China Telecommunications Corporation

4. Empirical data

4.1 C2C and Circular economy During the interview, the researchers found that not all the participants understood the C2C strategy, but everyone knew what the circular economy is. Some participants to Huawei believe that the key to a circular economy lies in how to design a product that causes as little damage as possible during use. Because the circular economy has strict restrictions on raw material resources, the company needs to reuse these resources to the maximum extent, and the dissipation in the use process is irreversible. If the resources are depleted, it is necessary to supplement them to complete the production process again. "Electronics is a high-cost industry, and the resources needed to produce mobile devices like mobile phones are huge and complex. For example, participant from the China telecom company pointed out that some parts of an old mobile phone can be reused as maintenance parts. For example, the phone camera can be removed, and it can be installed and used in any phone brand with the same pixel. The circular economy is a worthy business model for maximizing the use of energy and resources. From the perspective of environmental protection, circular economy can also reduce the harm to the environment.The participants who work in technology, said that batteries in electronic products will cause great harm to the environment if they are not properly recycled, such as soil damage and water pollution. The circular economy advocated by Huawei company takes the C2C strategy as the core goal to collect and reuse waste

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batteries, so as to minimize pollution and prevent a large number of rare metals from being wasted.

4. 2 C2C and LCA

4.2.1 comparison between C2C and LCA Some participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy does not include the pursuit of ecological efficiency. They think Huawei as a private enterprise may not have too much on the consideration of eco-efficiency, the company must conform to the laws and regulations of different regions firstly, and also through a variety of certification such as the European Union certification etc., so the direction of the development of Huawei is mainly follow the local laws and regulations as the driving force, and not as the purpose of reduce the pollution or reducing the negative environmental impacts of human activities to improve eco-efficiency deliberately . Other participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy has fully reflected the concept of eco-efficiency. Among them, participant C said that Huawei has a modular concept when designing products. When a module of a product fails, it may be pulled out and replaced with a new module. This design is to improve the Stability and maintainability of the products as the subjective desire, and to pursuit the eco-efficiency objectively, because once scrapped, it will not be the scrap of the entire machine but only the replacement of local instruments. Other participants believe that Huawei's C2C strategy has fully reflected the concept of eco-efficiency. Among them, participant C said that Huawei has a modular concept when designing products. When a module of a product fails, it may be pulled out and replaced with a new module. This design is to improve the Stability and maintainability of the products as the subjective desire, and to pursuit the eco-efficiency objectively, because once scrapped, it will not be a scrap of the entire machine but only the replacement of some parts of the machine. The second point is that the design concept of the equipment is a future-oriented concept. The main purpose of the design is to make the company's products more competitive and last longer, which reduce the impact on the environment objectively, because the product continuity of Huawei is particularly strong, and the architecture's design of mobile phone and software has been based on a sustainable guiding ideology. Participant E mentioned Huawei Tiangang, the core chip of 5G base station. He said that compared with 3G4G, 5G is not only the improvement of operation rate but also the improvement of materials for 5G equipment. Besides, many software and hardware devices are completely different from those of 3G 20 years ago. This chip of Huawei Tiangang can make the whole size of the 5G base station reduced by 55%, weight reduced by 23%, and the base station is a large power consumption, the reduction of the size and weight means that the power consumption is also reduced, as well as reduce the difficulty of the site deployment. "There will always be new technologies or new products or new production chains to improve ecological efficiency, Making the recycling rate as high as possible is the direction of our efforts," he said.

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4.2.2Complementarity of C2C and LCA Some participants said that C2C products are valuable and significant, even though the products of C2C shorten the product life cycle and need a large number of funds to research and to develop. The innovation of the mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and technology is very fast, so technological innovation will lead to a result of the shortened life cycle, which is also a meaningful process, otherwise, the electronics industry will be difficult to develop. Participant B believes that innovation is a meaningful thing definitely. He noted that Huawei spends 10 to 15 percent of its annual sales on innovation, and that Lenovo's 30 years of research and development might not match Huawei's one year. Huawei is already investing heavily in innovation, ranking third globally. He said: "first of all, we need to ensure that we continue to innovate in our major business areas. But innovation that does not encourage big changes without understanding the reality of the situation. I think the design of C2C is a very perfect state and Huawei has not reached it yet. Huawei has not yet reached completely. Although Huawei attaches great importance to innovation, its business trajectory still needs to be consistent with the current commercial society. Huawei positioning is still a business company, I have to keep yourself alive, Huawei internal sentence "we have to keep leading technology, but we have only half a step ahead without a step leading technology", it means that Huawei all resources used in the process of innovation needs to be the most efficient use of rather than spend a lot of money to develop a market five years has any demand, this in Huawei company, this appears to be serious waste of resources. This is also a serious waste of resources for Huawei. Huawei certainly has a plan for its sustainable development. If Huawei wants to have a place in the global industry, it must also bear the challenges from its peers in terms of ecology. Therefore, when doing the whole design, even if it does not mention it, others will also mention it." Participant A believes that the life of many products can be designed to a certain point in time. The best design concept now is that all chips and all components have a life cycle. If the life cycle is designed to a relatively uniform time point, the benefit of an enterprise will be maximized. If a product is scrapped very early and its supporting products or other products are scrapped very late, the investment will be huge and more manpower, material resources and financial resources will be needed to deal with it. Participant D think C2C the life cycle of C2C products will be shorter compared with traditional products, this is the order of development of human civilization, is inevitable, because now technology is faster and faster, the iteration of the mobile phone service life will be more and more short, besides the software upgrade, the recycle ratio of hardware with the development of technology will be more and more high, the aim of recycling are to reduce the economic cost of the enterprise and to reduce the environmental costs.

Some participants think C2C products to shorten the product life cycle cost is unnecessary, because when a product appears on the market needs certain cycle and validation to realize the value of it, if ending its cycle blindly, which would not good for development, and would create a huge waste. The premise of the innovation is economic value and social value is proportional to price. Moreover, they emphasize that innovation is based on customer demand, and its innovation must be to optimize the cost to make the product stronger, and innovation is the ways rather than the goal. Participant F believes that the

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enterprise should first consider whether the product can meet the market needs, the future profit space of the product, use environmental protection materials as far as possible within the allowable range of costs, and consider whether the cost of C2C is larger in the scheme design, and the cost is within the acceptable range of the plan, so C2C will definitely be used. "We have to make a trade off between the economic benefits and the environmental ideals, so we use as many reusable materials as the cost of the product allows," he said.

4.3 C2C evaluation mechanism Most of Huawei's interviewed employees believe that the C2C evaluation standards adopted by foreign third-party organizations that are not local do not fit the actual situation of Chinese enterprises. Some participants said that due to the imperfect environmental protection system, the implementation of C2C strategy does not have a positive market circumstances in China. However, C2C evaluation institutions often do not take these factors into consideration, and then copy the standards from some developed countries for evaluation. This makes Chinese enterprises in the C2C rating process often can only stay in the basic level or even unable to obtain certification. However, participant B also said that due to the particularity of the electronic industry, many domestic and foreign standard systems are Shared. In this case, except for the problem of language translation, there is no big deviation in the evaluation with foreign standards. "For example, Huawei's 3G and 4G in mobile communications use the same standard as those in developed countries, there is only the translation problem after they are implemented in China, which is called international communication standard". Some participants to Huawei believe that the emergence of third-party evaluation agencies is still a more objective and fair existence than internal self-certification. Such existence is undoubtedly meaningful - "standards are constantly adjusted to progress, standards are also updated in every iteration step, there is never perfect standard, but justice and objectivity is the eternal truth". Since C2C is still a new concept for Chinese enterprises, the emergence of evaluation institutions with relevant certification qualifications at least sets a benchmark for entrepreneurs. In Huawei company, usually within the company strategic objectives can be divided into three levels: "the fundamental goal, the remarkable goal, and the unqualified goal". The fundamental goal refers to the target that Huawei must achieve unconditionally. After the 'fundamental goal' have been achieved, Huawei would put effort on the 'remarkable goal'. While the 'unqualified goal' means the goal that Huawei fails to achieve at present. Respondent E of Huawei said, "Although C2C is still a unqualified goal for Huawei, with the progress of the times, we must be gradually approaching the direction of the vision. We should never give up our efforts to make the current unmet goals become the permanent cannot-met goals." The emergence of C2C evaluation institutions will provide a guiding direction for companies with the desire to implement C2C strategy, so that they will not always grope in the dark.

Meanwhile, participants from China telecom company still hold a negative view. They generally believe that evaluation, supervision and certification are highly specialized, and the core of which lies in the talent reserve and the degree of perfection of system. As a

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developing country, China cannot match the developed countries in terms of both talents and system in environmental protection. Chinese existing evaluation system, due to inherent defects such as profit distribution, is not as efficient as that of private enterprises. On the other hand, the system of state regulators cannot keep pace with the times. And some foreign regulators copy their standard to apply in the Chinese market will possibly produce rejection reaction lead to some vacuum zone- "After all, the ultimate goal of commercial enterprises is to be profitable, but the excessively high standard of C2C evaluation institutions will cause a lot of extra costs for enterprises." In this case, the existence of C2C evaluation agencies actually makes enterprises in the wait-and-see state have withdrawn and restless mood, making them doubt whether such a high-standard strategy is suitable for the actual condition of their companies.

4.4 Biological cycle and Technical cycle All the participants generally agree that biological cycle is based on laws and regulations, technology accumulation and reserve, and will be introduced when necessary (such as laws, costs, etc.).

Referring to the recycling of products, participant A said that Huawei smart pv helped India successfully connect its 300 MW power station to the grid. The project selected Huawei's full series of 1500V smart pv solutions. After the grid connection, the power station operated stably and generated more power than expected，it is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 600,000 tons per year. In addition, many of the plastic shells used in some of the power tools made by Huawei are recycled. Some plastic waste is dissolved into plastic particles for reuse, and black rubber shell moulds are generated for reuse. For example, “we also put 20 or 30 years ago of the old base station, old items recycled into handicrafts in the Guangdong exhibition hall has sold tickets on display.” Another technical cycle is the use of LTE (Long Term Evolution), which is also modular in design, meaning that some (or even a lot) of components can be reused. However, participant A also pointed out that the original mobile phone may be used for seven or eight years, but now it is only used for three or five years, not because the mobile phone hardware is no longer available, but because the software update is too fast. F said the car industry is in transition, Beijing New Energy Automobile co., LTD has begun to implement a comprehensive new energy strategy, Huawei used in ICT (Information Communications Technology) in the field of Technology advantage, helping Beijing New Energy Automobile Company Limited to build the next generation of intelligent electric car, the ICT Technology and intelligent made car depth fusion, let artificial intelligence to the public.

According to participant E, Huawei has established school-enterprise cooperation programs with many universities and research institutes around the world, constantly absorbing many external scientific research achievements to build its own technology reserve. For example, in the past, most plastics were made without the intention of being recycled. Berkeley National Laboratory has developed a recyclable plastic, a synthetic plastic that can be "assembled",

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and can be transformed into other colors, shapes or other forms of new materials. The new plastic is tentatively named Polyketene amine or PDK plastic. The plastic breaks down to the molecular level and can be recycled, but for now PDK is only being made in the lab. In the case of legal compliance, Huawei will choose the scheme with high reliability and relatively low cost. Once a new proposal, as PDK has market demand, can be quickly commercialized. Once traditional plastics are replaced by PDK, people will be able to recycle plastic products more effectively in the future.

4.5 Design for disassembly

All participants of Huawei believe that disassembly design is important not only for the C2C strategy, but also for the electronic products themselves. Participant D believes that the design of detachable products is mainly driven by two aspects: first, the reduction of cost and the improvement of reliability; second, the requirements from the industry and the country. For example, the modular design makes the product only need to replace the problem module after a fault occurs without causing the whole machine to be scrapped, thus saving the cost. In terms of reliability, modularity keeps the problem in situ and limits the interaction between electronic components to cause more faults, and then increasing the stability of equipment and improving product quality. Product design philosophy should ensure that the product in the market would have a certain profit, otherwise the product can not enter the implementation stage. " We should use high technology and recyclable technology as much as possible at an acceptable cost"- Said by Participant C. On the other hand, Huawei has entrusted the waste products recycling work to professional recycling companies. If the disassemble degree of Huawei's products is low, it will increase the work difficulty and workload of the recycling company. Correspondly, the recycling service fee will also increase, and Huawei will also bear the pressure from competitors in the industry. From the perspective of environmental protection, the disassembly design also plays an important role in the rate of recycling. Especially in the high-precision electronics industry, "A lot of different materials are welded together on the same small circuit board, if without a disassembly design, the recycling work would be very difficult." However, some participants said that the disassembly design may not bring about the reduction of cost, even would increase the production cost. In this case, the company may not add the disassembly design into the product, at the same time, the degree of environmental protection would be reduced in exchange for a higher profit margin.

4.6 Material composition Many participants believe that the most difficult thing for recycling work is to create benefits; the second thing is to meet the requirements of environmental protection; and almost all recycling work is determined by costs and benefits. Participant A thinks that it is very difficult for recycling to meet the environmental requirements, because environmental requirements are very strict, and it is difficult for enterprises to make money. He said: "I used to do semiconductor integrated circuit, if you put a chip or a complete environmental

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protection circuit board to do the cost is very high, and, of course, from the perspective of concept, discarded electronic products such as mobile phone needs to be done, to recycle the material later are extracted and then recycled, this is the best ideal, of course, but there should be new crafts and new technology, and to reduce the cost of recycling, materials research and development is a big investment for a long period of work, but it is worth it, the cost of raw materials it doesn't matter a bit high, but the recycling cost must be low." Participant C indicates that only the gold, silver and copper in the circuit board and the gold in the hard circuit board can be recycled, because the value of gold is relatively high, are the only valuable things for waste products. For example, cemented carbide is mainly made of tungsten carbide and rare metal cobalt, and its economic value and manufacturing cost are relatively high. The recovery of tungsten and cobalt is a valuable recovery category. Most of the problems are still cost issues, but to break through the cost problem still depends on technical means. For example, a new chemical method or a new recycling crafts, with these technologies later more recycling work can be better carried out. Some participants said that the current technology is difficult to recycle alloys. participant E said that many of Huawei's products are assembled. Huawei's composite materials suppliers come from all over the world, such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, rather than relying on their own R&D departments, such as LED screens that not produced by Huawei, therefore,many composite materials support recycling now, and the composite materials that not support recycling at current also can not support recycling in the future. For example, magnesium and its alloys are easily recyclable metals, and all magnesium alloys currently used can be recycled. Less than half of the magnesium is used in the die casting process for forming, and the rest is wasted on the handles and runner, which can be recycled and reused in the industrial cycle. An example cited by participant G is that telecom comprehensively upgrades optical fiber, and the returned telephone lines of telecom operators have copper cables. The outer insulation rubber skin is peeled off, and the plastic skin and copper wire are recycled separately. They are weighed and sold according to different materials, and the electronic version of mobile phone is recycled separately from the glass screen. There are several ways to dispose of the remaining waste parts, one is landfill, the other is incineration. Generally, domestic and international disposal methods are both these two ways, and the method of landfill is usually used for alloy. Waste incineration and landfill is not only because the recycling price is too high, but because the waste is useless, itself is a waste, like many alloys can not be purified, the use of landfill means.

4.7 The system of reverse logistics Some participants believe that Huawei has a basic reverse logistics system, including customer after-sales service system, return and replacement of goods and warranty period. "Huawei supports seven days of free returns and replacements for phones and tablets." Participant C said. On the other hand, Huawei also invests a lot of resources in the recycling of waste electronic products. Huawei's e-commerce site offers three ways to recycle phones, and evaluates used phones to give consumers vouchers of equivalent value after the recycling. Consumers can also find the nearest mobile phone recycling point through Huawei's official

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website. "Huawei always promotes battery recycling to consumers. We recycle not only our own brand of used batteries, but also other brands of mobile phones and batteries. I believe this is not a purely commercial activity." Participant B, an employee in Huawei's overseas sales department. However, Huawei's recycling strategy does not only refer to C2C mode, and there are still a few unrecyclable e-waste to be disposed of in landfill. In response, Huawei employees said it was an inevitable result of the particularity of the industry. "For a small amount of waste that cannot be recycled, landfill treatment will be conducted in accordance with local environmental laws and regulations." However, some participants of Huawei believe that the "trade-in" business of mobile phones is still a commercially-driven promotion.

China telecom, as the agent customer of Huawei, is also included in the reverse supply chain, such as the "zero inventory" policy. China telecom can return unsold phone inventory to Huawei, which Huawei will resell or recycle the products. This allows resources to be more efficiently allocated rather than wasted. China Telecom participants believes that this can reflect the core concept of C2C "up-cycle". "Truly people-oriented design is not necessarily be an invention, but also could be a shift in thinking mode. If the phones in stock would not be recalled by Huawei, we may never sell them, and the final destiny of these phones will be recycling in waste bin. But the advent of zero inventory allows these phones to be delivered to people who really need them, the policy puts the goods into a more valuable cycle.

4.8 Determinants of recycling behavior Participants to China telecom believe that Chinese existing mobile equipment recycling infrastructure is not complete, some companies set up mobile phone recycling sites mainly in Chinese megacities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. “It is a pity that the recycling rate of waste electronic products in China is still low”. Due to China's vast land area and large population, even the areas with electronic equipment recycling facilities cannot fully meet the recycling needs of local consumers. On the other hand, the society has not formed the culture of recycling electronic devices. In additionally, consumers pay more attention to the protection of personal privacy, especially in recent years, privacy disclosure scandals occur frequently. The participants from China telecom believe that consumers will not actively recycle used electronic devices if recycling behavior does not bring obvious benefits to consumers.

To this end, one of the participant from Huawei introduced that in order to promote consumers' initiative in recycling, Huawei set up as many recycling methods as possible and increased mobile phone recycling sites. However, due to the limited budget, Huawei could not invest too much cost in the recycling system. "Huawei company still mainly focus on the commercial profit, so most of the budget has been spent on the science research and technology development" Despite all that, Huawei still holds a rigorous attitude toward recycling. The company has strict privacy protection for the recycled second-hand electronic devices. They will professionally delete the data of the recycled devices and record the whole cleaning process to ensure the security of customers' privacy data. Huawei even to provide

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professional door-to-door recycling service, in order to reduce the cost of recycling for consumers.

5. Discussion

5.1 The system of reverse logistics From the case of Huawei, the researchers found that from the perspective of operability, it is necessary to carry out reverse logistics simultaneously with C2C and C2G. Under the current condition of science and technology, the general development level of the electronic communication industry can not support a complete C2C closed cycle. For the e-waste that cannot enter the C2C closed cycle, enterprises also have the responsibility to send them into a C2G linear flow chain for proper disposal. As the public facilities for recycling mobile devices are still not perfect in China, Huawei, as a private enterprise, spontaneously established many electronic product recycling sites, which helped improve the recycling system of the whole society. Regardless of users send waste electronic products to public recycling sites or recycle them at Huawei's internal recycling sites, it will play a positive role in environmental protection. However, from the perspective of C2C strategy for Huawei, consumers must send waste products into the recycling station set by Huawei to truly realize the reverse logistics. E-waste that does not enter the company's internal recycling system is also the resource that cannot enter the C2C closed loop. The establishment of reverse logistics system helps to bring more consumers into the closed loop of traceability, and the value of consumers will still exist after the purchase of products. Huawei's various after-sales services enable the company to retrieve a lot of potential resources (such as rare metals) through the cohesion of consumers. However, as participants have mentioned many times in the interviews, the recycling technology in the electronic industry is not completed, and there are still many parts of the waste electronic that have to be abandoned or burned. In this situation, C2G strategy could help enterprises better fulfill their social responsibilities and ensure social equity. Because C2G stressed the importance of environmental protection and prevented companies from randomly discharging pollutants. This behavior should not be regarded as giving up on C2C, but should be regarded as unremitting efforts towards C2C.

5.1.1 Material composition First of all, according to the views of participants in Huawei on alloy recycling, Cost-effectiveness should be the biggest problem faced by enterprises in the implementation of C2C, that is, enterprises will refuse to recycle these alloys due to the high recycling cost and low recycling value in the face of recyclable metals. Huawei believes that even if there is a material that can replace the alloy material, such as making the circuit board completely environmentally friendly, the cost is unacceptable to the enterprise. They support the investment of a lot of money to develop new processes and technologies, but cannot accept the high cost of recovery. For valuable metals and alloys, such as gold, silver, hard alloys and magnesium alloys, where the recovery value is high and the cost is low, recovery is much easier. Second, the alloy is a hard to disassemble synthetic metal, the alloy is not like paper

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can achieve 100% recovery, it is very difficult to recycle, and the recovery rate is very low. Demand for alloy and handling is a global problem, such as mobile phones of the precision machinery have complicated alloy composition, especially the alloy that combine with a variety of chemicals and metals, even the alloy contains the valuable metals, because the technology can not reach currently and in the future, these complex alloy always have no way to recycle, the only way is the landfill. Although the alloy that can be filled has reached the standard of legal landfill, and huawei seems to be satisfied with meeting the environmental requirements of landfill as the only way for them to bury the alloy that cannot be recycled at all. They thought that it is already difficult to treat the alloys in a way that meets environmental requirements, but that the landfill does not appear to be effective in reducing environmental impacts.

5.1.2 Determinants of recycling behavior From the responses of the China telecom participants, the researchers learned that China's e-waste recycling rate is still very low, which is largely influenced by consumers' inactive recycling habits. But from a positive point of view, it also shows that e-waste recycling still has great potential in China. If companies like Huawei can influence consumers' recycling habits with dedicated actions, then a lot of resources (such as metals) will return to the production chain. Participants to China telecom company said that mobile phone users usually have low trust in recycling companies, mainly due to concerns about personal information leakage. This idea is also mentioned in the theory section. Researchers obtained the same information from the two data collection methods, which can prove that there is a direct correlation between the degree of users' trust in mobile device recycling unit and users' recycle behaviors. From Huawei's responses, we know that Huawei is very strict about user privacy protection. In other words, if consumers send mobile phones to Huawei's recycling site or adopt Huawei's recycling service, they can ensure privacy and security to a greater extent. In the long run, such enterprises have the opportunity to gradually gain more trust from consumers, and then cultivating consumers' recycling habits. On the other hand, participants from China telecom indicated that another driving force of consumer recycling behavior comes from interest impact. At this point, Huawei's campaign to encourage consumers to recycle used mobile phones by giving out vouchers is seen as an effective marketing model. Second, Huawei provides a variety of recycling ways for consumers to choose the way they prefer. This special service increases the convenience for consumers to recycle mobile phones, and it is also could be a reference practice to increase the consumers’ motivation for recycling.

5.2 Circular economy The core of Circular economy is to slow down the flow rate of the closed loop. It should not rush for quick results and instant benefits, and encourage innovation, but it should not encourage useless or meaningless innovation, but encourage valuable innovation. Huawei encourages innovation and would spend a large amount of money on innovation every year. However, Huawei emphasizes the efficient use of resources and will not invest a large

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amount of money to develop a product that has no demand in the market for a long time, which Huawei believes is a waste. Therefore, Huawei's C2C strategy attaches importance to eco-effectiveness. Most participants in this interview believe that Huawei attaches great importance to ecological efficiency. Only a small number of participants believe that the C2C strategy does not include ecosystem efficiency, and this small number of participants work in the technology department, so their answers are not of great reference value. For example, module design and reduction of the size of 5G base station are all manifestations of ecological efficiency. Some participants support the need to shorten the life cycle of C2C products, and that it is valuable; While some participants object that the life cycle of C2C products needs to be shortened, which is meaningless. These embody the contradiction between "slow the loop strategies" and "close the loop strategies" in many cases. Proponents argue that investing in innovation is key, while opponents argue that products need a long cycle to prove their value and that ending early is wasteful. C2C is also a circular economy, but Huawei's circular economy also emphasizes LCA, and the core of LCA is eco- efficiency, so C2C should give consideration to eco-efficiency while advocating eco-effectiveness.

5.2.1 Technical cycle Huawei converted light, enabling India to produce more electricity than expected a year and reduce its carbon emissions by a significant amount; Huawei has converted electric energy, provided ICT technology for automobile companies, built electric vehicles, made efforts for zero emission, and made artificial intelligence benefit society. Huawei is always ready for material conversion, cooperating with global universities, absorbing foreign technology reserves, and learning about PDK biodegradable plastics. Huawei has also implemented a disassemble design. However, Huawei has not implemented the technology cycle in a strict sense. PDK biodegradable plastics are limited to laboratory research and will only be invested and popularized when there is market demand. They still produce electronic waste, like alloys are disposed in landfills. Huawei spends a huge amount of money on research and development every year, ranking the third in the world, so it supports the luxury of using materials to innovate. However, the staff of Huawei's R&D department said that Huawei only takes half a step ahead of technology instead of one step ahead of technology, which shows that Huawei's innovation is a slow process. Huawei does not innovate aggressively, so it lengthens the life cycle of products and slows down the time for product innovation and update. However, as for the design of durability, Huawei believes that it is not because the hardware of electronic products cannot be durable, but because the speed of software upgrading is too fast. Therefore, Huawei has not implemented "slow the loop strategy" in a strict sense. They didn't implement radical innovation solutions like Fairphone, because Huawei believes that all resources need to be used efficiently and in line with the current business rhythm, and Fairphone is innovating regardless of cost. As for biological cycle, at present, Huawei seems like that they do not have any biological cycle design.

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5.3 C2C evaluation mechanism For most Chinese enterprises, the actual effect of C2C certification is less than what they expect. The reason is the national conditions difference and commercial market environment gap. As Chinese leading electronics and technology industry giant, Huawei still feels strict about the standards of C2C evaluation institutions, thus the evaluation institutions will be more daunting to other small and medium-sized enterprises with less resources and strength. In order to let the third-party certification playsthe biggest role, we must also get the support from the government. The current issue in China is that the social recycling system is not perfect. If the evaluation authorities do not consider the actual situation and just put all kinds of pressure on enterprises, it only will make C2C become more unrealistic. No business could live in a vacuum, which means every companies must be supervised by the local government before they accepting the supervision from a third party. If there is a big gap between the current government policy and the standards set by the evaluation authority, it is less likely that the enterprise will also meet the standards of the certification authority while complying with local laws and regulations. However, for those entrepreneurs who are committed to the implementation of C2C strategy, the C2C certification mechanism still has guiding significance. Taking Huawei as an example, although the research results do not show that Huawei is in a highly C2C development mode, the C2C strategy is still an important development direction of the company. In this case, the evaluation authority is necessarily needed as a guider. Then the all-round talent reserve and technical support are also places where C2C certification mechanism need to make continuous progress. Only a sounder and practical C2C standard can better help the sustainable development of enterprises.

5.4 Sustainable Mode of telecommunications industry Combined with the ideal C2C model built in the theoretical framework, the researchers made new discoveries after the interviews, and thus designed a new model. Figure 3 below shows a possible model for sustainable development in the telecommunications industry. The researchers believe that in Chinese current electronic communication industry, companies need to consider with its actual situation, and then implement the C2C mode with the design paradigm of C2G as a whole strategy in order to improve the strategic feasibility. This is mainly because of the limitations of technology, which makes it is difficult to completely recycle the wastes in high-tech industries. In order to guarantee the commercial value and ecological efficiency of products at the same time, when designing the mixed strategy combining C2C and C2G, it is necessary to increase LCA to ensure the rationality of product life cycle and slow down the velocity in the closed loop of C2C. Although the focus of this mixed strategy is not on prolonging the life cycle of the product, LCA still needs to play a regulatory role to supervise the stability of the product and the rationality of the use of resources.

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5.4.1 Design for disassembly In the process of product design, Huawei has taken into account the concept of modularity. Although Huawei's subjective intention is to improve its competitiveness, product quality and reduce costs, it has objectively improved the ecological efficiency and brought a positive impact on the environment. When Huawei designed modules with disassemble performance at the very beginning, and when it recycled and reused the disassembled parts, it took the value of disassembly modules as the standard to recycle. In other words, economic benefit is the main driving force for Huawei to design disassemble modules and improve disassemble efficiency. In order to facilitate maintenance, and in case of machine failure, Huawei can scrap the machine partially rather than scrap it completely, modules not only save costs, but also extend the product life cycle, make the product last longer, and improve the ecological efficiency of the product. Valuable module according to the strategy implementation of the C2C recycling, if there is no disassemble design, the parts that not easy to disassemble will be burning or landfill, can cause environmental pollution and the waste of raw materials, and with modular design, can be better C2G, reduced the negative effects on the environment, so the modular design also contributed to the environmental sustainability. In the end, Huawei promoted the development of social benefits with the purpose of promoting economic benefits. In addition, Huawei makes disassembled plastic into the handicrafts, and process an exhibition to the public to cultivate the public's awareness of environmental protection and recycling, which is also conducive to the company's recycling of valuable parts from customers.

Figure 3

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6. Conclusion So far, the model of circular economy has evolved into a more sustainable alternative to the linear economy. As a paradigm of circular economy, C2C design has been adopted by many companies with vision and strength. This kind of design requires the company to have technical cycle design at the beginning of product design, and may cause the shortening of product life cycle, so as to ensure that the product can be recycled completely instead of causing recycling difficulties after being worn out. However, it is very important to grasp the intermediate degree. How to avoid blind "planned obsolescence" to realize the truly valuable C2C strategy requires LCA supervision. Therefore, the C2C design considering the product life cycle is the ideal C2C design. For the electronics industry with low recycling rate and high pollution, Huawei still faces many challenges in adopting the C2C strategy. C2C strategy requires the company to have a mature reverse logistics system, and the source of reverse logistics is the products that consumers need to recycle. However, Huawei says the recycling rate of electronics products has been low, and the serious problems it faces in the process come from alloy recycling. Because alloys are so difficult to disassemble, they usually go from cradle to grave. On the other hand, the components of electronic products that can be recycled to meet the standards of recycling and re-creation are composed of pure and valuable materials. Therefore, the key to recycling and re-creation lies in the design of materials that can be easily disassembled to facilitate recycling. Of course, these materials must also have some commercial value, otherwise the company is not willing to recycle the materials even if they are easy to disassemble. Another challenge is the mismatch between C2C evaluation mechanism and China's mobile communications industry. The majority of participants felt stressed and overwhelmed by the regulation imposed by the evaluation mechanism. The possible reasons include the lack of talents who know the local market conditions, and the lack of coordination and cooperation with government departments, which leads to the imbalance of standard formulation and the low enthusiasm of companies to choose the C2C strategy.

7. Recommendation for company Corporate management must assume corporate social responsibility (CSR), although the core is still for the purpose of commercial profit, still need to include the consideration of eco-efficiency. Therefore, enterprises pursuing sustainable development need to consider how to achieve a balance of three aspects and how to maximize profits without creating excessive negative environmental externalities. This requires companies to shift to a more positive mindset to face these challenges. The next step of the enterprise implementing the C2C strategy needs to consider the life cycle assessment(LCA) . In order not to affect the redesign and reuse of products by the next generation, the company should design the closed loop so that electronic products can be used more rationally. The specific implementation includes planned obsolescence of C2C products, which should be combined with LCA. Take Fairphone as an example, when extending the product life cycle, the scrapped products should also have access to the C2C recycling system. The companies would re-create and

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reuse valuable, easily recyclable metals, But for complex alloys that cannot be recycled, the companies should extend their life cycle as long as possible, then dispose of e-waste properly at the end of its life. In this way, the possibility of reaching the sustainable mode of the mobile communications industry is increased. A new ecological revolution is under way, and companies with C2C ambitions should take a longer view. Although investors may face the challenge of large upfront investment and small return, once successful innovation mode emerges, it will have great positive significance for the company itself and even the progress of the whole industry.

8. Limitation and Suggestions for future research The researchers only interviewed six Huawei staff members. For future research, the researchers should interview Huawei staff members from more departments. Since the executives interviewed in this research are mostly focused on the technical level, researchers should interview more staff from different departments to improve the richness of answers. In addition, researchers found that changes in government policies have a great impact on the implementation of C2C strategy by Chinese companies, so it is meaningful to interview more people from government departments. This time, the interviewees only work in one city -- Shanghai. Since the policies of each city are different, it is meaningful to conduct interviews in different cities. Taking different cities as control variables may make the answers to questions more comprehensive. On the other hand, most of the interviewees are employees of Huawei, who may lack objectivity or be unable to answer all the questions in interviews in order to maintain the company's reputation and image. In the future in-depth investigation, quantitative research should be added to find more objective research objects to increase the credibility of the results.

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Appendix I: Interviews transcript in Original language (Chinese) 关于 C2C 和 LCA A和 D没有详细回答我们的问题，他们认为追求生态效率和华为公司并没有直接的联

系。其中 D表示，华为公司从人力管理，财经管理和供应链管理都充分体现了生态效

率的这个概念。但华为是一个高门槛轻资产的科技公司，它不自己生产手机，所以是

没什么污染的，关于环境方面应该由各个供应商来负责。 B 认为公司的 c2c 战略不包括对生态效率的追求，他表示，华为作为一个民营企业可

能不会做太多关于这方面的一个考虑，华为的公司首先是肯定符合各个地区不同的法

律法规的并且也通的过各种认证比如欧盟认证等，所以我认为华为的发展方向主要是

顺着当地的法律法规为驱动力，而不会因为它自己对生态的各种理解来做这个事。因

为对民营企业来说可能是一种浪费，更多的是按照现有的游戏规则在走。 C 举了一个研发的例子，他们当时做产品设计的时候有一个模块化的理念是当在做一

个产品的某一个模块发生故障以后，我可能就把它拔下来换一个新的模块上去，这主

观愿望上是提高产品的稳定性和可维护性，客观上对生态效率和的追求，因为一旦报

废，将不是整台机器的报废而只是局部器械的替换。第二点是，它的设备是一种面向

未来的设计理念，这个主管目的还是为了让公司的产品更具有竞争力，更能维持的更

久，客观上至少是减少了对环境的影响，因为华为的产品延续性特别强，像别的手机

和软件设计的架构时，就已经是基于一个可持续性的指导思想做的了。 E提到，理论上，5G是比 3G4G 传输速率更高的网络体系，实现 5G 设备的很多的材

料都已经进步了。5G是更高频谱更高速率的通讯，很多软硬件设备相比于 20年前做3G的时候完全不一样，5G比 3G4G无论是体积大小还是运行速率都强太多。提高生

态效率的新的技术新的产品或者新的生产链一直会有，这是他们努力的方向：把回收

的比例做的尽可能高。 A 表示其实很多产品的寿命是可以设计到某一个时间点的，其实现在最好的设计理念，

所有的芯片所有的组件都是有生命周期的，如果把生命周期设计到相对统一的时间点

对一个企业效益是最大化的，如果一个产品报废很早其他产品都报废很晚那投入就巨

大了，所以产品设计的考虑 C2C不是最关键的。 B 认为 c2c 产品要付出产品生命周期缩短的代价，这是有意义的。移动互联网，人工

智能也好，技术的革新非常快，所以技术的创新会造成生命周期的缩短，那也是一个

有意义的必经过程，否则电子行业将很难发展下去。首先创新肯定是有意义的事情，

华为在创新上面的投入是年销售的百分之十到百分之十五，举个例子，联想公司 30年的研发费用可能都抵不上华为一年的研发开销。华为在创新上面的投入已经是非常非

常大的了，我印象中是全球排名第三的。首先第一点我们要保证主航道，也就是主要

的业务方向上做不断的创新，第二点，华为的创新一定是在它的航道上进行创新，而

且在没有了解实际的真实情况下不鼓励巨大变革的创新。我认为 c2c的设计是一个非

常完美的状态华为现在还没有达到。华为虽然重视创新，但是它的商业轨迹还是要和

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当下的商业社会节拍吻合。华为的定位仍然是个商业公司，我必须保证自己活下来，

华为内部有句话“我们一定要保持技术领先，但我们一定只领先半步而不会领先技术一

步”，意思就是说华为在创新过程中所用到的所有资源都需要得到最高效的利用而不是

不计成本的来开发一个市场上五年内都没有任何需求的事情。在华为公司看来这也是

对资源的严重浪费。华为对自己的可持续发展是肯定有规划的，华为若想在全球行业

内有一席之地，当然包括生态方面要能承受来自同行的挑战，所以华为在做整个设计

的时候就算自己不提出来，别人也会提。 C 认为如果 c2c 产品要付出产品生命周期缩短的代价是没必要的，产品出来以后需要

一定的周期利用，验证，来实现它的价值，如果一味提前结束它的周期的话，对发展

不是很有利。创新也要有前提是创新可以带来什么价值。 D 认为 c2c 产品的生命周期相比较传统产品更短，这是人类文明发展规律，是不可避

免的，因为现在技术的迭代越来越快，手机使用寿命就会越来越短。公司在做计划性

报废的时候首先考虑安全，比如说电池不能爆炸，不能漏液，第二是成本，做可回收

也是为了降低对企业的经济成本，和对环境的环境成本。 E表示 C2C是一个从端到端的流程啊，是一个可重复可循环可利用啊，理论上它要比

产品的生命周期要长，它是产品生命周期结束后再重复利用，已经不在是这个产品了，

有可能已经被分解了，有可能被翻新复用或者可能已经被废弃了，他其实是在产品生

命周期之外的。C2C只是一个循环利用的概念，是一个环保的理念，我们要在经济利

益和环保理念的基础上上做一个权衡，所以在产品成本允许的基础上尽量用可重复利

用的材料，C2C是包含 LCA，因为产品的生命周期是 C2C 环节中前端的一环。 F 认为企业首先要考虑这个产品能否符合市场的需要，奢侈的使用材料从一个设计团

队的角度来说是根本不可能发生的。设计产品的初期肯定会考虑这个产品未来的利润

空间，在成本允许的范围内尽可能的使用环保材料，这是一个设计体系和理念。在方

案设计的时候考虑 C2C的成本是不是更大，如果成本更低肯定会增加成本，那就要考虑成本是不是在可接受计划范围之内，如果在计划之内肯定会用 C2C的。从理论上来

说，从来没有一个公司以创新为战略的，只不过创新的好处和目的在于提高更高的附

加值产品，或者降低成本这叫创新，所以华为一直在强调基于客户需求的创新，它的

创新一定是优化成本将产品变得更强，创新是手段不是目标。

关于 C2C 的评估机构 A有些第三方机构是国外来的，照搬了国外的标准可能不适用于国内的标准，在中国

肯定要按照中国的标准去检测。国内外标准原则上标准化体系是不需要变通的，但存

在一个标准主导权的问题，比如在移动通讯里包括华为 3G和 4G跟国外用的是同一个标准，到中国后仅存在一个翻译问题，这叫国际通讯标准，如果各国有各国的标准那

就是个自不一样的。 B 认为理论上有标准的体系来说，第三方认证会比华为认证会更好一些，因为第三方

认证机构通常是客观公正的，这个跟机制无关。标准是不断的去调整去进步的，标准

也是更新迭代的，不存在完美的东西。

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C 认为监管机构合不合理，但有它存在的理由，但是有些国际监管机构的标准不太适

合中国企业的情况，成本太高对于企业来说使它们失去竞争力很难生存，但是不按照

标准又违反了法律，这中间存在一个矛盾，需要一些更合理的标准出台。 D 表示监管机构普遍来讲不太合理，评估，监管，认证其实是一个高度专业化的事情，

核心在人才和体制，目前中国的评估体制由于利益分配等天生的缺陷会导致不如民营

企业做的更有效率，监管机构的体系跟不上时代的进步。而国外的一些监管机构照搬

它们惯用的标准来套用在中国市场其实不太恰当，有一些真空地带。 E 华为以前做 PPT分三档，一种叫基本合格目标、一种叫卓越目标、一种叫不达标目

标，先设定一个基本目标再设定一个挑战目标花几年的时间逐步实现。人在随着时代

进步一定是逐步去接近许愿的方向。所有东西推向经济环保是一个努力你的方向和目

标，C2C里面分为 5 级，如果达不到最高级那我们就从最低级一级一级的努力，在合

理的范围内尽可能按照最高级的 C2C去做，相当于一个标杆。 G 废品回收由卫生局环卫局等等一些机构监管。 关于生物循环和技术循环

B 说华为的 c2c 战略有些高端产品报废后它的零部件拆下来是可以在低端产品上使用

的，第二点，如果是低端产品再被淘汰后可能还是进入传统的回收体系。因为通讯设

备里面都会有些贵金属，像是纯金有些通讯设备信号屏蔽这个是必需品。C 认为华为

做的一些电动工具所用的塑料壳有的也是二次回收的，一些塑料垃圾被溶解成塑料颗

粒再利用生成黑色的橡胶壳模具再利用，我们还把二三十年前的老基站，老物件回收

加工成工艺品赠送和摆在自己的办公桌上。D 觉得 c2c所追求的百分之百回收再利用概念是理想化的几乎没有实现的可能。G跟西方的回收体系有一些不一样从预发订单

到工厂下单这样的一个零库存，中国这边销售厂家是不负责回收的，但是中国的零库

存是有库存的，只不过说对于像电信联通等某个通讯运营商来说他是零库存，比如我

的需求是 100个，但是前期我是不知道的，华为有可能送 120台到我这，那么这 20台电信是要退还给华为的，华为对没有销售掉的手机进行回收，把他卖到其他地方，比

如在上海销售掉 100台手机，剩下的 20台销售到其他西部地区，或者运输到国外例如

缅甸等一些比较穷的国家去，那么进行二次销售，这也可以叫做一个新产品的可回收

的回溯体系。

这是其中的第一条，第二条是用户用下来的回收体系，就是废弃的电子产品进行来回

收的。例如电信全面升级光纤，电信通讯商退下来的电话线里的铜缆，到我们这边就

是进行加工，将最外层绝缘橡胶皮剥掉，塑料皮是一个回收，里面的铜丝是一个回收，

按不同的材料分别分类称重卖掉。同样，手机也是，电子版与玻璃屏幕等都是分开回

收处理的，剩下的废件处理有几种方式，一种就是填埋，一种就是焚烧，一般国内和

国际上处理方式都是这两种方式。填埋和焚烧，对于废品来说，有价值的东西只有线

路板里的金银铜，其他的都不需要的，只需要用硫酸对线路板进行提纯，将金银铜提

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纯出来。废品焚烧不只是不是因为回收的价格太高，而是因为这些废品本来就没用了，

本身就是废件了。

第三种回收举例来说，一个旧手机上有某些部件可以作为维修部件再利用，比如摄像

头是可以拆下来的，任何品牌只要是像素差不多，都可以安装使用，这也是进入回收

的方式去做，而不是进入到废品的回收体系。比如翻新机，就是用旧的配件套上新的

外壳当新的手机进行出售。 H 废品回收是分成几个领域，比如一类废品因为带有污染源，提炼金属这个环节会产

生很多有毒有害物质产生和排放所以由环卫局来监管，所以回收和存储都要具备有关

部门发放的资质认定书，环卫局会审查核定资质，尤其是电池这部分，因为电池是高

危物品，它里面会发生火灾发生爆炸，例如硫酸电池、镍氢电池等。现在在中国也有

手机企业是自己处理电子垃圾的。比如说爱回收。专门的手机回收公司，他们是做两

部分，一部分回收后转销到偏远地区进行二次销售。而另一部分报废机则进入到回收

体系。 第二个，华为做纪念品是将废品变为原材料了，将塑料压缩之后变成了新的塑料件，

导入到模具之后会做成任何东西。金银铜等金属也一样，再做成手机，就生产成金丝

铜丝等加入到电路板里。将材料收集后做成纪念品只是一种方式，不改变材质的本身。 原本中国本来就是一个处理洋垃圾的地方，所以以前的企业不会去考虑回收再利用的，

进口洋垃圾去加工制造。举个例子，我们有很多的污水，自来水厂处理水一般分成上

排和下排两块，污水进入水厂会用离心机将 98%的水和 2%的污泥进行分离，把污泥

沉淀下来，最新的技术可将污泥的干湿度处理到 85%-90%，形成的基本上是干沥。污

泥做成的污泥棒会运到生物发电厂进行发电使用，干适度 90%的污泥棒会产生 2800卡的热值，如果是含有特殊元素的工业性污泥棒则会产生 3500-4000卡的热值。在这种

变废为宝的情况下污水厂也会从中盈利，否则污水厂分离出的污泥便会找地方填埋从

而占用更多的土地资源。 关于可拆卸技术 A在航空航天这块，为了减少对太空的污染在材料选择上在一些设计上就考虑到这个

问题，要利于回收利于拆卸。 B 这个一定是这样的，不管是我早期做无线基站还是现在的手机，拆卸都是非常关键

的，特别是无线基站，比如 2008年的时候北京奥运会中国在珠穆朗玛峰上面就建立了

基站，如果那个基站一旦出现问题，回收成本将会是非常高的 C可拆卸我的领域好像不怎么强，基本坏了都毁掉了融掉了送掉了。 D 产品设计成可拆卸主要来自两方面的动力才行。第一是成本的降低和可靠性的提高，

这是一个动力。第二是来自行业和国家的要求。手机现在要把 SIM卡去掉，直接集成到线路板上，第一成本降低可靠性提高了，不用换卡了直接取数据就够了，第二也方

便用户携带手机转网，这也能得到用户的认可。另外在航空航天行业内有设计要求，

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要求要做到可回收可拆卸。要降低对太空的污染减少太空垃圾。如果公司也有类似的

动力驱动，这个工作就好做。 E 产品的设计理念要保证产品要在市场上有一定的利润，否则这个产品进入不了设计

和实施阶段。在成本可接受的情况下尽可能采用高新技术和可回收技术。因为华为很

多组件都是外部的，如果自己设计可能会设计可拆卸的，可能可拆卸的更便宜组装更

容易。如果有利益驱使，肯定会研发开拓有拆卸技术组件来降低成本。 关于合金回收问题 A所有的回收工作都是由成本和效益决定的。现在的回收工作要达到环保要求是非常

严格的，而且对企业来讲很难赚钱。我原来做半导体集成电路的，如果把一个芯片或

者一个线路板做的完全环保那个成本是非常高的，废水废料都要经过处理，这个成本

很高。当然从理念上来讲这个废旧电子产品手机之类的需要做回收，回收以后再把材

料进行重新提取然后重新利用这个当然是最好的最理想的，要有新的工艺新的技术，

而且要把回收成本降低下来，这样原材料的成本稍微高点都没关系，但是回收成本一

定要低。 B深淘滩低作堰-华为提倡自身底蕴一定要深厚，就像把河床挖得特别深，但是把合作

壁垒设的很低，就像把堤坝修建得低矮让河水溢出让合作伙伴都受益。我的理解是华

为一定会让专业的人来做专业的事。 C回收工作最难的第一就是要创造效益，第二就是要达到环保要求。但有些个别材料

还是能达到环保回收要求的比如说金。硬质线路板里的金是可以回收的，因为金的价

值比较高，所以回收以后它在效益上有利可图。但像有些东西像铜和镍这样的回收就

很难，难的不是技术问题而是它的成本太高，价值太低。更多的问题还是成本问题，

可是要突破成本问题依然要依靠技术手段。比如说新的化学方法或者新的回收工艺，

有了这个技术以后后面更多的回收工作就能更好的进行。 D 华为的复合材料供应商来自全球，而不是主要依靠自己的研发部门，所以复合材料

如何回收的责任主要不应该由华为一家公司来承担。材料的研发是一个长周期大投入

的工作，由华为来负责也不现实，虽然华为也有材料部门但是研发材料不是重点工作。

复合材料主要还是靠全球供应链支撑，比如德国日本美国在顶尖材料方面比中国积累

要深。复合材料主要还是“他们给我们东西，我们用。” E 华为很多的产品都是组装的，比如 LED屏很多都不是华为的，所以有些原材料以前

是支持的现在就可以支持回收，反之不支持回收的未来也只能不支持。 关于逆向供应链 A 废旧手机的回收再制造成新产品这一块是谁觉得有价值就谁来做不属于华为公司管

是, 回收这一块是社会化。现在政府没有说专门归哪个部门管，它是社会化的问题，所

以一般谁觉得有利可图谁就去做了。 D那后续的回收问题是谁觉得有价值谁就去做而不是华为来决定. E逆向供应链就是对于回收再创造新的产品就不归华为负责，而是谁觉得这个逆向供

应链有价值谁就负责。是在华为产品范围之内，已经过了产品周期了就是华为可以回

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收，其他公司也可以回收，现在上海有专门回收的公司。很多人手机就扔在家了，因

为担心隐私泄露的原因不会送去回收。设置的越多成本投入越大，回收对华为也没有

更多的商业利益。华为的实力足够强，华为想做什么事情根本不需要政府来去指挥，

华为设置的站点只是商业行为。大家都不在意回收那么这个项目的意义是以旧换新促

进新产品的购买

关于回收行为的决定因素

爱回收专业清除：作为回收的固定处理环节，检测人员在对旧机质检的过程中，会对

回收的旧机进行专业的数据删除，通过 Blancco 专业工具清除旧机上的个人数据，清

理过程全程录像监控，以保证用户隐私数据的安全，确保隐私不外泄。 华为商城以旧换新服务中，有三种对旧机的回收方式，分别是：信用回收、顺丰快递

回收和质检师上门回收, 信用回收是指基于用户的支付宝芝麻信用进行的回收。 顺丰快递员根据您填写地址和上门时间上门收件，邮寄至质检中心进行质检和最终报

价，您根据质检报告选择是否确认交易，若订单成交代金券立即到账，若订单取消物

品将按原地址退回至用户。质检师上门回收，是由爱回收的专业质检师根据您填写的

地址和上门时间进行上门回收，当面质检、报价并成交，代金券立即到账。