Exploring Sustainability with the Triple Layer Business Model: CORE Workshop in Finland
by Vasia Schoina, CORE
After the 6th General Assembly (GA, consortium meeting) of the ELEXIA project, held in Finland back in April, CORE facilitated a workshop dedicated to the Triple Layer Business Model Canvas (TLBMC). The session served as a key step in shaping the project ‘s exploitation strategy, ensuring that ELEXIA delivers value not only economically, but also environmentally and socially.
Figure 1 Layers of Business Model
During the workshop, the concept and structure of a questionnaire were presented, designed to capture insights from consortium members on all three layers of the model. Partners were introduced to the methodology, which covered economic aspects such as customer segments and revenue streams, environmental perspectives including lifestyle impacts and sustainable resources, and social dimensions such as affordability and equity. The strategy for consolidating inputs was also outlined, explaining how responses would be clustered and translated into a holistic business model for ELEXIA.
Following the workshop, the questionnaire was circulated to all partners for completion. Their responses provided the foundation for a consolidated analysis, which was subsequently integrated into the Sustainable Business Models. The results highlighted important insights across the three layers.
Figure 2 Triple Layered Business Model Canvas, Joyce, Paquin 2015
In the Economic Layer, partners identified industrial consumers, municipalities and utilities as the most relevant customer groups, while also recognizing the growing importance of prosumers and households in decentralized energy markets. Subscription-based access to digital services emerged as a primary revenue stream, complemented by licensing fees for software, transaction commissions from energy trading and monetization of flexibility services. For example, predictive algorithms for demand-response management were highlighted as a concrete tool that can both lower operational costs and generate income through grid balancing.
In the Environmental Layer, ELEXIA was shown to be strongly aligned with European climate goals and the Green Deal agenda. Partners emphasized its potential to reduce carbon emissions through optimization algorithms and to facilitate higher shares of renewables by coordinating electricity, heating and mobility systems. The model also pointed to the adoption of green ICT solutions such as energy-efficient data centers and cloud services powered by renewables. Circular economy practices were recognized as a pillar of the platform, including the use of recyclable IoT devices, eco-designed smart meters and reconditioning protocols for hardware. These approaches not only lower environmental impact but also extend the lifestyle of the technologies deployed in the pilots.
The Social Layer underlined ELEXIA’s capacity to create positive societal change. Energy affordability and equity were recognized as critical outcomes, with tools like gamified dashboards providing households with clear feedback on cost and CO2 savings. Community empowerment was seen in the possibility of peer-to-peer energy exchange and participatory governance of local grids, fostering active energy citizenship. The questionnaire responses also pointed to job creation in the digital and green sectors, supported by training programs and skills development in areas such as IoT installation, EMS operation and AI-driven analytics. Moreover, the social model stressed the importance of digital literacy campaigns, ensuring that all users-including vulnerable groups-can engage with the platform, make informed decisions and actively contribute to the energy transition. Strong governance values such as transparency, data protection and ethical AI design were also highlighted as essential to building trust and inclusivity.
By establishing the methodological basis during the workshop and consolidating the diverse inputs of the consortium, CORE enabled the creation of a robust, detailed and sustainable vision of ELEXIA’s business model. This vision captures economic viability, environmental responsibility and social inclusion as interconnected dimensions, ensuring that ELEXIA’s exploitation pathway supports both replication and long-term scalability in Europe’s clean energy transition.
