Sjors Witjes

Radboud University | RU · Faculty of Management

This chapter provides several illustrative examples, mainly from the Dutch context, showing the application of the 10R framework of value retention options presented in the previous chapter, both for the product produce and use lifecycle, the product concept, and design lifecycle.

Over the last decade, the circular economy (CE) concept has regained attention, especially regarding efforts to achieve a more sustainable society. Controversies and confusions have accompanied the “revival” of the circular economy concerning its meaning across different actors in science and practice. In Chaps. 3 and 4, we advance clarity in the f...

In recent years the concept of Circular Economy has received growing attention, both in the worlds of science and of policy making. Some scholars and practitioners present it as a novelty, but we have to acknowledge that it builds on the legacy of predecessors, like waste recycling and separation, industrial ecology, eco-industrial parks and indust...

In anni recenti il concetto di economia circolare ha ricevuto sempre maggiore attenzione, sia nel settore scientifico che in ambito decisionale politico. Anche se vari studiosi e professionisti lo presentano come una novità, in realtà è stato costruito sull'eredità di alcuni predecessori, concetti come il riciclo e la separazione dei rifiuti, l'eco...

Dat de integratie van duurzaamheid in een bedrij fscultuur niet eenvoudig is, blij kt uit de hoge diversiteit aan benaderingen omschre-ven in de wetenschap. Opvallend is dat succesverhalen uit de praktij k hier nauwelij ks in worden meegenomen. Wij onderzochten daarom in hoeverre de verschillende bena-deringen omschreven door wetenschappers overeenkomen...

Change agents for Corporate Sustainability (CS) play an important role for companies when integrating CS into their business activities. While change agents can be differentiated by their worldviews, little is known about the contextual factors influencing their success in supporting CS integration. By proposing and illustrating an analytical model...

Addressing corporate impacts on the sustainability of society entails a dynamic capability and management of organisational change. Although the integration of Corporate Sustainability into the corporate culture involves both the physical and social dynamics of business activities, scientific research has been mostly focusing on interventions in th...

Various tools have been developed to support companies integrating corporate sustainability (CS) into their organisational system. Research on the use of these tools does not clearly show how these tools support the integration process of CS. This paper focuses on the CS integration support of three tools most often mentioned in the literature. We...

Over the last decade, the concept of the circular economy has regained attention, especially related to efforts to achieve a more sustainable society. The ‘revival’ of the circular economy has been accompanied by controversies and confusions across different actors in science and practice. With this article we attempt at contributing to advanced cl...

The increased pressure on companies to address sustainability issues has resulted in the development of several voluntary corporate sustainability integration approaches. The array of existing approaches is large and overwhelming , resulting in companies not understanding what corporate sustainability really means for their businesses. Considering...

This article aims to shed light on mechanisms to integrate a strategy on Corporate Sustainability in companies. The analysis is based on a holistic method derived from organisation theory, organisational behaviour theory and strategic management theory. The process of integration into the organisational system is explored by analysing the coalescen...

Throughout the last 15 years, I was able to support and guide several companies with addressing sustainability challenges. By asking for my help, these companies already proved to be aware of the importance of sustainability for their businesses. Moreover, they had converted this awareness into action: they asked me, an actor external to their orga...

The large purchasing power of public organisations (up to 19% of GDP in Europe) can promote, demand for sustainable products and services, set trends for other organisations, and enlarge the markets of sustainable products and services. This virtual special issue collates 17 of papers focusing on Sustainable Pubic Procurement (SPP) and related conc...

Samenwerking voor een circulaire economie: de verbinding tussen het duurzaam inkoopproces en duurzamere business modellen Copernicus Instituut voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling, Universiteit Utrecht Sjors Witjes en Rodrigo Lozano Als onderdeel van het ReBus programma van de Europese Unie heeft Rijkswaterstaat het Copernicus Instituut van de Universiteit U...

Sustainability aims at addressing environmental and socio-economic issues in the long term. In general the literature on sustainability has focused mainly on the environmental issues, whereas, more recently, a Circular Economy has been proposed as one of the latest concepts for addressing both the environmental and socio-economic issues. A Circular...

As part of the Life+ REBUS project in the Netherlands, organisations and consultants working on pilot evaluations in the Green Deal on Circular Procurement collaborated to have access to knowledge and experience on sustainable procurement and find the case study companies.Utrecht University researchers Sjors Witjes and Rodrigo Lozano analysed two c...

With their book, “Circular Business: Collaborate and Circulate”, Circular Collaboration, Amersfoort, ISBN: 978-90-824902-0-6, €35, Kraaijenhagen, van Oppen & Bocken (2016) give companies practical guidance on their contribution to the development of a more circular economy by presenting a practical 10-step approach to a more circular business. It i...

Although companies have shown a growing awareness of the importance of Corporate Sustainability (CS), integration of CS into their business activities is still problematic. Most of the CS research focuses on large corporations, with limited discussions of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Research on SMEs has shown that most CS activities...

This article argues for greater attention to be paid to the dual and embedded nature of business. We propose that a more inclusive systemic perspective is needed for the challenge of speeding up the application of ‘inclusive’ corporate sustainability. The key question is how an on-going upward dynamic of transformative learning cycles can be achiev...

Companies have become more aware of the impact they generate on society. Some companies take up the challenge to convert this awareness in an added value to their core business activities. There is an extensive amount of CS approaches (tools, instruments and initiatives) available to companies enabling the integration of CS in the core business act...

A B S T R A C T Although there is a growing awareness among companies of the importance of Corporate Sustainability (CS), they struggle in getting CS integrated into their business activities. Most of the literature and research on CS focus on large corporations, with limited debate on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Research shows that...

Advice on developing a widely accepted measurement method of 'circular products and services' (in Dutch). In opdracht van: Economic Board Utrecht (EBU)

1. The vision on sustainability For the companies that were closing the gap between the sustainability vision and the actions leading to a more sustainable performance, the process of setting up the vision was an iterative process: the process itself gave the companies in time more and more insight in the motives for sustainability. The continuous...

De huidige crisis en de discussie over klimaatverandering hebben ertoe geleid dat bedrijven bewuster nadenken over hun visie op duurzaamheid. Daarnaast worden er ook acties ingezet om efficiënter, veiliger en minder milieubelastend te gaan werken. Helaas zien wij in de praktijk dat visie en acties op deze thema's vaak nog niet op één lijn zitten. Door...

The present research started with two hypotheses: the development of an organic vegetable garden by children between 7 and 10 years old, living in agricultural areas in Colombia, develops their systems thinking, and there is a direct relationship between the development of system thinking and the level of general thinking of these children. The res...

The current research project started with the hypothesis that it would be possible to apply the ecodesign methodology and tools, developed by the " Design for Sustainability " group of Delft University of Technology, to the Colombian context. The research was lead through a 5 year application and adjustment of this methodology and its tools in the...