No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
A Review and Typology of Circular Economy Business Model Patterns
Abstract
The circular economy requires companies to rethink their supply chains and business models. Several frameworks found in the academic and practitioner literature propose circular economy business models (CEBMs) to redefine how companies create value while adhering to circular economy principles. A review of these frameworks shows that some models are frequently discussed, some are framework-specific, and some use a different wording to refer to similar CEBMs, pointing to the need to consolidate the current state of the art. We conduct a morphological analysis of 26 current CEBMs from the literature, which includes defining their major business model dimensions and identifying the specific characteristics of these dimensions. Based on this analysis, we identify a broad range of business model design options and propose six major CEBM patterns with the potential to support the closing of resource flows: repair and maintenance, reuse and redistribution, refurbishment and remanufacturing, recycling, cascading and repurposing, and organic feedstock business model patterns. We also discuss different design strategies to support the development of these CEBMs.
... At the same time, transitioning to a circular economy (CE) is being increasingly advocated as a way of solving many grand challenges (Rodriguez-Anton et al., 2019), including natural habitat loss, waste from unsustainable production and consumption, and their implications for life on land and water (Ripple et al., 2017). The vast range of these complex challenges has translated into an extensive and inter-disciplinary literature on CE, which has attracted much scholarly attention and several reviews in areas such as CE business models (Centobelli et al., 2020;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2018;Pieroni et al., 2019) and the implementation of CE at different levels (micro, meso and macro) (Ghisellini et al., 2016) (see Table 1). ...
... The rapid rise of CE research is reflected in the number of recent review studies, a selection of which we list in Table 1, alongside the focus areas and conceptualizations of CE in each review. Some of the early studies in the field (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017;Murray et al., 2017) were concentrated on conceptualizing CE and distinguishing it from other related concepts like sustainability, while more recent reviews have focused on particular thematic areas, such as CE business models (Centobelli et al., 2020;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2018), circular supply chains (Farooque et al., 2019), digital technologies in CE (Awan et al., 2022) and geographical analyses of CE activity (Morales & Sossa, 2020;Shao, 2019). ...
... Others saw CE in more limited terms, for example, as a bundle of strategies (Centobelli et al., 2020;Geissdoerfer et al., 2017) or as a concrete and limited solution to specific problems . Other definitions of CE hinted at more abstract aims: CE was conceptualized as a strategy for decoupling economic growth from natural resource use (Ghisellini et al., 2016;Govindan & Hasanagic, 2018), a mechanism for maintaining material values (Chen et al., 2020;Morales & Sossa, 2020) or a path to regeneration (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2018;Wastling et al., 2018). ...
Transitioning to a circular economy (CE) model has been proposed to solve many grand environmental challenges. While research on CE has been extensively reviewed, less is known about the implicit underlying assumptions of this work. Understanding these assumptions is critical as they typically go unchallenged yet play a significant role in shaping research fields. In this paper we conduct a problematizing review to critically analyse and make explicit the in-house, root metaphor and ideological assumptions that inform the framing of CE. Firstly, we demonstrate various in-house assumptions about CE, such as an emphasis on the business case for CE and the relationship between CE and corporate sustainability. Secondly, root metaphor assumptions include circularity and industrial relationships resembling biological metabolisms. Finally, the dominant ideological assumptions-neoliberalism and ecological modernization-guide scholarly thinking about growth, consumption and profit maximization. Based on our analysis and drawing on the ongoing CE debates within broader environmental studies, we suggest new agendas for future research. We contribute to the growing literature on CE in business, management and organization studies by identifying assumptions that may be misleading or limiting for future CE research, as well as to the conversations on grand challenges by discussing the implications of how challenges and solutions are framed.
... Scholars have devoted much time to analysing new business models and strategies related to CE (cf. Bocken et al., 2016;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). Yet, there is also a need to reflect and examine these older CE initiatives and practices to understand their suitability and capacity to facilitate and address the emerging societal concerns evidenced within the existing CE debate. ...
... CE practices thus range from national programmes, e.g. China's 2009 CE 'Promotion Law' or international policies, e.g. the EU's 2015 CE 'Action Plan' (Ghisellini et al., 2016), to business models and individual company strategies (see Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). Scholars have sought to define CE activities through the potential value retention options that can be initiated throughout a product or material lifecycle, commonly described as the R-hierarchy. ...
... Closing socio-ecological cycles: recovering components, materials and embodied energy through recycling, bio-digestion, composting, urban-mining and, as last resort options, incineration with energy recovery (Batista et al., 2018;Geisendorf and Pietrulla, 2018;Geissdoerfer et al., 2017;Lorenz et al., 2018;McDonough and Braungart, 2002;Merli et al., 2018;Prieto-Sandoval et al., 2018;Winans et al., 2017). • Smartening socio-ecological cycles: using eco-innovations for optimum resource efficiency and the provision of renewable energy such as eco-design for electrification, durability, multifunctionality, upgradeability, modularity, reusability, repairability, and recyclability as well as ICT innovations such as P2P platforms, blockchain, smart grids, and industry 4.0 (de Jesus et al., 2019;den Hollander et al., 2017;Frenken, 2017;Garcia-Muiña et al., 2019;Kalmykova et al., 2018;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019;Stahel, 2010;Tate et al., 2019;Zink and Geyer, 2017). ...
The Circular Economy (CE) has recently become a popular concept in sustainability discourses for both the public and private sectors. The proponents of this idea often espouse many social, economic, and environmental benefits from the application of CE practices. Given current socio-ecological challenges to overcome resource scarcity, climate change, and biodiversity loss, all while reducing global poverty and inequality, the CE could provide key solutions and opportunities for a transition to a sustainable, fair, and resilient future.
However, the CE faces many limitations to deliver on those expectations. The CE is very much a contested concept in the sustainability discourse, with many actors proposing different visions of a circular future based on their particular socio-economic interests. Moreover, the economic, social, political, and environmental implications of different circular discourses and policies remain poorly researched and understood.
This thesis addresses this research gap by answering the following question: what are the main societal discourses and policies on the CE, how can they be critically analysed, compared, and understood, and what are their sustainability implications? To answer this question, this thesis uses an interdisciplinary mixed-method approach including critical literature review, content analysis, text-mining, and Q-method survey. The case studies are European Union CE policies, Dutch CE policies for plastics and tyres as well as the CE action plans of Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Glasgow.
Results demonstrate the existence of a plurality of circularity discourses through history, which can be divided based on two main criteria. First, whether they are sceptical or optimist regarding the possibility of eco-economic decoupling, and second, whether they are holistic by including social justice concerns or have a segmented focus on resource efficiency alone. This leads to 4 core discourse types: Reformist Circular Society (optimist and holistic), Technocentric Circular Economy (optimist and segmented), Transformational Circular Society (sceptical and holistic), and Fortress Circular Economy (sceptical and segmented).
Results from the selected case studies conclude that, although the CE discursive landscape is quite diverse, current policies focus on technical solutions and business innovations which do not address the manyfold social and political implications of a circular future. A technocentric CE approach is thus prevalent in the policies of the EU, the Dutch Government, and the city of Copenhagen. Results also find that the cities of Amsterdam and Glasgow have a more holistic approach to CE by acknowledging many social justice considerations. Yet the policies of these two cities remain limited in both their redistributive nature and their transformative potential. Moreover, results demonstrate that all the above case studies follow a growth-optimist approach, seeking to improve economic competitiveness and innovation to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. However, this approach has key scientific limitations, as research has shown that absolute eco-economic decoupling is neither happening nor likely to happen on a relevant scale to prevent climate change and biodiversity collapse.
This thesis’s research has also found that academics and social movements from the Global North and South alike have developed a wide range of alternatives to the growth-centric approach to circularity, such as steady state economics, degrowth, voluntary simplicity, ecological swaraj, economy for the common good, permacircular economy, doughnut economics, buen vivir, and ubuntu. All these alternative discourses can be grouped under the umbrella concept of a circular society. Circular society discourses are united in their objective to create a democratic, fair and sustainable socio-ecological system, which works in harmony with the natural cycles of the biosphere to improve human and planetary wellbeing for current and future generations. More pluralism and inclusiveness of these alternative approaches in the debate surrounding circularity could help co-design and implement sustainable circularity policies, which subordinate economic growth to planetary boundaries, resource limits, and social imperatives. This is key to ensure the political legitimacy, social relevance and scientific validity of the circularity policies that are implemented to create a fair, sustainable, and democratic circular society.
Keywords: Circular economy; circular society; policy analysis; discourse analysis; sustainability; environmental governance; pluriverse; degrowth.
... Under the fourth theme, realising environmental sustainability overall (and circular economy specifically) ties in with new business models that data could support (Ferasso et al., 2020;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). For instance, data can afford servitisation and product-service systems (Alcayaga et al., 2019;Bressanelli et al., 2018). ...
... This diverges from modern companies' typical linear value-creation logic (Hofmann, 2019). To aid in understanding data's potential value in this setting, the work considered six distinct circular business model patterns: repair and maintenance, reuse and redistribution, refurbishment and remanufacturing, recycling, cascading and repurposing, and organic feedstock (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). ...
As the need for genuine sustainability transformation crystallises, data’s digitalisation-enabled use creates opportunities to refine how businesses and societies operate. With the power of diverse data sources, available in increasing quantity, actors can set feasible environmental targets, identify improvement opportunities, implement actions, and follow development. The dissertation explores data’s role and value for corporate environmental sustainability and specifically for circular economy from four perspectives: the customer-perceived value of data for environmental sustainability (considered via studying a tissue-paper supplier), how data’ use influences sustainability pathways toward circular economy (specifically of textiles), paradoxical tensions that arise in utilising data to drive circular economy (in the textiles context), and how the literature characterises data’s role and value in circular business models. A company case study, disaggregative Delphi and literature review were used as research methods. The work pinpointed availability of detailed, reliable product-specific data as crucial for supporting environmental sustainability and transparency of products’ value chains. Also, capturing data’s value here demands collaboration with customers and suppliers but also wider business networks, central to which are conditions for solid data-sharing. Consumers demand environmental sustainability, circularity, and accrue benefit from data-related decisions on individual purchases. The strategic and operative decisions/activities across business functions and throughout value chains further guide environmentally better-informed decisions. While use of data can be crucial to developing sustainable business models (for circularity specifically), the role varies less between models than with the activity supported. The results clearly implies that neither environment-related data nor initiatives utilising data automatically benefit the environment; the interactions are more complex. Still, the data are a critical business enabler, and anticipating future data needs should dovetail with systematically developing environment-related data-management capabilities. These findings provide rich insight as to the elements, mechanisms, and critical issues of data driving environmental sustainability and circular economy.
... The discussion on SBM patterns was initiated mainly by Bocken et al. (2014) with a framework consisting of eight essential archetypes of business models. Since then, researchers have built upon this framework to further propose fine-grained frameworks on SBM patterns (e.g., Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2018a;Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2018b;Dijkstra et al. 2020). ...
... Regarding execution, although a fair body of research on business model ideation and design exists, the integration of sustainability into business models is still unclear in practice, hence the design-implementation gap (Baldassarre et al. 2020). For example, literature indicates how a generic SBM type can be adopted in different industrial domains (e.g., Yip and Bocken 2018;Ulvenblad et al. 2019;Reinhardt et al. 2020), or describes a specific pattern, as the circular business models (CBM), in richer details (e.g., Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2018a) with the objective of facilitating eventual implementation. Nevertheless, in the case of CBM, Salvador et al. (2020, p. 12) argue that "… the aspects of CBM implementation are still in their early stages of investigation, as little research has been devoted to them." ...
Business models can be created by combining business model patterns. The use of patterns can stimulate creativity of entrepreneurs and support the design of innovative business models for sustainability. In this article, we analyze the frameworks on sustainable business model (SBM) patterns, which can be mainly classified along the three dimensions of the triple bottom line (TBL): economic, environmental, and social. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of “truly sustainable business models” by drawing on contingency and system theory. We observe that the simple application of the frameworks of business model patterns by combining economic, environmental, and social business model patterns for sustainability into one single business model does not necessarily lead to a truly sustainable business model. Therefore, the combination of patterns along the TBL seems a necessary, but not sufficient condition for achieving true sustainability, and hence, the mere reliance on SBM patterns in business model design can be misleading to entrepreneurs. Our conceptual work advances research related to frameworks on SBM patterns by identifying three critical levels for the analysis of whether a business model is truly sustainable or not. The first level is inherent to the business model as a system; the second is related to the larger system, in which the business model is embedded; and the third is about the contingency factors that can impact the sustainability effectiveness of the business model over time.
... In the context of this paper, a CBM typology is understood as a grouping of CBM solutions to address a particular end-goal (Bocken et al. 2014), whereas a CBM solution represents a unique configuration of CBM elements (Mendoza et al. 2022a, Mendoza et al. 2022b). Thus, each CBM typology integrates a set of CBM solutions around a specific technological pathway for the HWF, which combine different CE strategies to address specific market needs and business challenges (Ludeke-Freund et al. 2018). ...
... Gassmann et al. 2014, Remane et al. 2017, circular (e.g. Ludeke-Freund et al. 2018, Pieroni et al. 2020) and sustainable (e.g. Bocken et al. 2014) business model typologies. ...
The hybridisation of wind farms (HWF) through the implementation of multiple renewable energy production, storage and distribution technologies can optimise the performance and efficiency of the entire renewable energy system. Likewise, the implementation of wind-based Power-to-X (PtX) technology solutions represents an instrumental strategy to facilitate fossil fuel and pollutant emission savings in high-energy and high‑carbon intensive sectors (e.g. transportation, industry and buildings). Nevertheless, the shift towards innovative renewable energy production and consumption systems should be pursued through the implementation of circular economy (CE) strategies driven by circular business models (CBM) to optimise resource efficiency and sustainability performance. However, none of the research studies available on the HWF, and/or the development of hybrid renewable energy plants or PtX systems, have yet provided an overview of all the potential CBM typologies and configurations that can facilitate this process, including the market uptake of Power-to-Gas (PtG) and Power-to-Liquid (PtL) products. Building upon the analysis of 82 documents, including journal papers, industrial reports, R&D projects and business cases, this paper provides a comprehensive categorisation and characterisation of CBMs for the deployment and management of integrated wind and solar energy plants, and PtG (hydrogen and methane) and PtL (methanol, ammonia and e-fuels) systems. The major industrial, market and policy challenges for a resource-efficient and sustainable HWF and deployment of PtX solutions are also discussed. The findings are relevant to the renewable and low-carbon energy sector, the industry and transportation sectors, and all the stakeholders and policymakers pursuing the sustainable energy transition.
... Business Model (BM) is a term normally used to understand how commercial entities can exploit a unique capability to address a business need and develop appropriate revenue mechanisms to survive in the marketplace [49]. The literature on BMs provides multiple definitions for the term [49][50][51]. While addressing the business needs of a firm's internal and external stakeholders, business models need to clearly identify the underlying value proposition, value delivery, value creation, and value capture [52,53]. ...
... A successful business model should specify at least four major dimensions-value proposition, value delivery, value creation and value capture [51]. The business model that uses technology for FWR can be characterized in terms of these dimensions, as shown in Table 5. ...
Food waste is a serious problem worldwide, including in Europe. Research efforts are being carried out to reduce food waste. In this paper, we focus on using modern digital technologies (also known as Industry 4.0 technologies) to reduce waste in food supply chains. Based on interactions with a number of food companies in Europe over the last four years using Action Research, we provide new insights on the motivations and challenges for food companies when they are engaged in the use of technologies for reducing food waste in their supply chains. Motivations for firms include improved food quality of their produce, improved reliability, support in meeting legal requirements, a green image, and improved revenues from selling the food that has been saved. However, data security issues and trust issues posed challenges in using these technologies. Since this is an emerging area of research, we look at potential business models for technology companies for working with food companies in reducing food waste, identify value propositions and value capture, and look at how these investments in technologies can improve the sustainability of food businesses. We believe technology companies can leverage the opportunities, develop new business models with value propositions around the use of technologies, and support food companies via timely alerts in case of potential quality issues. Value capture occurs via the sale of hardware and subscriptions.
... While organizing the spatial information, potential CEBMs based on circular resource strategies were summarized (see Table 6). The table's framework is taken from Lüdeke- Freund et al. (2019), from which it is clear that the CEBM patterns are mainly based on the design of slowing and closing loops, while few models serve to narrow the material loops. Table 6 was extended by combining the clues from Fig. 6. ...
Industrialization, population growth, and urbanization are all trends driving the explosive growth of the construction industry. Creating buildings to house people and operate industry, together with building infrastructure to provide public services, requires prodigious quantities of energy and materials. Most of these virgin materials are non-renewable, and resource shortages caused by the development of the built environment are becoming increasingly inevitable. The gradually evolved circular economy (CE) is considered a way to ease the depletion of resources by extending service life, increasing efficiency, and converting waste into resources. However, the circularity of construction materials shows heavy regional distinctness due to the difference in spatial contexts in the geographical sense, resulting in the same CE business models (CEBMs) not being adapted to all regions. To optimize resource loops and formulate effective CEBMs, it is essential to understand the relationship between space and CE in the built environment. This paper reviews existing publications to summarize the research trends, examine how spatial features are reflected in the circularity of materials, and identify connections between spatial and CE clues. We found that the majority of contributors in this interdisciplinary field are from countries with middle to high levels of urbanization. Further, the case analysis details the material dynamics in different spatial contexts and links space and material cycles. The results indicate that the spatial characteristics can indeed influence the circularity of materials through varying resource cycling patterns. By utilizing spatial information wisely can help design locally adapted CEBMs and maximize the value chain of construction materials.
... Circular economy business models (CBMs) can contribute to tackle the upcoming wave of used batteries (Jiao and Evans 2016;Olsson et al. 2018). A CBM is a plan for how a business can operate profitably while ensuring decreased environmental impacts through closed-loop supply chains and reduced resource consumption (e.g., sharing models, energy efficiency, and applying recyclable materials in primary production) Geissdoerfer et al. 2020;Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2019). CBMs can be used to implement sustainable strategies to manage a product after its first life, such as repurposing in a second life application prior to recycling of the materials. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to advance and illustrate how life cycle assessment (LCA) can assess circular economy business models for lithium-ion batteries to verify potential environmental benefits compared to linear business models. Scenarios for battery repurpose are assessed to support future decision-makers regarding the choice of new versus second life batteries for stationary energy storage. A procedure to determine the substitution coefficient for repurpose and reuse of batteries is proposed.
Methods
Two different circular economy business models are assessed by applying primary data from two Norwegian companies for the development of a new life cycle inventory. With this new data, the authors compare second life battery (from first life in electric vehicle) scenarios and avoided production potential by performing a complete consequential LCA. Building on earlier work, a procedure to identify the substitution coefficient (i.e., potential for avoided production) for battery life cycle assessments is proposed. Interviews during factory visits were performed to identify a technical and a market factor affecting the substitution coefficient.
Results and discussion
This study illustrates how life cycle assessment methodology can detect and thus enhance the potential environmental benefits and trade-offs of circular economy business models. Results show that the CBMs which use second life batteries correspond to 16% (for global warming potential) of manufacturing a new battery. This means that a second life battery must avoid > 16% production of a new battery to become the preferred alternative. Hence, circular economy business models with second life batteries can generate net environmental benefits while the remaining battery capacity and market price are identified factors that can alter the potential environmental benefits. The findings suggest that assumptions concerning the avoided production emissions are crucial for understanding the overall impacts of battery value chains.
Conclusions
Circular economy business models which enable second life batteries show lower environmental impacts compared to a new battery when it can partly avoid production of a new battery. Based on the identified technical and market factor affecting this potential, a key message to industry and other organizations is that second life batteries should be chosen over new batteries. This depends on the remaining capacity being satisfactory for the new application, and the investment is not performed because of a low price compared to a new battery. Consequential LCA practitioners adopting a market approach while evaluating battery reuse and repurpose should model and account for the avoided production potential.
... C2. Resources. Savings in human, financial, energy, material, and other resources should be the priority in any sustainable business model (e.g., [107,108]). Savings in human resources can be achieved through a more rational organization of work; of finances through optimization of processes and activities; of energy through the use of alternative energy sources and a more rational consumption of primary ones; and of materials through the processes of reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and refurbishing. ...
Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) is a field that helps decision makers evaluate alternatives based on multiple criteria and encompasses scoring, distance-based, pairwise comparison, and outranking methods. Recent developments have aimed to solve specific problems and overcoming the limitations of previous methods. This paper proposes a new axial-distance-based aggregated measurement (ADAM) method, which is used in combination with the best-worst method (BWM) to evaluate agri-food circular economy (CE)-based business models (BMs) to create a more sustainable and efficient system for producing and consuming food. This paper proposes nine BMs, which were evaluated against eight criteria. The BWM method was used to obtain the criteria weights, while the ADAM method was used to obtain a final ranking of the BMs. The results indicate that a sustainable circular agri-food supply chain is a BM that can bring companies the most significant progress in business and strengthen their position in the market. We concluded that the ADAM method is effective for solving MCDM problems and that, overall, the model is an effective tool for solving the problem defined in this study. The main contributions are the development of a new MCDM method and a hybrid model, the establishment of the framework for evaluation and selection of CE-based BMs, and the identification of the most important ones.
... The Circular Economy (CE) emerges as a new economic model that sets clear regenerative aspirations, with the potential to largely contribute to achieving sustainable development (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017;Kirchherr et al., 2017). Product, service, technology and business-model innovations are central enablers towards circularity (Bocken et al., 2016;Lüdeke-freund et al., 2018). CE provides opportunities for fastexpanding markets with potential for positive economic and social externalities that lie undetected under the linear economy paradigm (Esposito et al., 2015). ...
The strategic economic and societal impact of innovation across our global economies is indisputable. In considering Circular Economy (CE) transitions, the role that innovation can play should not be underestimated; the critical question is how, if today’s economy is still linear? High numbers of new business opportunities, created to meet user, market and societies ever-novel demands, have increased the emphasis placed on responsible and sustainable products and services, but will extended responsibility and sustainable goals create a timely enough transition? This chapter considers innovation from inside and outside the organisation’s boundaries and explores circular innovation - where refocused, regenerative and balanced outcomes are created by realising new opportunities, generating novel ideas and developing radical solutions. We discuss the use of state-of-the-art approaches for strategic and innovation management, guided by the CE principles, to uncover how companies can navigate the innovation ecosystem to couple firm-level CE transformation with CE transitions. Our rich examples of different types of circular products, services and processes aim to demystify the complexity of circular innovation and show that it is possible to achieve significant results, even when starting in a linear regime. Our reflections on the power of creating a circular innovation journey and a culture that is genuinely committed to experimentation pave the way for the circular transformation of the company.
... However, it has been side-lined by modern intensive farming practices that prioritize profit over environmental protection. As mentioned above, the circular economy model is already successfully implemented in farming practices such as: (i) the conversion of biological waste including agricultural stalks and leaves, as well as livestock manure, into fertilizers rich in Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK); (ii) the wastewater reuse, arising from animal production and irrigation runoff, which can be reused for pastures and plant production after their treatment; (iii) the use of the produced biomass from plant and animal in order to produce biofuels; and (iv) waste minimization through the promotion of 3R strategies (reduce, reuse, recycle) (Patricio et al., 2018;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019;McCarthy et al., 2019;Nattassha et al., 2020). ...
Population growth leads to an increase in the demand for energy, water, and food as cities grow and urbanize. However, the Earth's limited resources are unable to meet these rising demands. Modern farming practices increase productivity, but waste resources and consume too much energy. Agricultural activities occupy 50 % of all habitable land. After a rise of 80 % in 2021, fertilizer prices have increased by nearly 30 % in 2022, representing a significant cost for farmers. Sustainable and organic farming has the potential to reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers and increase the utilization of organic residues as a nitrogen (N) source for plant nutrition. Agricultural management typically prioritizes nutrient cycling and supply for crop growth, whereas the mineralization of added biomass regulates crop nutrient supply and CO2 emissions. To reduce overconsumption of natural resources and environmental damage, the current economic model of "take-make-use-dispose" must be replaced by "prevention-reuse-remake-recycle". The circular economy model is promising for preserving natural resources and providing sustainable, restorative, and regenerative farming. Technosols and organic wastes can improve food security, ecosystem services, the availability of arable land, and human health. This study intends to investigate the nitrogen nutrition provided by organic wastes to agricultural systems, reviewing the current state of knowledge and demonstrating how common organic wastes can be utilized to promote sustainable farming management. Nine waste residues were selected to promote sustainability in farming based on circular economy and zero waste criteria. Using standard methods, their water content, organic matter, total organic carbon, Kjeldahl nitrogen, and ammonium levels were determined, along with their potential to improve soil fertility via N supply and technosol formulation. 10 % to 15 % of organic waste was mineralized and analysed during a six-month cultivation cycle. Through the results, the combination of organic and inorganic fertilization to increase crop yield is recommended, as is the search for realistic and practical methods of dealing with massive amounts of organic residues within the context of a circular economy.
... Transition to a CE also raises social issues relating to employment practices, the distribution of wealth, and the effectiveness of current forms of government (Moreau et al., 2017). It has been argued that a CE will necessitate a shift from material expenses to labour expenses (Lüdeke Freund et al., 2019), and reshape employability patterns across various industries (Horbach et al., 2015); there is thus danger here of businesses taking advantage of CE principles in a way that exploits workers by cutting costs, reducing wages, and increasing workloads. Moreover, the transition to a CE may lead to greater competition for resources, which could result in increased prices for raw materials and make it more difficult for small businesses and low-income households to access them. ...
... Due to resource-intensive upstream activities, resource scarcity and increased focus on extended producer responsibility, manufacturing companies can no longer be solely concerned with a forward-oriented supply chain and logistics setup (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). Instead, they must begin to decouple the consumption of virgin materials from business growth. ...
... This problem is due to the several recovery processes that exist in real-life applications that are very much dependent on the nature of the industry (Masoudipour et al. 2017) and on the original product design (Abbey and Guide 2017), e.g. repairing, reusing, reconditioning, refurbishing, remanufacturing, repurposing/recontextualizing and recycling (King et al. 2006;Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2019;Farooque et al. 2019;Peng et al. 2020). All these processes have specific characteristics and different purposes, e.g. the identification of a new use for a product (reusing/ repurposing) or the recovery of the residual value of used products or their component through their total dismantling (remanufacturing/ recycling). ...
Due to the complex nature of some products and the different quality of returns, in closed-loop supply chains there might be different types of reverse processes and reverse flows, including repaired, refurbished, remanufactured, or recycled goods. These reprocessed goods return to different echelons of the supply chain according to their quality, and the volume of each type of reverse flow (i.e. the returns share) may significantly vary between different supply chains, affecting the dynamic behaviour of the entire system. The aim of this work is to explore the impact of the volume of returns among multiple reverse flows in a closed-loop supply chain where each member can have its own reverse flow. We analyse a four-echelon closed-loop supply chain, where a collector is in charge of collecting and inspecting the returns and sending them to the different echelons depending on their quality. An agent-based simulation model considering different return rates, coefficient of variations for the forward lead times, and returns share is developed and evaluated in terms of bullwhip effect. We observe that considerable volume and medium–low quality of the returns enable bullwhip effect reduction in systems where returns are shared among all the members of the supply chain. However, in single reverse flow closed-loop supply chains, moderate volume and high quality of the returns are preferable to gain improvements both in terms of order and inventory variability. From a managerial point of view, we provide useful recommendations for companies adopting closed-loop.
... Archetypes can also be grouped based on their foundational principles, e.g., the circular economy (Lacy et al. 2014;Lewandowski 2016;Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2019), or by their main value creation area -mainly economic, social-economic, social, mainly ecological or integrative (Lüdeke-Freund et al. 2018). The categorization of common patterns can provide inspiration to organizations working to improve the sustainability of their BM. ...
The concept of business models for sustainability (BMfS) has attracted research attention in the fields of corporate sustainability, entrepreneurship and management. BMfS are a way of linking sustainable innovation to an organization’s business model, and as a means for management to operationalize sustainable activities and strategies across an organization’s value chain. This chapter provides the history and description of BMfS as both a tool and conceptual logic that divides activities into three components – value proposition, value creation and delivery, and value capture. Practitioner tools are introduced, along with a brief conceptual overview.
... Until now, contributions to CE have failed to realise the transformative potential in practice, as CE targets are still out of reach (PBL, 2022;UNFCC, 2022). This relates, among other, to: the creation, balancing and retention of multiple values by businesses (financial, social, ethical and environmental; short-term profits and long-term continuity; prosperity and societal impact, etc.); the unease with circular revenue models versus business-as-usual considerations (Ferasso et al., 2020;Franca et al., 2017;Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019); the legal provisions underpinning the linear economy that require substantial adjustments (Kazancoglu et al., 2020;Dalhammer, 2016), and more fundamental recurrent patterns of consumer's comfort and ease versus responsible consumption. It takes a lot to transform economies. ...
The circular economy is a viable alternative for our current economy; while scholarly work and policy documents problematise current principles and practices, the desirable changes are often treated as fitting in natural transition pathways. Until now, the circular economy has failed to realise its transformative potential, in practice representing at best a matter of laboriously weighing different and seemingly opposite sets of values. What are the building blocks in terms of value creation and retention, and how to upscale new value-balancing practices to a system level? This contribution problematises the concept of value in a fragmented circular transition landscape by drawing on narrative-based and transdisciplinary approaches, and their potential consequences for governing the circular economy.
... More and more entrepreneurs believe that the only way to achieve sustainable production and development is to move from the current 'linear' business model to a circular economy (CE) (Kumar et al., 2019). Implementing a business model based on CE assumptions is an opportunity to reconcile economic, social and environmental goals, which is one of the most significant contemporary challenges (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019). For enterprises, CE means implementing business strategies and activities that meet the needs of the company and its stakeholders today, while protecting, maintaining and enhancing human and natural resources that will be needed in the future (Ketprapakorn & Kantabutra, 2019). ...
An increasingly visible trend among enterprises is the belief that one of the most effective ways of achieving growth is through the transition from the current ‘linear’ business model to a circular economy. This approach enables enterprises to create a pro‐environmental image and, at the same time, obtain a number of benefits. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the dependencies involved in meeting the requirements of a circular economy through the implementation of individual activities in the 9R framework in the context of the tools used and the benefits obtained. The research shows that such organisations can obtain a wide range of economic, operational, and social benefits, as leaders in forging a pro‐environmental approach. However, they must use already available tools on a larger scale and implement and propagate actions that fit into the 9R strategies framework.
... Circular economy is gaining attention in both policy and scholarly circles as an approach for transformation towards sustainability [1,2]. Circular economy research identifies inter alia strategies and business model typologies [18,19], and explores the discourses and policies of circular economy [3,20,21]. In Québec, the discussion of circular economy advanced via the creation of a multi-stakeholder roundtable in 2015 [17]. ...
Global sustainability assessments call for a rethinking of prevailing systems of production and consumption. We focus on the circular economy as an alternative system, and the role of cooperatives as transformative actors for sustainability. While cooperatives have been studied in relation to specific circularity strategies, notably recycling, we present the first study on cooperatives in relation to all circularity strategies. We ask how circular economy strategies and business models resonate with cooperatives. The research is based on an exploratory database and survey of 165 cooperatives in the Canadian province of Québec. Our research shows circularity to be anchored in the mutualisation at the heart of the cooperative model, which emphasizes a shared taking of responsibility in response to needs. The survey shows that cooperatives contribute comprehensively to the circular economy, not just to downstream categories of recycling and revalorization but also to upstream categories of rethinking production and consumption, sharing, and durable use. They can contribute to an embedding of circular economy in regional economies and circular societies. To advance this potential, further integration and improvement of circularity strategies and associated socio-technical questions, support with business model development and finance, as well as education and peer exchange are needed.
... In this context, frameworks to guide research on the CE concept in general are being proposed [71,72], or particularised for the analysed sector of activity [73], or the level of economic activity [74], or consider certain aspects such as measuring the circularity of product families [75]. ...
The main objective of the paper is to highlight Romania’s perspectives on the transition process towards the circular economy, in respect with the tendencies registered at the level of the European Union. To this end, our methodology involved the selection of four indicators, each one being viewed as representative for one area of interest specified in the circular economy monitoring framework established by the European Commission, namely: Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption; Recycling rate of municipal waste; Circular material use rate; Gross investment in tangible goods—percentage of gross domestic product. On the basis of data series provided by the Eurostat database, our study employed a quantitative approach, by using the econometric analysis of time series. For each selected indicator, time series-specific approximation and prediction models were constructed; against this background, we were able to reveal accurate forecasts of the analysed variables, with respect to different time horizons. Detailed analysis of the data series resulting from the research proved that on the long run, there are favourable premises for improving Romania’s performance in adopting the circular economic model, on the basis of low values for the indicator “Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption”, of an ascending trend for the indicator ”Circular material use rate” and of maintaining the values of the “Gross investment in tangible goods—percentage of gross domestic product” indicator above the EU-27 average.
... Companies tend to sell waste when there is a buyer (e.g., coconut shells for making water filters), retrieve a product for making a new one (e.g., used motor oil to be re-refined), or retail goods with a lifetime warranty to gain the interest of clients. Thousands of other CE solutions are in place such as renting repairing, maintaining and upgrading equipment while remanufacturing centres and pawn/second-hand shops are spread worldwide (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2019;Morseletto, 2020a). ...
A common thread in the circular economy literature is the linear–circular contrast. This study shows that the economy has always been a mix of circular and linear applications but in varying proportions. Furthermore, the scrutiny of emblematic examples both reveals misconceptions and enriches the extant knowledge of both frameworks and their relationship. This study also explains which aspects encourage an economy to lean towards either the linear or the circular (i.e., profit, scarcity, circumstances, and business opportunities), why the economy should be circular, and which factors (e.g., redundancy, overproduction, fast consumption) prevent the systematic application of circular practices by favouring the throwaway society. The lock-ins/systemic path-dependent forces that underpin and perpetuate the linear economy are analysed together with their effects on the economic system. Finally, this study considers three pathways named ‘lessening’, ‘sharing’ and ‘valorising’ for the diffusion of circular solutions and the disarticulation of the linear-economy drivers.
... The manufacturing sector's general impression of PSS has proven a bene cial in uence on revenue [48], [99]. Even when rms are incentivised to innovate circular products to improve durability [29] so that they can stay in the cycle for as long as possible while providing e cient and productive functionality to consumers [125]. Growth (market development and market penetration) is governed by conventional characteristics (size and age) as well as contractual obligations [126], future growth opportunities (creation of circular products and extension of their lifespan via PSS) [30], innovation by utilising I4.0 technologies as a platform that leverage this transition [117], [127] and differentiated source of value depending on various motivations, such as: Table 2 Internal and External Drivers ...
This study aims to explore the role of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies with the circular economy (CE) in the shadow of a Product Service System (PSS). Integrating innovative technologies creates a circular economic system that enhances the value and legitimacy of their trade. Recently, many global industries have shifted their focus towards product-based services to perpetuate in today’s competitive market without negatively influencing environmental detrition. This is the first study to highlight how the service-centric paradigm has a significant impact on the creation of circular products, the management of their lifecycles, and their cost analysis. Additionally, this study will advance our understanding of how I4.0 technologies use waste to create sustainable energy sources rather than consuming virgin resources (normally considered a linear model). This research used the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology to analyse and categorise a literature survey of 126 research articles published over ten years (2013-2022). The analysis indicates that the early research is mostly focused on defining the key variables (CE, I4.0, and PSS) and developing various frameworks to promote eco-efficient services and/or sustainable development using I4.0 technologies and is engineering focused. It is established that two propositions leverage CE; the first one is value co-creation, which enhances perceived value. In contrast, the other one is related to the application of data-driven platforms using I4.0 technologies for sculpting the strategy and other decision support. There need to be more studies analysing CE, I4.0, and PSS. Therefore, this study has analysed the suitability of the theoretical propositions regarding the impact of applying I4.0 technologies with CE and PSS towards this paradigm shift.
... The literature studies also confirm the usefulness of this conceptualisation of the CBM construct. In the study by Lüdeke-Freund et al. [17], six different types of CBMs have been identified which support resource flows (referred to as "major CBM patterns"); these are: repair and maintenance; reuse and redistribution; refurbishment and remanufacturing; recycling; cascading and repurposing; and organic feedstock. A review of current circular practices in the vehicle industry in the EU reveals that several manufacturers implement CE strategies, focusing on CBMs for LIBs (lithium-ion batteries), and these are: intensify use; repair; refurbish; remanufacture; repurpose; and recycling [18]. ...
The growing environmental problems associated with the dumping of large amounts of textile waste and the demand for circular products are prompting textile waste recycling enterprises to develop circular business models (CBMs). This implies a radical change in the way some enterprises operate to obtain growth. Considering the importance of the drivers of and barriers for the adoption and implementation of CBMs in the textile recycling sector, it is claimed that the comprehension of these factors to CBMs is limited and deserves more attention in empirical research. Therefore, our research investigates the antecedents of circular business models in the textile recycling sector by highlighting influencing factors. The aim of the article is to explore the main enhancing and inhibiting factors in the development of circular business models on the example of a large enterprise operating for 30 years in the textile recycling sector. In this study, a case study design of mixed methods, including semi-structured interviews with a business practitioner and the data presented on the websites of the surveyed enterprise, is used. The results suggest that main enhancing factors are relevant regulations at the European level, appropriate technologies and digitisation, and increasing social and environmental awareness of consumers and managerial capabilities. However, inhibiting factors are supply chain complexity and supply chain collaboration in connection with a large scale of business in crisis situations, a large scope and range of geographic diversification of outlets in the perspective of the consequences of the information gap, and readiness to take the so-called “being the first in the market” risk. In practice, this means that general drivers of the CBMs may facilitate the reuse of second-hand clothing and recycling of textiles for other new products as the primary CE action. On the other hand, enterprises have to overcome a number of technological barriers, and in the case of the textile recycling sector, it is necessary to understand which barriers they face to take appropriate actions. Research findings indicate factors that may be the subject of intervention or support of managers or policymakers. This study has practical implications and suggests future study paths.
Purpose
A rapid increase in traditional industries is creating social and environmental problems through extensive usage of natural resources and polluting the environment. A circular economy provides curative and renewing lines of action about these problems. Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors that lead toward sustainable performance in a circular economy context and empirically test the relationships between green technology adoption (GTA), circular economy principles (CEP), sustainable supply chain practices (SSCM) and sustainable performance (SP).
Design/methodology/approach
Using the well-developed governmental databases, data from 435 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the textile sector of Pakistan were collected and tested through AMOS using a structural equation model.
Findings
The results disclosed that GTA, CEP and SSCM have significant and positive direct relationships and facilitate improving SMEs’ SP. Circular economy entrepreneurship (CEE) and customer pressure (CP) were found to have a significant and positive influence on the relationships of GTA and CEP with SSCM.
Originality/value
The role of GTA in circular economy and the moderating effect of CEE and CP is an addition to the literature. SMEs’ GTA allows them to reuse, reduce and recycle natural resources rather than obtain new ones from the ecosystem.
Circular business models operate differently from traditional linear models: by developing products designed for disassembly, reuse, and recycling; by using materials and products for as long as possible; and by replacing physical products with virtual ones, they aim to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and facilitate the creation of a more sustainable future. In this article, the framework for circular business models is discussed from two perspectives: first, a systematic literature review is conducted to explore the academic point of view; second, a comparative policy review is conducted to analyze the past, present, and future visions of Germany and Japan in relation to their circular transition, particularly with regard to each country’s vision of circular business models. A first outcome is a synthesis of current circular business model archetypes and the developed circular business model matrix, which adds value to the literature by providing information on circular goals, strategies, the actors involved, and the social and political implications of each circular business model typology. A second outcome is a comparative, in-depth analysis of the current policy frameworks and strategies for circular business models in Germany and Japan. This article outlines the main ways in which both countries are currently making the transition to a circular economy, providing an important knowledge base for further development.
The transition to a circular economy requires accounting for all resource streams in the economy to facilitate the maintenance of these resources at their highest value and utility for as long as possible. In this paper, we investigate the role of resource accounting tools and practices in driving the transition to a circular economy by measuring resource streams and taking measures to promote circularity in those resource streams. In particular, we focus on (1) the role of digitalised resource accounting systems in enabling the identification and reporting of resource streams, and (2) the effect of using such information to incentivize household recycling behavior to promote more circularity in resource streams. Our empirical setting is the development of a digitalised waste management system in Western Norway. Our research design has three empirical pillars: qualitative interviews of managers in the industry, historical data analyses of waste generation and recycling, and two illustrative large-scale natural quasi-experiments on more than 170,000 households' recycling behavior. Our study illuminates the development of the resource accounting system and demonstrates the effect of using resource accounting information to incentivize households' recycling behavior through experimentation with a “pay-as-you-throw” (PAYT) system. Our findings show the manner in which the resource accounting system enabled measurement of resource streams and the use of that resource information to promote circularity among households. Furthermore, our experiments reveal the effectiveness of using resource accounting data for incentivizing recycling behavior. Thus, our study illuminates the role of accounting in the transition to a circular economy.
The circular economy and low-carbon economy are closely interconnected as pillars of global sustainable development. However, no consensus exists on how to maximize the carbon reduction benefits of circular practices. This paper illustrates the nexus and identifies synergy paths between low-carbon actions and circular practices via a systematic and critical review. Results show that the mutual promotion relationship is the most studied in the existing literature (63.48%), followed by the parallel status (38.20%) and the trade-offs (3.37%). To enhance synergy mechanisms such as urban-industrial symbiosis and critical raw material cycles, challenges related to cost/risk reduction, urban/industrial planning and inter-system barriers should be addressed. Potential trade-offs arise mainly from carbon-intensive electricity, circular economy rebound and raw material scarcity, requiring a comprehensive consideration of the territorial energy supply structure and circular economy chains. Fiscal and informational interventions from the government, and the technological and business innovations they foster, are the shared drivers. Low-carbon actions and circular practices work together to serve the sustainable development of entities under various scales and dimensions. Three principles are proposed for decision-makers to maximize synergies and minimize trade-offs: (1) prioritize non-end-of-life strategies to meet the surging demand for critical raw materials in the short term, (2) adjust the mix of circular practices following the pace of low-carbon energy transition, and (3) implement more bio-projects that contribute to a win-win situation for the transition to renewable energy and integrated bio-waste management. Briefly, circular practices reduce carbon emissions more effectively when tailored to local and immediate conditions. Future research should focus more on the time-varying features of different circular practices, factors behind household and individual behaviors, and social sustainability.
Circular models have been widely criticised for their lack of social considerations due to a greater focus on environmental and ecological sustainability through recyclability or reusability of products. This view is reinforced by the models and frameworks that exist for the adoption of circularity in existing business models, typically showing a closed loop principle for an existing product value chain and usually relating to circular reformation from a linear to a circular model. Although these models do little to articulate the sustainable trifactor of financial, environmental and social sustainability, circular models can be developed and built around greater social inclusion if a ‘Separated Business Model Canvas Approach’ is used when analysing existing models and/or developing new circular models. This chapter covers a brief literature review of social sustainability in circular model adoption, addressing some of the factors contributing to social exclusion and also reviewing some of the solutions for social inclusion. This chapter offers an alternative framework addressing the social sustainability aspects of circular modelling and concludes with a case study example where the framework is applied to an existing business to help identify the social elements of the circular model.KeywordsSocial sustainabilityCircular modelsSocial inclusionSustainability trifactorBusiness Model CanvasSeparated Business Model Canvas Approach
Similar to the rest of Africa, outdoor open-air markets in Kenya are the main outlets for food commodities flow serving over 90% of the population. These markets are not only critical for access to nutritious food but also shape the national economy through trade. Circular economy solutions are timely in solving some of the pertinent issues that open-air food markets face. The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) is collaborating with partners including market players, county and national governments, academia, and service providers to implement a project on “Establishment of Smart Food Markets for the Future in Kenya” project in partnership Rockefeller Foundation. The solutions proposed through this project and discussed through this chapter include, but not limited to, waste management through recycling and reuse for farming black soldier flies for insect-based feeds and organic manure for farming foods to be sold back in the markets, thus completing the cycle. Markets are live structures with multiple dynamic social interactions that need multistakeholder engagement to propose, implement, and sustain reforms. Hence, this chapter highlights the role that partnerships could play to enable the implementation of circular solutions at the market level. A detailed and empirical multi-case study method has been applied to write this chapter. An in-depth literature review has been conducted to quantify gaps and a comprehensive stakeholder analysis undertaken to determine their collaboration for the realization of circular smart food markets.KeywordsCircular economy solutionsSmart food marketsSocial benefitsPartnerships
The circular economy (CE) is one of the most important themes related to sustainability nowadays. This book discusses the social dimension perspective of the CE from the conceptual and empirical perspectives with different researches. The chapters presented in this book include distinct researches, authors, and perspectives from different countries and locations, and they have been written in collaboration with numerous authors per chapter. Another important highlight is that the chapters and researches explore CE practices and also reflect the contribution toward UN SDGs. The contribution of the book is associated with the fact that social aspects are receiving closer attention in recent years, with several studies specifically focusing on the topic. So this can be considered as a hot topic. Therefore, we perform analyses from different perspectives, such as how to make the CE socially sustainable or how CE needs less environmental protection, or if CE needs to be nested, or even, what is the real contribution of the farming processes. By discussing all these perspectives in different chapters, we hope to contribute to this important issue.KeywordsCircular economySocial dimensionSustainabilityUN SDGsCE step forwardCE step back
Plastic pollution is one of the most severe environmental and human health threats. Based on a linear model, our current economic system uses plastics as a primary resource to make products such as plastic bags and bottles. However, these products are not recycled into secondary resources. Instead, they are thrown away when they become unusable. In contrast, the circular economy considers plastic waste as an opportunity to create social, economic and environmental value. This model uses plastic waste as a raw material to produce new items. This research demonstrates that the circular economy contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 17 using the results of action and observatory research within the PlastiCity project. As part of PlastiCity, partners developed new products made from recycled plastic such as recycled face shields. This chapter describes our efforts in developing a business case for recycled face shields and deploying the PlastiCity ecosystem to improve collaboration and partnerships. This study suggests that the development of an ecosystem can facilitate collaboration between stakeholders in the plastic value chain and hence contribute to implementing circular business models. This research also demonstrates how the circular economy can respond rapidly to health-related societal challenges, such as the unavailability of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.KeywordsPlastiCityPlasticPollutionWaste
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Goal 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions can drive positive environmental, social, and economic changes in sub-Saharan Africa while transforming informal sectors. Peer-reviewed English language publications on Google Scholar were explored based on a systematic literature review using loop analysis modelling, mapping out currently underdeveloped gaps such as the intersection of circular economy and the ASM sector in African countries. By identifying the significance of circular economy adoption within the realm of sub-Saharan Africa, which is rightly rich in quarried natural resources, this chapter laid the groundwork for the significance of strong institutions for the adoption of a circular approach and environmental management. Thereby, the problem of mining waste was highlighted, and the state of institutions was identified as the main facilitator of a circular economy for the ASM sector. Countries with institutional voids, weak policies, and marginal international collaboration are instructed by this chapter to carry out formalization that can enable stakeholder participation as well as institutional and policy changes, which support targets and indicators of SDG16. Given the blurred margins of functioning systems in emerging economies such as the case of developing sub-Saharan African countries, often the indicators for implementation, monitoring, and distribution data may be inadequate. Therefore, stronger regard for further research is encouraged to target more refined versions of clearer circular economy approaches, which would offer clearer and supportive adoption guidelines, i.e., easier to implement in poor or informal communities. The chapter is aligned with the need of formalizing the ASM sector toward efficiency and the decarbonization of the global economy at all levels of production, starting with the sourcing of raw materials – “mining.”KeywordsSDG16Strong institutionsCircular economyASM
Product returns in retail are inherently wasteful and have considerable negative environmental impacts. Besides the monetary costs, they lead to increased transportation, packaging and processing, and the returned items are often discarded. We present strategies and practices retailers can adopt to manage their product returns in a way that reduces environmental impacts. With eCommerce flourishing, product returns have increased significantly. Whilst highest for online sales, they are a challenge across all channels. The importance of developing sustainability management in operations and supply chains is evident from the growing body of literature, but there is a gap regarding the management of product returns in a more environmentally sustainable manner. To address this gap, we interviewed multichannel retailers, retail experts and return service providers operating in the UK and North America. The findings reveal that although retailers have started paying attention to the financial impact of returns, there is little awareness of the scale of environmental impacts. In addition, retailers lack a comprehensive approach to addressing the environmental impact of product returns. Based on our findings, we (1) unpack the barriers inhibiting retailers from developing environmental sustainability plans in returns management, (2) present a set of strategies for retailers to reduce the environmental impact of returns and (3) develop a framework for environmental sustainability in returns management. Our findings and proposed framework have implications for research and practice on addressing the environmental impact of product returns.
Among the various proposed models for practically developing a circular economy system, industrial symbiosis (IS) is one of the most promising. This paper aims at better understanding the extent to which regional industrial symbiosis practices have been internalized in companies and, second, at identifying the most important barriers that impede a company from the adoption of such practices at regional level. The research is grounded on original data collected using a questionnaire. The results allowed the division of firms into four clusters corresponding to different levels of adoption: (i) the perfectly symbiont companies that undertake all the proposed industrial symbiosis practices; (ii) the non-adopters that are low in terms of IS activities; (iii) the resource savers that focus on the use of by-products or waste from other companies; and the (iv) outbound activity optimizers that concentrate on the sale of their by-products and waste to other companies. Moreover, the results contributed to the identification of regulatory constraints and high investment costs and difficulties in finding financing as significant causes that hinder companies in the adoption of regional industrial symbiosis practices, while networking and logistic barriers appear not to be relevant. To overcome these barriers and to promote the adoption of IS at regional level, supporting the transition towards the circular paradigm, several political and managerial suggestions are proposed.
African economies are home to grand societal and environmental challenges, and social enterprises in these contexts typically play a key role to address UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. In fact, social enterprises in African countries are actively involved in the achievement of SDGs by combining in the same organizations social, environmental, and economic missions and processes. Recently, scholars acknowledged the relevance of Circular Economy (CE) practices for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, this chapter focuses on East African countries (meaning Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). In these countries, the highest levels of rural-to-urban shift of any continent in the world, together with context-related challenges such as weak institutions, lack of financial support, low access to technology, and a lack of education and technical skills, give rise to severe social and environmental problems. Gathering the extant but fragmented knowledge on circular economy in East African social enterprises, this chapter aims at illustrating the tensions and barriers that jeopardize social enterprises’ ability to implement circular strategies. Further, the chapter reveals the enabling factors of social enterprises adopting circular strategies recognizing a leading role of local community, business incubators, and informal sector. Finally, this chapter examines the outcomes of circular strategies, in the form of an active contribution toward sustainable development as well as negative tensions which are generated between social enterprises and stakeholders.
Electronic waste (e-waste) is gaining the attention of scholars since its supply chain offers valuable materials that can be recovered, generating resilience to supply chains and the environment. To recover these materials, it is necessary to establish closed-loop supply chains, enabling a circular economy logic. In this sense, supply chain flows must be designed to retrieve these values and mitigate the risks. Furthermore, collection points must be strategically positioned to make this operation feasible, integrating the concept of smart cities. Therefore, this article proposes a conceptual analysis of the literature and, as its main result, presents an integrated framework considering five dimensions: (i) E-waste management, (ii) Supply Chain Resilience—SCRes, (iii) Circular Economy, (iv) Closed-loop supply chains, and (v) Smart cities.
KeywordsE-Waste managementSupply chain resilienceCircular economyClosed-loop supply chainsSmart cities
E-waste management is becoming a very challenging subject since it is very multidisciplinary, encompassing concepts such as circular economy, closed-loop supply chains, supply chain risk management, and supply chain resilience. These pillars must be strongly supported by a huge amount of quality data, therefore, opening an important interface with the concept of smart cities. Among the main challenges, is the need to motivate the customers to collaborate, creating a culture of reusing and recycling end-of-life products. In addition, it is crucial to develop reverse recycling channels suitable to each client and enabled by an effective logistics network design. Despite the relevance of this topic, many significant gaps can be pointed out, since there are still few relevant papers. Thus, there is a substantial necessity of understanding what have been done by scholars to establish the state of the art. In this sense, this paper has the objective of mapping the state of the art of e-waste management through a bibliometric study. Among the main results, we highlight the mapping of the state of the art composed of the literature statistics.
The transition toward a circular economy (CE) implies the introduction of innovative practices at the firm level. Nevertheless, an important question is under discussion: What are the consequences of these practices on firm performance? Using a survey approach, this article analyzes the effect of CE practices related to product design on economic and environmental performance: life cycle assessment (LCA), product upgradability, and design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling in a sample of 300 firms. Our findings show that, although most of the companies are carrying out some eco‐innovation (innovations aimed to reduce the environmental damage of their activity), only process eco‐innovations new to the market improve economic performance but not environmental performance. However, LCA is a tool for implementing CE principles, helping to improve both. Eco‐design is positively associated with economic performance. The results provide managers and policy makers new insights on the long road to achieving this transition.
This article analyzes how the circularity of resources occurs in Brazilian craft breweries supported by innovation and proposes the creation of alternative craft breweries to promote circular economy. Data were collected through 11 interviews with entrepreneurs in the craft brewery segment, checklist application, and access to the website of the cases investigated. Our results expand the relationship with innovation suggesting that: a) the circularity of resources is still focused on several long-cycle practices; b) short cycles, which are the most desired for the retention of resource value in the production chain, are already present, but demand more attention from the enterprises surveyed; c) innovation practices can become barriers to or drivers for the feasibility of circular economy in the beer context; d) technical cycles are consolidated in most of the researched cases, while biological cycles still demand greater engagement from all stakeholders; e) the nature and content of circular practices imply different adoption stages in the cases investigated; f) companies invest in strengthening the relationship with consumers and suppliers in order to obtain support for current circular strategies in their ventures.
1)Proposes a novel theory for sustainable circular transformation by integrating the two concepts of sustainable development and circular economy
2) The novel theory strengthens and advances existing SD and CE frames to catalyze sustainable circular transformation
3) Systems model identifies 12 characteristics that stimulate transformation towards sustainable circular society, business and economy
4) Novel theory advances sustainability and circularity, fosters strategic decision making, design, prediction and assessment
In order for project management field to become more sustainable, project managers need to start paying more attention to well-being of team members. Strict deadlines, work overload and work-related stress can lead to poor work-life balance and prevent some social groups from job advancement leading to weakened well-being and poor performance. This study intents to explore interventions employed in project setting with the aim of establishing good work-life balance and ensuring equal opportunity for team members. Specifically, study looks into project manager’s practices and behaviors in order to understand his or her role in achieving sustainable workplace for project team. In order to fulfill the objectives of the paper, literature review was conducted. Findings show that in order to improve good work-life balance and ensure equality, project managers need to first and foremost tackle the “long hours” culture of project management that equals presenteeism to commitment and good results. Secondly, research shows that team members are highly appreciative of work-life interventions like longer weekends, educations and longer pauses after intense periods but the crucial factor in success of such initiatives is the support from project managers who need to be flexible and establish good work-life balance themselves to prove that such behavior is acceptable. Thirdly, project managers need to ensure transparency and fairness in decision-making regarding project appointments and ensure that opportunities are not filtered through the image of ideal project worker that still appears to be “young man fully dedicated to his job”. Study concludes that satisfying team members’ needs for good work- life balance and equality is both socially responsible and leads to greater project success.
Human activity is increasingly impacting the environment negatively on all scales. There is an urgent need to transform human activity towards sustainable development. Business has a key role to play in this sustainability transition through technological, product/service and process innovations, and innovative business models. Business models can enable new technologies and vice versa and are therefore important in the sustainability transition. A business model for sustainability, or synonymously, sustainable business model, takes a holistic view on how business is done in relation to its stakeholders, including the society and the natural environment. They incorporate economic, environmental, and social aspects in an organisation’s purpose and performance measures; consider the needs of all stakeholders rather than giving priority to owner and shareholder expectations; treat ‘nature’ as a stakeholder; and take a system, as well as a firm-level perspective on the way business is done. The research field of sustainable business models emerged from fields such as service business models, green and social business models, and concepts such as the sharing and circular economy. Academics have argued that the most service-oriented business models can achieve a ‘factor 10’ environmental impact improvement, if designed the right way.
Researchers have developed various conceptualisations, typologies, tools and methods and reviews on sustainable business models. However, sustainable business models are not yet mainstream. Important research areas include: (1) tools, methods, and experimentation, (2) the assessment of sustainability impact and rebounds for different stakeholders, (3) sufficiency and degrowth, and (4) the twin revolution of the sustainability and digital transition. First, a plethora of tools and approaches are available for inspiration and sustainable business model design. Second, in the field of assessment, methods have been based on life cycle thinking considering the supply chain, how a product is (re)used, and eventually disposed of. In the field of sufficiency, authors have recognised the importance of moderating consumption through innovative business models to reduce the total need for products, reducing the impact on the environment. Finally, researchers have started to investigate the important interplay between sustainability and digitalisation. Because of the potential to achieve a ‘factor 10’ environmental impact improvement, sustainable business models are an important source of inspiration for further work. This includes the upscaling of sustainable business models in established business and in new ventures. Understanding how to design better business models, and pre-empting their usage in practice, are essential to achieve the desired positive impact. In the field of sufficiency, the macro-impacts of individual and business behaviour would need to be better understood. In the area of digital innovation, the environmental, societal and economic value need scrutinization.
Researchers and practitioners can leverage the popularity of this field by addressing these important areas to support the development and roll-out of sustainable business models with significantly improved economic, environmental, and societal impact.
Circular economy (CE) implementation requires the transition from linear business models (BMs) to circular ones, with related uncertainties and multi-disciplinary risks, which often discourage organisations. However, there is still a lack of understanding of risks associated with this process. This work thus aims to identify, classify and prioritise key risk factors for innovative circular BMs in order to enable the development of appropriate risk management strategies.
A fuzzy Delphi method was tailored to assess the risk factors obtained from the literature and was applied to the industrial case of composite materials. 24 major risk factors for innovative circular BMs were identified and classified into six categories. The probability and impact of the risk factors were evaluated by experts and the risk factors were then ranked by calculating their risk scores. The resultant major risks appeared to be related to the external context in which organisations operate. Among those risks, the greatest were those generated by take-back systems and low customers’ acceptance of CE products.
This research is the first to address risks for circularity in a structured way and contributes to the field of CE by providing an extensive list and classification of risk factors for innovative circular BMs as they are perceived by industry, acting as a reference for academics and practitioners. Furthermore, it provides the first evaluation and prioritisation of risk factors within the CE domain, highlighting critical risks within the specific industrial context of composite materials and suggesting action priorities for the establishment of circular BMs.
The literature on sustainable business models (SBMs) offers different classifications of the available kinds of SBM. Our careful reading of this literature reveals that the received classifications have developed ad-hoc from multiple divergent perspectives. As a consequence, the proposed classifications are only partly overlapping and difficult to reconcile, thus hampering cumulative progress. Building on this premise, we offer a synthesis and consolidation of the available knowledge about SBMs. Following the notion of patterns as problem–solution combinations, we developed, tested, and applied a new multi-method and multi-step approach centred on an expert review process that combines literature review, Delphi survey, and physical card sorting to identify and validate the currently existing SBM patterns. Ten international experts participated in this process. They classified 45 SBM patterns, assigned these patterns to 11 groups along ecological, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability and evaluated their potential to contribute to value creation. The resulting taxonomy can serve as a basis for more unified and comparable studies of SBMs and for new business model tools that can be used in various disciplines and industries to analyse and develop sustainability-oriented business models in a consistent manner.
This article reflects on the current state of the dynamically growing research and practice related to sustainable business models (SBMs), motivated by the question of whether dealing with SBMs is just a passing fancy or an emerging field, maybe even a field in its own right. We follow Ehrenfeld (2004), who asked a similar question for the field of industrial ecology in this journal, and reflect on the major beliefs and concepts underpinning SBM research and practice, tools and resources, authorities and the related community of actors. These elements are considered characteristics of a field and must be institutionalised in academia, industry and government for a field to emerge and progress. We therefore also identify some institutionalisation tendencies. As a result, we conclude that SBM research and practice show traits of an emerging field. It is however too early to foresee if it will develop as a sub-field within already established domains (“sub-field hypothesis”) or as a stand-alone field (“stand-alone hypothesis”). We argue that the sub-field and the stand-alone positioning may hamper the unfolding of the field's full potential. Instead, we propose that the SBM field needs to assume the role of an integrative field to break existing academic niches and silos and maximise practical impact (“integration hypothesis”). Our observations indicate that the SBM field is indeed developing into an integrative field and force. But we need to better understand and strengthen this development, for example by crafting a dedicated SBM research programme. A series of critical reviews could be a starting point for such an endeavour.
The purpose of this research project is to consolidate the currently available knowledge about business model patterns that have the potential to support solutions to ecological and social problems, such as greener products, new mobility systems, or social enterprises. This consolidation will lead to a new pattern taxonomy that can be used to support sustainable business model innovation and sustainability innovations. In recent years, the value of using patterns to support business model development has been increasingly recognized and discussed in both research and practice. Already in Business Model Generation, Osterwalder and Pigneur describe five business model patterns using the Business Model Canvas in an attempt to create a shared language similar to Alexander’s pattern language. The use of patterns for sustainable business models is yet to be explored. This project intends to help close this gap. To identify such patterns the first step was to review 14 studies proposing a total of 102 potential SBM patterns. By deleting doublets and candidates that did not fully qualify as patterns in the sense of contextualised problem-solution combinations, we systematically identified a reduced set of 45 patterns ranging from eco-designed products and processes to social freemium models. In the second step, we used Alexander’s pattern template to describe these business model patterns in a consistent way. The third step involved a Delphi survey combined with a physical card-sorting method to arrange the 45 patterns in consistent and meaningful groups. Based on this expert consensus, we will set up the final SBM pattern taxonomy.
Eco-efficient Value Creation is a method to analyse innovative product and service design together with circular business strategies. The method is based on combined analyses of the costs, market value (perceived customer value) and eco-costs. This provides a prevention-based single indicator for ‘external environmental costs’ in LCA. The remanufacturing of products is an environmental and sustainable approach, in the circular economy, and can deliver lower eco-costs of materials depletion and pollution. From a business point of view, however, remanufacturing seems to be viable in B2B niche markets only. In consumer markets, remanufacturing is less common. The question is how can remanufacturing become a viable business solution for mainstream consumer markets. Traditional ‘green’ marketing approaches are not enough: green has a positive, but also negative connotations, so marketing approaches are complex. By using the Eco-efficient Value Creation method, marketing strategies for the roll-out of remanufacturing in mainstream consumer markets, can be revealed. This approach has led to the development of five aspects, which are key to innovative circular business models, for remanufacturing: (1) buyers differ from the buyers of the ‘new product’ (2) quality must be emphasised in all communications (3) risk must be taken away from the buyer (4) top level service is required to convince the buyer (5) a ‘green’ brand may support the remanufactured product image.
The purpose of this research project is to consolidate the currently available knowledge about business model patterns that have the potential to support solutions to ecological and social problems, such as greener products, new mobility systems, or social enterprises. This consolidation will lead to a new pattern taxonomy that can be used to support sustainable business model innovation and sustainability innovations. In recent years, the value of using patterns to support business model development has been increasingly recognized and discussed in both research and practice. Already in Business Model Generation, Osterwalder and Pigneur describe five business model patterns using the Business Model Canvas in an attempt to create a shared language similar to Alexander’s pattern language. The use of patterns for sustainable business models is yet to be explored. This project intends to help close this gap. To identify such patterns the first step was to review 14 studies proposing a total of 102 potential SBM patterns. By deleting doublets and candidates that did not fully qualify as patterns in the sense of contextualised problem-solution combinations, we systematically identified a reduced set of 45 patterns ranging from eco-designed products and processes to social freemium models. In the second step, we used Alexander’s pattern template to describe these business model patterns in a consistent way. The third step involved a Delphi survey combined with a physical card-sorting method to arrange the 45 patterns in consistent and meaningful groups. Based on this expert consensus, we will set up the final SBM pattern taxonomy.
Significance
The strong focus on species extinctions, a critical aspect of the contemporary pulse of biological extinction, leads to a common misimpression that Earth’s biota is not immediately threatened, just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss. This view overlooks the current trends of population declines and extinctions. Using a sample of 27,600 terrestrial vertebrate species, and a more detailed analysis of 177 mammal species, we show the extremely high degree of population decay in vertebrates, even in common “species of low concern.” Dwindling population sizes and range shrinkages amount to a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization. This “biological annihilation” underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction event.
There are two axioms that have shaped the degrowth discussion, namely one on the reduction of production and consumption and one on the necessity of value and attitude change in society to respect environmental limits. Surprisingly little research has focused on the role of technology in connection to value change, consumption behavior and degrowth. This gap is linked to a widely held assumption of technological innovation acting opposed to degrowth.
In contrast, this paper suggests that technological innovation needs to be connected to degrowth. The fast evolution of information and communication technologies in recent years mirrors their growing importance for the global civil society, yet without adequately accounting for the scope of sustainability challenges connected to these technologies, and smartphones in particular. This paper argues that a degrowth movement going hand in hand with technological development is only possible if sustainable alternatives for highly demanded communication technology products are offered.
Specifically, this study draws on lifestyle movements as the nexus between consumption, degrowth and technology. Three core concepts are found to influence the attendance to degrowth-related consumer movements: a sustainable lifestyle, alternative forms of consumption and social commitment, all of which are assumed to have a positive effect. Empirically, this paper draws on the case of Fairphone, a company that applies sustainable characteristics to a smartphone. Data were collected in a survey via online fora of Fairphone from November 4-29, 2015 and analyzed using a structural equation modeling with partial least squares. Results point to a sustainable lifestyle as the dominant factor explaining the involvement with the Fairphone. Surprisingly, the findings show that alternative consumption seems to negatively influence the involvement with Fairphone and social commitment seems to play only a minor role in the model. In other words, findings suggest that Fairphone represents a technical artifact, centered on a choice for a sustainable lifestyle, but has not become a symbol of alternative consumption and the degrowth movement. Future research needs to clarify the relationship of alternative consumption and degrowth related movements beyond this specific case. Furthermore, future studies need to delve deeper into
lifestyle decisions as a leverage point towards degrowth and the potential of lifestyles understood as a from of activism to change contemporary society.
The idea of a circular economy (CE) has become prominent in both European and Chinese policy making. Chinese and European perspectives on a CE share a common conceptual basis and exhibit many similar concerns in seeking to enhance resource efficiency. Yet they also differ, and this article explores differences in the focus of CE policy in China and Europe. We present evidence on the differing understandings of the CE concept in Chinese and European policy discourse, drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis of policy documents, media articles, and academic publications. We show that the Chinese perspective on the CE is broad, incorporating pollution and other issues alongside waste and resource concerns, and it is framed as a response to the environmental challenges created by rapid growth and industrialization. In contrast, Europe's conception of the CE has a narrower environmental scope, focusing more narrowly on waste and resources and opportunities for business. We then examine similarities and differences in the focus of policy activity in the two regions and in the indicators used to measure progress. We show differences in the treatment of issues of scale and place and different priorities across value chains (from design to manufacture, consumption, and waste management). We suggest some reasons for the divergent policy articulation of the CE concept and suggest lessons that each region can learn from the other.
The sudden rise of the sharing economy has sparked an intense public debate about its definition, its effects and its future regulation. Here, I attempt to provide analytical guidance by defining the sharing economy as the practice that consumers grant each other temporary access to their under-utilized physical assets. Using this definition, the rise of the sharing economy can be understood as occurring at the intersection of three salient economic trends: peer-to-peer exchange, access over ownership and circular business models. I shortly discuss some of the environmental impacts of online sharing platforms and then articulate three possible futures of the sharing economy: a capitalist future cumulating in monopolistic super-platforms allowing for seamless services, a state-led future that shifts taxation from labour to capital and redistributes the gains of sharing from winners to losers, and a citizen-led future based on cooperatively owned platforms under democratic control. The nature and size of the social and environmental impacts are expected to differ greatly in each of the three scenarios.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.
Contamination poses a significant problem to the circular economy, which derives much of its value from maintaining pure material flows. The aim of this paper is to frame contaminated interaction among other forms of contamination and investigate its effects on the circular economy. The research is based on a review of the contamination literature and case studies. We differentiate between three types of contamination influencing circular material flows: technical, which deals with fitness for use; systemic, which deals with efficiency in processing; and interaction, which deals with user-object interaction and decision making. Our focus is on developing a foundational understanding of contaminated interaction and how it influences circular processes. Through multiple examples, contaminated interaction is shown to create three barriers to the circular economy: downcycling, disposal and hindered circulation. Among other proposals to address contaminated interaction, the research calls for the development of experientially transferrable design—products that can move between users and uses without negative consequences.
Companies are more frequently seen shifting their focus from technological innovation towards business model innovation. One efficient option for business model innovation is to learn from existing solutions, i.e., business model patterns. However, the various understandings of the business model pattern concept are often confusing and contradictory, with the available collections incomplete, overlapping, and inconsistently structured. Therefore, the rich body of literature on business model patterns has not yet reached its full potential for both practical application as well as theoretic advancement. To help remedy this, we conduct an exhaustive review, filter for duplicates, and structure the patterns along several dimensions by applying a rigorous taxonomy-building approach. The resulting business model pattern database allows for navigation to the relevant set of patterns for a specific impact on a company's business model. It can be used for systematic business model innovation, which we illustrate via a simplified case study.
The so-called circular economy—the concept of closing material loops to preserve products, parts, and materials in the industrial system and extract their maximum utility—has recently started gaining momentum. The idea of substituting lower-impact secondary production for environmentally intensive primary production gives the circular economy a strong intuitive environmental appeal. However, proponents of the circular economy have tended to look at the world purely as an engineering system and have overlooked the economic part of the circular economy. Recent research has started to question the core of the circular economy—namely, whether closing material and product loops does, in fact, prevent primary production. In this article, we argue that circular economy activities can increase overall production, which can partially or fully offset their benefits. Because there is a strong parallel in this respect to energy efficiency rebound, we have termed this effect “circular economy rebound.” Circular economy rebound occurs when circular economy activities, which have lower per-unit-production impacts, also cause increased levels of production, reducing their benefit. We describe the mechanisms that cause circular economy rebound, which include the limited ability of secondary products to substitute for primary products, and price effects. We then offer some potential strategies for avoiding circular economy rebound. However, these strategies are unlikely to be attractive to for-profit firms, so we caution that simply encouraging private firms to find profitable opportunities in the circular economy is likely to cause rebound and lower or eliminate the potential environmental benefits.
New business models can make an important contribution to the transition to green growth. While some new business models involve large firms, others are small start-up firms that seek to exploit technological or commercial opportunities that have been neglected or not yet explored by more established firms. New firms tend to engage in more radical innovation than existing firms, and scaling up new business models can therefore help reduce environmental pollution, optimise the use of natural resources, increase productivity and energy efficiency, and provide a new source of economic growth. Although the market for green goods and services is growing, the development of new business models is affected by a range of barriers, many of which can be addressed by well-designed policies. Key areas for policy action include:
Strengthening market demand for green products and services by providing long-term and stable
incentives for firms to internalise the environment and natural resources in their decision making,
including through a well-designed regulatory framework and supportive demand-side policies.
Enhancing access to financing, including risk capital, by supporting market development for risk
financing and the development of entrepreneurial skills.
Removing perverse subsidies support for existing business models and incumbent firms, such as
energy subsidies; reducing the barriers to entry, exit and growth of new firms and business
models; and improving the regulatory environment for start-up firms and new business models.
Reducing the costs of intellectual property rights, in particular for small and start-up firms.
Supporting skills development, including for existing workers.
Supporting R&D and innovation, including testing, demonstration and verification.
Improving governance, to ensure that national and regional policies for green growth are well
aligned.
While the terms Circular Economy and sustainability are increasingly gaining traction with academia, industry, and policymakers, the similarities and differences between both concepts remain ambiguous. The relationship between the concepts is not made explicit in literature, which is blurring their conceptual contours and constrains the efficacy of using the approaches in research and practice. This research addresses this gap and aims to provide conceptual clarity by distinguishing the terms and synthesising the different types of relationships between them. We conducted an extensive literature review, employing bibliometric analysis and snowballing techniques to investigate the state of the art in the field and synthesise the similarities, differences and relationships between both terms. We identified eight different relationship types in the literature and illustrated the most evident similarities and differences between both concepts.
A material flow analysis of the 2012 Swiss waste management system is presented, highlighting the material content available from waste. Half of municipal solid waste (MSW) is materially recycled and the other half thermally treated with energy recovery. A key component of an industrial ecosystem is increasing the resource efficiency through circulating materials. Recycling rates (RRs), an indicator for the circulating behavior of materials, are often used as measure for the degree of circularity of an economy. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the recycling of paper, cardboard, aluminum, tinplate, glass, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from MSW in Switzerland by splitting the RRs into closed- and open-loop collection rate (CR) and RRs. Whereas CR refers to collected material that enters the recycling process, RRs measure the available secondary resources produced from recycling processes. For PET, the closed-loop CR of 45% and the open-loop CR of 40% compare to an RR of 31% and 37%, respectively (including exports and recycling of polyethylene and metals from collection). Official collection rates for paper and cardboard are very high (97%), whereas CR of 74% and 89% and RR of 59% and 81% for paper and cardboard, respectively, were found in the present study (including export). For a majority of the separately collected materials investigated, the rates that are determined are substantially lower than those that are officially communicated. Furthermore, given that official rates often do not provide information on the availability of secondary materials, the improvement potential for increased resource recovery is hidden.
The transition within business from a linear to a circular economy brings with it a range of practical challenges for companies. The following question is addressed: What are the product design and business model strategies for companies that want to move to a circular economy model? This paper develops a framework of strategies to guide designers and business strategists in the move from a linear to a circular economy. Building on Stahel, the terminology of slowing, closing, and narrowing resource loops is introduced. A list of product design strategies, business model strategies, and examples for key decision-makers in businesses is introduced, to facilitate the move to a circular economy. This framework also opens up a future research agenda for the circular economy.
The aim of this paper is to investigate consumer behavior regarding the environment and the adoption of new patterns of behavior and responsible consumption in the promotion of a Circular Economy (CE) in Romania. With this goal in mind, a questionnaire survey was performed on-line on a nationwide scale to explore consumers’ behaviors and attitudes, which was distributed in all four of Romania’s macro-regions and interviewing 642 respondents. The results indicate that the consumers have a positive attitude towards the importance of the environmental protection, in general and it also measures the frequency of adopting eco-friendly behaviors by the consumers, showing that the consumption behavior is not very consistent with the general attitude regarding environment. As a parallel, consumers are aware of the importance of CE business models, in general, both for the economy and for the environment, but the adoption of consumption patterns specific to CE business models, necessary for the development and the success of the CE business models, has a low probability in the absence of direct or indirect incentives and benefits fostering the adoption of these consumption patterns. In conclusion, the development of CE business models in Romania requires a national strategy, which includes means to sustain the adoption of necessary new consumption behaviors, besides awareness raising and educational campaigns for explaining to consumers the liaison and the impact of their behavior to the environment and to the economy.
Available at circularcollaboration.com
Companies are more frequently seen shifting their focus from technological innovation towards business model innovation. One efficient option for business model innovation is to learn from existing solutions, i.e., business model patterns. However, the various understandings of the business model pattern concept are often confusing and contradictory, with the available collections incomplete, overlapping, and inconsistently structured. Therefore, the rich body of literature on business model patterns has not yet reached its full potential for both practical application as well as theoretic advancement. To help remedy this, we conduct an exhaustive review, filter for duplicates, and structure the patterns along several dimensions by applying a rigorous taxonomy-building approach. The resulting business model pattern database allows for navigation to the relevant set of patterns for a specific impact on a company’s business model. It can be used for systematic business model innovation, which we illustrate via a simplified case study.
Purpose
This paper aims to reflect on recent closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) practices using a natural resource-based view (NRBV) and dynamic capabilities (DC) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Two empirical case studies of CLSC exemplars are used to discuss the theoretical relevance of these views.
Findings
The paper shows how strategic resources help companies in two sectors achieve successful CLSC designs. Strategic supply chain collaboration is an important success factor but also presents a number of challenges. The NRBV is used to explain the importance of new resources in technology, knowledge and relationships and stresses the role of DCs to constantly address changes in the business environment to renew these strategic resources.
Research limitations/implications
This research elaborates on NRBV theory related to CLSCs and reinforces the inclusion of DCs. It specifies the application of NRBV in the context of textiles and carpet manufacture and highlights the inherent conflicts in seeking value while moving towards sustainable development.
Practical implications
Investments in technical and operational resources are required to create CLSCs. Pure closed-loop applications are impractical, requiring relationships with multiple external partners to obtain supply and demand for recycled products.
Social implications
CLSCs may provide opportunities for social enterprises or third sector organizations collaborating with manufacturers.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights into the constituent resources needed for successful CLSCs. It also helps move CLSC research from a tactical logistics problem to a problem of strategic resources and relational capabilities: what we term “dynamic supply chain execution”. This paper develops a framework for transitioning towards CLSCs, underlining the importance of co-development and forging new relationships through commitment to supply chain redesign, co-evolution with customers and suppliers and control of supply chain activities.
A new relationship with our goods and materials would save resources and energy and create local jobs, explains Walter R. Stahel.
Handbook of Recycling is an authoritative review of the current state-of-the-art of recycling, reuse and reclamation processes commonly implemented today and how they interact with one another. The book addresses several material flows, including iron, steel, aluminum and other metals, pulp and paper, plastics, glass, construction materials, industrial by-products, and more. It also details various recycling technologies as well as recovery and collection techniques. To completely round out the picture of recycling, the book considers policy and economic implications, including the impact of recycling on energy use, sustainable development, and the environment. With contemporary recycling literature scattered across disparate, unconnected articles, this book is a crucial aid to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, from materials and environmental science to public policy studies. Portrays recent and emerging technologies in metal recycling, by-product utilization and management of post-consumer waste. Uses life cycle analysis to show how to reclaim valuable resources from mineral and metallurgical wastes. Uses examples from current professional and industrial practice, with policy and economic implications.
Increasing numbers of reports reveal that planet Earth is at significant risk. There are mounting calls to address the damage caused by the unprecedented demand for land, energy and water and environmental destruction, which is attributed to escalating population growth and unparalleled, rising rates of economic growth. Society and its organisations now are expending the Earth’s resources much faster than they can be replenished. Consequently, over the past two decades, sustainability has become an important business issue; growing attention is being paid to organisations’ ecological and environmental performance; and to their impact on the climate and on local and global communities. A number of researchers broadly claim that organisations need to move from Traditional Business Models and adopt Sustainable Business Models, and to deliver a sustainable value proposition aligned with stakeholders’ economic, environmental and social expectations. To achieve this, organisations should expand their perceived stakeholders from customers and shareholders to include all other stakeholders who may be directly or indirectly affected by the organisation’s activities, such as the broader society and the environment. Organisations’ cultures have considerable influence on their attitudes to environmental and social sustainability; their commitment to sustainability; and their environmental and social performance. In order to develop and implement Sustainable Business Models, organisations need to understand their underlying cultural values and develop sustainability-related cultural characteristics. This chapter explains the role of organisational culture and its desired characteristics and discusses actions organisations can take to change their culture. It also discusses steps for embedding sustainability principles across the organisation.
Cascading use of biomass is a recognized strategy contributing to an efficient development of the bioeconomy and for mitigating climate change. This study aims at assessing the potential of cascading use of woody biomass for reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and increasing the overall wood flow efficiency in the European Union’s forest and bioeconomy sectors.
A life cycle approach was followed to quantify the potential benefits of cascading use of woody biomass. Different supply chain stages of production were analyzed: forgone fossil-fuels substitution, optimization at manufacturing level and forest regrowth. We started with the current waste wood and paper recycling practices (scenario S1). Then we compared this current scenario with two divergent options: a scenario in which all post-consumer wood and paper waste is fully re-utilized for energy (S0) and a scenario with optimized future product cascading (S2).
Through maximized product recovery and zero waste strategy (optimized cascading), the wood use efficiency ratio (cascade factor) in the European wood sector would be increased by 9% (S2 vs S1). The optimal cascading leads to more GHG savings (-7 MtCO2-eq/year) in the wood production sector, less GHG emissions in the energy sector (-1 MtCO2-eq/year) and less GHG emissions in the waste sector (-6 MtCO2-eq/year), when compared with current practices.
The wood use efficiency ratio in the European wood sector strongly decreases with direct energy use of all paper and wood waste (no product cascading), total by about 25% (S0 vs S1). The full energy scenario leads to additional GHG emissions in the waste sector (7 MtCO2-eq/year), in comparison with current practices. Although the GHG reduction effect is quite substantial for using all wood waste directly for energy in SO (-43 MtCO2-eq/year), that effect is largely counteracted by additional GHG emissions (28 MtCO2-eq/year) through the need of fresh fibers (instead of waste fibers) for the production of wood and paper products in SO.
Overall, the optimal cascading S2 scores considerably better (-14 MtCO2-eq/year, equivalent with 8.3% GHG emission reduction) than the full energy scenario SO (-8 MtCO2eq/year or 4.7% GHG emission reduction), in comparison with current practices in the EU. This explorative study highlights the potential of cascading use of woody biomass in the wood production chains to contribute to a reduction of environmental impacts related to wood resource and energy use, relevant especially in meeting short-term (2020-2030) renewable energy targets.
Business models—the underlying structures of how companies create, deliver and capture value—form the engine of our economy. They determine the speed at which economies grow, and the intensity at which our resources are consumed. They determine the number and type of jobs in our cities, the provenance of the products we buy, and the price of the food we eat. They contribute to the quality of our communities and our lives.
In recent years in Sweden, interest has grown concerning the possibilities of biogas production from organic waste. This interest reflects a general concern over environmental sustainability in society. However, given the lack of financial backing and the competition of other energy producers, few Swedish biogas plants have been profitable. This is particularly the situation with farm-based biogas producers. One response to this problem in the farm-based biogas industry is to engage in business model innovation that can lead to new ways of organizing business structures and activities. This qualitative study, which takes an action research approach, explores the early phases (initiation and ideation) of the business model innovation process for sustainability at a biogas-producing farm cooperative in southern Sweden. The main activities and the actors who are central to the execution of these activities are identified in six sub-phases. The paper describes two Flourishing Business Canvas workshops in which the participants were the researchers, members of the farm cooperative, external consultants, and university students. This study contributes theoretically to the literature with its detailed examination of the early phases of the business model innovation process for sustainability. It also contributes to practice with its conceptual model that demonstrates how biogas producers and farm managers can innovate and transform their current business models towards sustainability in order to improve competitiveness and long-term profitability.
The effort to build an EPR system for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in China has created unexpected niches for innovation in business models for post-consumer recycling of e-waste as well as other recyclables in recent years. This study used action research to evaluate the performance of emerging business models for post-consumer recycling in urban China in recent years. We identified three categories of emerging models: (1) community-based programs targeting the garbage sorting behavior of consumers for all household waste, (2) reverse logistic systems with automatic vending machines attached to traditional commercial chains, and (3) pure internet solutions to bridge the transactions between the consumers and recyclers. All these business models share the common characteristic that they use internet technology, which is aggressively promoted in China as “Internet +” by both government policies and venture capital investment. The various business models serve as the link between the firm and the system level and reflect the diverse possibilities for the future evolution of the recycling system in China. We developed a qualitative evaluation framework with five elements including convenience for consumers, traceability for producers, profitability for recyclers, hybridity for collection, and reliability of the information used by the public to address the various values pursued by different actors involved in the recycling chains. The results reveal the dilemmas facing each business model in balancing among all the elements and highlight the governance challenge of integrating the EPR scheme with the municipal waste management system.
Additive manufacturing is a technology that makes it possible to directly produce parts from digital design models using additive production processes. The introduction of AM in manufacturing supply chains can be approached as an evolutionary design problem: How AM is initially introduced in operations affects requirements for the future development of AM technology, as well as the opportunities that open up for designing and managing supply chains in new ways. In this situation, when both the manufacturing technology and supply chain application side of the equation are undergoing change it is challenging to evaluate potential effects on sustainability. Nevertheless, we make an attempt to identify key problems for improving sustainability outcomes. In this column we focus on the problems that AM-enabled practices potentially may address and the impact of introducing AM on those problems, considering the current state of AM technology.
DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12580
A circular economy (CE)-inspired waste management hierarchy was proposed for end-of-life (EOL) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) from electric vehicles (EVs). Life cycle eco-efficiency metrics were then applied to evaluate potential environmental and economic trade-offs that may result from managing 1,000 end-of-life EV battery packs in the United States according to this CE hierarchy. Results indicate that if technology and markets support reuse of LIBs in used EVs, the net benefit would be 200,000 megajoules of recouped cumulative energy demand, which is equivalent to avoiding the production of 11 new EV battery packs (18 kilowatt-hours each). However, these benefits are magnified almost tenfold when retired EV LIBs are cascaded in a second use for stationary energy storage, thereby replacing the need to produce and use less-efficient lead-acid batteries. Reuse and cascaded use can also provide EV owners and the utility sector with cost savings, although the magnitude of future economic benefits is uncertain, given that future prices of battery systems are still unknown. In spite of these benefits, waste policies do not currently emphasize CE strategies like reuse and cascaded use for batteries. Though loop-closing LIB recycling provides valuable metal recovery, it can prove nonprofitable if high recycling costs persist. Although much attention has been placed on landfill disposal bans for batteries, results actually indicate that direct and cascaded reuse, followed by recycling, can together reduce eco-toxicity burdens to a much greater degree than landfill bans alone. Findings underscore the importance of life cycle and eco-efficiency analysis to understand at what point in a CE hierarchy the greatest environmental benefits are accrued and identify policies and mechanisms to increase feasibility of the proposed system.
There is ambivalence and uncertainty surrounding the stakeholder value impacts of increasingly influential collaborative consumption (CC) business models. While we observe such models expanding from developed to emerging economies we lack an understanding of the role played by the local context in which they are embedded. It can be assumed that stakeholder value impacts, both positive and negative, are particularly pronounced in emerging economies. We thus ask, what are the stakeholder value impacts of CC business models and how are they influenced by an emerging economy context? Based on case studies in transport and cleaning services in South Africa, we develop a model of the three-way interactions between local context, CC business model, and stakeholder value impacts. Further, we define CC business models as manifestations of two-sided markets, which allows us to better understand their positive and negative impacts on their key stakeholders. Our analysis shows that both new and established CC business models must be carefully adapted to local contexts to make best use of their potential to create stakeholder value and to avoid unintended negative impacts on vulnerable social groups.
Ever since the Internet boom of the mid-1990s, firms have been experimenting with new ways of doing business and achieving their goals, which has led to a branching of the scholarly literature on business models. Three interpretations of the meaning and function of “business models” have emerged from the management literature: (1) business models as attributes of real firms, (2) business models as cognitive/linguistic schemas, and (3) business models as formal conceptual representations of how a business functions. Relatedly, a provocative debate about the relationship between business models and strategy has fascinated many scholars. We offer a critical review of this now vast business model literature with the goal of organizing the literature and achieving greater understanding of the larger picture in this increasingly important research area. In addition to complementing and extending prior reviews, we also aim at a second and more important contribution: We aim at identifying the reasons behind the apparent lack of agreement in the interpretation of business models, and the relationship between business models and strategy. Whether strategy scholars consider business model research a new field may be due to the fact that the business model perspective may be challenging the assumptions of traditional theories of value creation and capture by focusing on value creation on the demand side and supply side, rather than focusing on value creation on the supply side only as these theories have done. We conclude by discussing how the business model perspective can contribute to research in different fields, offering future research directions.
Detailed and comprehensive accounts of waste generation and treatment form the quantitative basis of designing and assessing policy instruments for a circular economy (CE). We present a harmonized multiregional solid waste account, covering 48 world regions, 11 types of solid waste, and 12 waste treatment processes for the year 2007. The account is part of the physical layer of EXIOBASE v2, a multiregional supply and use table. EXIOBASE v2 was used to build a waste-input-output model of the world economy to quantify the solid waste footprint of national consumption. The global amount of recorded solid waste generated in 2007 was approximately 3.2 Gt (gigatonnes1), of which 1 Gt was recycled or reused, 0.7 Gt was incinerated, gasified, composted, or used as aggregates, and 1.5 Gt was landfilled. Patterns of waste generation differ across countries, but a significant potential for closing material cycles exists in both high- and low-income countries. The European Union (EU), for example, needs to increase recycling by approximately 100 megatonnes per year (Mt/yr) and reduce landfilling by approximately 35 Mt/yr by 2030 to meet the targets set by the Action Plan for the Circular Economy. Solid waste footprints are strongly coupled with affluence, with income elasticities of around 1.3 for recycled waste, 2.2 for recovery waste, and 1.5 for landfilled waste, respectively. The EXIOBASE v2 solid waste account is based on statistics of recorded waste flows and therefore likely to underestimate actual waste flows.