No abstract

The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a circular business model based on an Eco-Holonic Architecture, through the integration of circular economy and holonic principles. A conceptual model is developed to manage the complexity of integrating circular economy principles, digital transformation, and tools and frameworks for sustainability into business models. The proposed architecture is multilevel and multiscale in order to achieve the instantiation of the sustainable value chain in any territory. The architecture promotes the incorporation of circular economy and holonic principles into new circular business models. This integrated perspective of business model can support the design and upgrade of the manufacturing companies in their respective industrial sectors. The conceptual model proposed is based on activity theory that considers the interactions between technical and social systems and allows the mitigation of the metabolic rift that exists between natural and social metabolism. This study contributes to the existing literature on circular economy, circular business models and activity theory by considering holonic paradigm concerns, which have not been explored yet. This research also offers a unique holonic architecture of circular business model by considering different levels, relationships, dynamism and contextualization (territory) aspects.

Value chain is identified as the generator of the metabolic rift between nature and society. However, the sustainable value chain can mitigate and reverse this rift. In this paper, firstly, a review of the main digital enablers of Industry 4.0 and the current state of cognitive manufacturing is carried out. Secondly, Cyber-Physical Systems are conceived from the holonic paradigm, as an organizational enabler for the whole of enablers. Thirdly, the bijective relationship between holonic paradigm and container-based technology is analyzed. This technology allows mapping the physical and virtual holon as an intelligent agent embodied at the edge, fog and cloud level, with physical and virtual part. Finally, the proposed holonic system based on the cyber-physical holon is developed through multi-agent systems based on container technology. The proposed system allows to model the metabolism of manufacturing systems, from a cell manufacturing to whole value chain, in order to develop, evolve and improve the sustainable value chain.