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Summary Product/service‐systems (PSS) that focus on selling service and performance instead of products are often mentioned as means to realize a circular economy (CE), in which economic growth is decoupled from resource consumption. However, a PSS is no implicit guarantee for a CE, and CE strategies do not necessarily lead to decoupling economic growth from resource consumption in absolute terms. Absolute resource decoupling only occurs when the resource use declines, irrespective of the growth rate of the economic driver. In this forum paper, we propose a two‐step framework that aims to support analyses of PSS and their potential to lead to absolute resource decoupling. In the first step, we present four PSS enablers of relative resource reduction that qualify as CE strategies. In the second step, three subsequent requirements need to be met, in order to successfully achieve absolute resource decoupling. Conditions and limitations for this accomplishment are discussed. Danish textile cases are used to exemplify the framework elements and its application. We expect that the framework will challenge the debate on the necessary conditions for CE strategies to ensure absolute resource decoupling.

Despite the increasing interest of business and academic research toward Circular Economy, the investigation of its uptake by industry remains limited. To contribute to filling this gap, we perform a systematic review of 46 corporate sustainability reports in the Fast‐Moving Consumer Goods sector aiming to explore how companies incorporate the Circular Economy concept in their sustainability agenda. We focus on (i) companies’ uptake of Circular Economy, (ii) the relationship between Circular Economy and sustainability and (iii) the Circular Economy practices presented. Our results show that Circular Economy has started to be integrated into the corporate sustainability agenda. Most reported activities are oriented toward the main product and packaging, focusing on end‐of‐life management and sourcing strategies, and to a lesser extent on circular product design and business model strategies. Most identified collaborations are with businesses, whereas initiatives addressing consumers are largely missing although considered critical for the transition toward Circular Economy.

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Purpose The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) guidance flagship project of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aims at providing global guidance and building scientific consensus on environmental LCIA indicators. This paper presents the progress made since 2013, preliminary results obtained for each impact category, and the description of a rice life cycle assessment (LCA) case study designed to test and compare LCIA indicators. MethodsThe effort has been focused in a first stage on impacts of global warming, fine particulate matter emissions, water use and land use, plus cross-cutting issues and LCA-based footprints. The paper reports the process and progress and specific results obtained in the different task forces (TF). Additionally, a rice LCA case study common to all TF has been developed. Three distinctly different scenarios of producing and cooking rice have been defined and underlined with life cycle inventory data. These LCAs help testing impact category indicators which are being developed and/or selected in the harmonisation process. The rice LCA case study further helps to ensure the practicality of the finally recommended impact category indicators. ResultsThe global warming TF concludes that analysts should explore the sensitivity of LCA results to metrics other than GWP. The particulate matter TF attained initial guidance of how to include health effects from PM 2.5 exposures consistently into LCIA. The biodiversity impacts of land use TF suggests to consider complementary metrics besides species richness for assessing biodiversity loss. The water use TF is evaluating two stress-based metrics, AWaRe and an alternative indicator by a stakeholder consultation. The cross-cutting issues TF agreed upon maintaining DALY as endpoint unit for the safeguard subject "human health". The footprint TF defined main attributes that should characterise all footprint indicators. "Rice cultivation" and "Cooking" stages of the rice LCA case study contribute most to the environmental impacts assessed. ConclusionsThe results of the TF will be documented in white papers and some published in scientific journals. These white papers represent the input for the Pellston workshop TM , taking place in Valencia, Spain from 24 to 29 January 2016, where best practice, harmonised LCIA indicators and an update on the general LCIA framework will be discussed and agreed on. With the diversity in results and the multi-tier supply chains the rice LCA case study is well suited to test candidate recommended indicators and to ensure their applicability in common LCA case studies.

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