Circular Economy Practices among Industrial EMAS-Registered SMEs in Spain

Abstract

The Eurobarometer report from December 2019 revealed that 80% of European Union (EU) citizens believe that industry is doing too little to protect the environment and that more work needs to be done to help companies transition to a more sustainable economic model. In recent years, the EU has made the Circular Economy (CE) a priority, and an environmental management system based on the EMAS Regulation can help companies achieve this goal by assisting them in analysing and measuring an efficient and sustainable use of resources. Thus, this study analyses EMAS companies’ environmental statements in order to identify and quantify the CE practices they have implemented. Findings identify 23 circular practices and show that the majority of companies focus their efforts on reducing emissions by optimizing the materials cycle and improving internal production processes. Eco-design stands out as the main driver amongst the circular transformation practices. This study has also detected a lack of uniformity in the way companies quantify the various circular practices currently operating, or how they communicate this information. These results may be useful to companies, professionals and administrations responsible for promoting the CE, and it can also provide guidance on what information to include in future environmental statements.

Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Super SBM Network DEA for Assessing Sustainability Performance of Third-Party Logistics Service Providers Considering Circular Economy Strategies in the Era of Industry 4.0

“…Seeking to synchronize inventory, logistics and distribution functions across all sales channels to meet consumer demand [21,52,53] Resilience A risk management approach concerned with how system prevent or deals with service disturbance; this is done paying attention to flexibility [13,35,48,54] Economic Quality Seeking to define and update the values of the customer [13,48,[55][56][57] Financial capability Realized revenue less total cost per period of the organization and its reputation to obtain external financial resources [12,13,48] Lead time All the processing time, transit time, etc. needed to handle the inventory to the customer [12,48] Delivery and Service…”

“…Value-added services that could be pre-and post-sale Pre-and post-sale services to customer considering problem resolution ability while commitment to continuous improvement [12,48,55] Environment…”

“…Recycle Gentle logistics service by looking toward a material-recycling society in compliance with all regulations [13,48,55] Disposal Dealing with scrap, waste and refuse to prevent environmental pollution and waste of resources [13,48,55,56] Green Remanufacturing Manufacturing practices that do not harm the environment during any phases. It involves green redesign of products, use of environmentally friendly raw materials, eco-friendly packing, distribution, and reuse after end of life of product.…”

“…It involves green redesign of products, use of environmentally friendly raw materials, eco-friendly packing, distribution, and reuse after end of life of product. It is totally related to green reverse logistics [13,48,55,56] Green Technology…”

“…Handling logistics operations such as transportation, warehousing and inventories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions [12,48,55] Green HRM and Green transformational leadership Policies, practices, and systems that stimulate a green behavior of a company's employees in order to create an environmentally sensitive, resource efficient and socially responsible workplace and overall organization [56][57][58] Table 1. Cont.…”