What Is the Relation between Circular Economy and Sustainability? Answers from Frontrunner Companies Engaged with Circular Economy Practices

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) concept has become a major interest for companies, promising new business opportunities and a decrease in environmental impacts. Though research on circular business models has recently increased, few scholars have investigated how companies engaged with CE view the connection between CE and sustainability. To address this gap, this paper uses a semi-quantitative survey and semi-structured interviews conducted with companies based in Italy and the Netherlands. Purposive sampling was employed to target firms associated with national and international CE networks, as these companies already engage with CE practices. The survey was distributed online to over 800 firms, of which 155 provided information on their understanding of the CE concept and its relationship with sustainability. The survey results are complemented through findings from 43 interviews with a subset of the survey respondents. The survey answers show that companies view CE as one of the tools to achieve sustainable development, particularly in the environmental domain, where the focus lies on environmentally friendly resource use. Yet, the respondents are less confident whether CE increases economic and social benefits of firms. Interviews show that a majority of respondents position sustainability as the overarching concept. However, most companies advocate that the private sector should strive for both sustainability and circularity, though the distinction between the two concepts in daily business operations seems synthetic and futile to some. These findings provide an important stepping stone for better understanding how firms could apply CE practices to move towards a more sustainable society.

Exploring assessment practices of companies actively engaged with circular economy

“…The seven internal and nine external barriers to CE assessment identified by companies not conducting any form of CE assessment. The four external barriers shaded in grey form the subcategory of methodological barriers (n = 13) of the two paradigms from both companies and academic literature (Schoeggl et al, 2020;Walker, Opferkuch, et al, 2021). Most assessment approaches were considered by survey participants to be useful to assess CE as well as sustainability.…”

“…We chose the combination of these two methods to identify the approaches that were applied (through the survey), and how and why companies applied these approaches (through interviews). It should be highlighted that the survey and the interviews contained additional questions analysed in the context of a separate study (Walker, Opferkuch, et al, 2021).…”

“…For a detailed description of the creation of the overall survey and its distribution to 809 companies, readers should refer to Walker, Opferkuch, et al (2021). Regarding the survey questions addressed in this paper, we first asked companies whether they regarded a list of assessment approaches as either CE or sustainability assessment and whether they applied them on a company or product level.…”

A Critical Review of EU Key Indicators for the Transition to the Circular Economy

“…The concept of circular economy (CE) is currently a "fashionable" concept, still far from being complete, cursive, and completely defined [1]. Being one of the main building blocks of sustainability, mainly related to development, circularity is a much newer feature of a new economic paradigm [2]. Circular economy features a focused interest in minimizing the economy inputs and losses, in enhancing and preserving the natural capital, and also in increasing the efficiency of economic processes in the management of finite resources [3].…”

“…The actual framework for monitoring selected relevant and applicable drivers and indicators for transition. The selection took into consideration not less than 364 indicators for the circular transition [2,11]. Indexes were proposed, together with new methodologies for calculation [12,13], and assessment methodologies and tools that were already in use [2,[14][15][16][17][18][19].…”