A Novel Framework to Measure Circularity Trade-offs and Synergies in the Global Context

This study explored the role of Circular Economy (CE) strategies in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize CE performance. The research aimed to identify the key determinants influencing CE indicators by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and regression modeling. The findings revealed that factors such as employment in CE sectors, resource productivity, and effective waste management practices significantly impact circularity outcomes. These factors were found to be crucial for SMEs striving to enhance sustainability and reduce environmental impact through circular economy practices. The study primarily focused on general Circular Economy strategies, meaning the results may vary across different industries, particularly those with varying waste streams and resource challenges. For instance, certain sectors might face specific hurdles in waste management or resource efficiency, making the application of CE strategies more complex. Additionally, the study uncovered the complexity of systemic interactions within CE implementation, such as the negative correlation between municipal recycling rates and circular material use, which requires further exploration. These findings suggest that understanding the broader systemic factors affecting CE is essential to fully realizing its potential. Moreover, the integration of AI in CE strategies emerged as a promising avenue for optimizing resource management, improving waste reduction, and enhancing productivity. AI can play a critical role in identifying inefficiencies, predicting trends, and streamlining operations in SMEs. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on CE in SMEs, emphasizing the importance of AI in advancing sustainability and efficiency in circular practices. Further research is needed to explore industry-specific challenges and systemic interactions in greater detail.

While the built environment negatively contributes to resource use, waste generation, and climate change, this same sector has the potential to provide innovative solutions to these complex global challenges. Circular economy (CE) strategies have the potential to provide these solutions, yet systems and incentives related to CE and the built environment are disparate and at varying stages of development. Green building rating systems, such as the Living Building Challenge, have the potential to change the market and drive innovation, but these systems need to evolve and change in alignment with the emergence of new and promising strategies, such as CE. The objective of this study was to elucidate whether implementing CE practices could help further reduce embodied carbon and life cycle carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq.) emissions in buildings that are already environmentally conscious to further drive market innovation. This study analyzed the potential reduction in the embodied carbon of an existing Living Building, the Frick Environmental Center, by applying various CE strategies and using life cycle assessment. The investigated strategies include (1) using materials that are biodegradable and have lower embodied carbon, (2) using salvaged alternatives for embodied carbon-intensive building products, (3) extending the lifespan of selected building materials, and (4) carbon sequestration. Given that the case study building is already LEED Platinum and Living Building certified, the results elucidated the extent of potential environmental impact savings in buildings that are already certified due to having lower environmental impacts than the industry average. The CE strategies resulted in a 30% reduction in the building’s embodied carbon (excluding end-of-life) compared with the base case. Results exemplify whether a significant decrease in the buildings’ embodied carbon/life cycle CO2-eq. emissions can be achieved as a result of implementing modest changes in design.

The Circular Industrial Transformation System (CITS) model - Assessing the life cycle impacts of climate and circularity strategies

Resource efficiency indicators to assess circular economy strategies: A case study on four materials in laptops

Chapter 24 - Circular economy—A treasure trove of opportunities for enhancing resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

PurposeThis study aims to highlight the impacts of a rapidly growing automobile industry on the environment and how implementation of Circular Economy (CE) principles and strategies can help us in improving its sustainability without compromising on our existing economic models.Design/methodology/approachIncrease in spending capacity, improvements in technology and decrease in the prices have catapulted automobile demand over the last few decades. Harmful emissions and waste generation during the entire life cycle of these complex machines need to be addressed in an urgent manner globally. Implementation of CE principles and strategies which are based on promoting a pivotal balance between environment, economy and the society can lead to minimize economic and environmental impact leading to better results for all the stakeholders.FindingsCarbon footprint or environmental emissions during different stages of an automobile life cycle can be minimized using CE principles and strategies without compromising on the existing economic models. Government legislation and keen participation of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and automobile manufacturers can drive the automobile industry toward sustainability despite growing consumption.Originality/valueThe literature review has been done with a fresh perspective to combine environmental sustainability with CE. This is a literature review of prior work done in this domain to explore the possibility of further intervention in this domain.

Concrete is the world's most widely-used anthropogenic material, and Circular Economy strategies will be key to addressing the myriad challenges that face its use today and into the future. Despite a rapid growth of research interest in developing Circular Economy strategies for concrete, this has mostly focussed on technical and environmental issues at the material and product scale. Holistic approaches considering wider social and political aspects as well as system-scale perspectives have been relatively neglected. This article uses a narrative review to investigate three outstanding questions to help address this gap: how concrete's material, product and system-scale attributes influence the interpretation of Circular Economy principles; how the full range of Circular Economy strategies can be implemented for concrete; and what the likely implementation issues will be when integrating different Circular Economy strategies (such as design for durability, component reuse and material recycling). From a product-scale perspective, it is argued that greater specificity is needed around the growing diversity of concrete materials and products in Circular Economy discourse - their properties are often distinct and hence specific strategies are not necessarily universally applicable. At the same time, a solely product-centric Circular Economy perspective is insufficient for concrete, and only joint consideration of structural and systemic perspectives will yield satisfactory solutions. ‘Soft’ perspectives of social, political and legal aspects cannot be viewed simply as an added bonus, but are essential to reconciling the ‘hard’ issues of technical, environmental and economic aspects that dominate discussions. Whilst concrete can and should have a key role in a Circular Economy, its success will require more than just extensions of linear economy thinking. • Circular Economy (CE) offers opportunities as well as challenges for concrete. • CE strategies must be applied at material, product and infrastructure levels. • Concrete circularity requires a system-level perspective. • Socio-economic and political environments are overlooked circularity drivers.

So far, organizations had no authoritative guidance on circular economy (CE) principles, strategies, implementation, and monitoring. Consequentially, the British Standards Institution recently launched a new standard “BS 8001:2017 – Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations”.BS 8001:2017 tries to reconcile the far-reaching ambitions of the CE with established business routines. The standard contains a comprehensive list of CE terms and definitions, a set of general CE principles, a flexible management framework for implementing CE strategies in organizations, and a detailed description of economic, environmental, design, marketing, and legal issues related to the CE.The guidance on monitoring CE strategy implementation, however, remains vague. The standard stipulates that organizations are solely responsible for choosing appropriate CE indicators. Its authors do not elaborate on the links between CE strategy monitoring and the relevant and already standardized quantitative tools life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow cost accounting (MFCA).Here a general system definition for deriving CE indicators is proposed. Based on the system definition and the indicator literature a dashboard of new and established quantitative indicators for CE strategy assessment in organizations is then compiled. The dashboard indicators are mostly based on material flow analysis (MFA), MFCA, and LCA. Steel cycle data are used to illustrate potential core CE indicators, notably, the residence time of a material in the techno-sphere (currently 250–300 years for steel). Moreover, organizations need to monitor their contribution to in-use-stock growth, a central driver of resource depletion and hindrance to closing material cycles.

Transition towards a circular economy at a regional level: A case study on closing biological loops

Regional material flow tools to promote circular economy

This article investigates the interplay between renewable energy utilization and the implementation of circular economy frameworks and its role in shaping environmental sustainability across 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2023. When employing panel data methodologies, including fixed effects, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least squares, the results reveal that both the circular economy strategy and renewable energy utilization play significant roles in reducing CO2 emissions. Renewable energy utilization has a strong negative association with CO2 emissions, highlighting its transformative potential to decrease the reliance on fossil fuels and advance decarbonization. The circular economy strategy effectively enhances resource efficiency and minimizes waste, underscoring the efficacy of China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law in driving sustainable practices. The inclusion of control variables—industrialization, economic growth, urbanization, population density, and foreign direct investment—provides deeper insights into the diverse regional factors influencing emissions. These findings highlight the importance of implementing region-specific policy measures that integrate renewable energy transitions and the circular economy strategy to achieve environmental sustainability. While presenting robust evidence, this study acknowledges the need for future studies to overcome its limitations, such as studies exploring the function of technological advancements and the interprovincial spillover effects of policies, to further refine the strategies for sustainable development in rapidly industrializing economies.

Despite the growing emphasis on the importance of circular economy strategies in increasing a firm's performance, the relationship between Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and circular economy needs to be further justified. This study assessed the effects of government support and circular economy‐oriented collaboration on the implementation of circular economy strategies. In addition, we investigated the effects of circular economy strategies adoption on firms' ESG performance and reputation. This study surveyed 235 Brazilian agri‐food firms. Data were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling method. This study found a positive and significant effect of circular economy‐oriented collaboration on circular economy strategies and a positive but lower effect of government support on circular economy strategies. The study's findings also demonstrate that the adoption of circular economy strategies has a profound effect on ESG performance and firm reputation. We also identified a partial mediation of circular economy‐oriented collaboration on the relationship between government support and circular economy. This study's findings contribute to advancing the theoretical discourse on CE and collaborative governance by validating their interconnected roles in enhancing sustainability outcomes. Moreover, our research contributes to the theoretical discourse on CE by showing how internal capabilities and relational assets jointly influence agri‐food firms' sustainability transitions.

The environmental impacts of current, predominantly linear, life cycles of textiles are widespread and substantial. Although applying circular economy (CE) approaches offers the potential to support the transition to more sustainable textile value chains, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the choice of individual CE strategies for different types of textiles. The aim of this paper is to study and compare the environmental impacts of introducing different CE strategies (reuse, recycle) into the life cycle of cotton roller towels in terms of climate change impact and water consumption. According to the results, a linear life cycle of a cotton roller towel causes a climate change impact of 12.4 g CO2e/hand-drying and water consumption of 2.4 l/hand-drying. Combining different CE strategies (reuse and recycling), the roller towel's impacts could be reduced to as low as 8.9 g CO2e and 0.5 l water/hand-drying. The results indicate that the key to reducing the climate change impacts and water consumption of the towel is the increase of use times of the product, but the impacts are more ambiguous for recycling. The benefits of recycling, and even the prioritization between different CE strategies depends on the type of recycling technology and substituted material. For gaining clearer benefits from CE of cotton roller towels or any cotton textiles, there is a further need for technology development and support for selecting the correct strategies and processes.

This dataset compiles experimental and geospatial information on the valorization of agricultural lignocellulosic residues from Zacatecas, Mexico, for potential conversion into activated carbon. Data acquisition involved a combination of field sampling, laboratory analysis, and Geographic Information System (GIS) processing. Four primary crops were selected, corn, oats, agave, and garlic due to their significant residue generation. Residues were collected and characterized for their cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, ash, and nutrient content following standardized protocols, including the Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) method and sequential Van Soest methodology. Nutrient analysis was performed using the brucine sulfate method for nitrogen and the ascorbic acid technique for phosphates. All analyses were conducted in triplicate to ensure reproducibility, and the coefficient of variation was calculated to identify possible outliers.Complementary to experimental work, spatial data were obtained using QGIS software and official geospatial datasets. These included digital elevation models, land use maps, and administrative boundaries. Layers were integrated to generate land use and vegetation distribution maps, supported by zonal statistics and reclassification tools. Production and yield statistics for 2023 were extracted from the Servicio de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera (SIAP) database, allowing for the calculation of residue generation per crop through residue-to-product ratios. The dataset integrates thematic and spatial data across multiple layers—municipalities, land use, and hydrological regions—allowing a comprehensive territorial analysis of biomass availability.The repository includes raw and processed data in formats compatible with Excel and QGIS. It is organized into directories containing land-use shapefiles, municipality coordinates, crop production tables, and physicochemical characterization files. Tables provide detailed information on harvested area, production volume, yields, estimated residue generation, lignocellulosic composition, nutrient content, and conversion yields to activated carbon.This dataset has the potential for reuse in diverse contexts. It can be applied in comparative studies of biomass valorization across regions, extended to evaluate other agricultural systems using similar GIS and residue quantification methods, or integrated into models of circular economy (CE) strategies. The structured information is also suitable for environmental planning, crop residue management assessments, and as a reference for laboratory-scale experiments on biomass conversion technologies. Furthermore, its reproducibility and spatially explicit design support applications in academic research, sustainable resource management, and decision-making in agricultural and environmental policy.This study more clearly addresses the existing research gap in the valorization of lignocellulosic agricultural residues by integrating, for the first time, an experimental and geospatial approach to quantify, characterize, and map the territorial availability of biomass in Zacatecas, Mexico. This methodological integration represents a specific and relevant contribution to the scientific literature, providing a solid foundation for the sustainable planning of agricultural residue utilization and the development of circular economy strategies at the regional or national levels.

Coming out the egg: Assessing the benefits of circular economy strategies in agri-food industry