The concept of a Circular Economy has been growing in popularity across all industries. A circular economy represents a shift from the conventional 'take-make-dispose' or ‘linear economy’ towards a more sustainable approach. As large contributors to the economy, businesses play a crucial role in the adoption of this concept. This blog will explore what implementing a circular economy involves, and why it can be beneficial for your business, providing cost savings, efficiencies and contributing to improved environmental performance.

What is Circular Economy?

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible to extend the product life cycle. True circularity is all about ensuring nothing ever becomes physical waste, this means that all outputs within an organisation can be repurposed.

The concept is built around 3 principles:

1. Eliminate waste and production.
2. Circulate products and materials.
3. Regenerate nature.

By considering these three principles, businesses can adopt a sustainable and responsible approach that not only benefits them through cost efficiency and resilience but also contributes to wider sustainability goals in society.

Why is it important for businesses?

You may have heard about the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which outlines the new mandatory sustainability reporting standards requiring more organisations to disclose on their social and environmental impacts. (if not, you can download our free e-book here).

CSRD is introducing a mandatory standard related to resource consumption, waste generation, circular design, and recovery of products and materials. Therefore, businesses may be required to measure, disclose, and optimise their resource usage, waste management, and sustainable product design strategies paving the way towards a circular economy.

Adopting a circular approach can also help businesses ensure compliance with waste management regulations. By implementing circular practices, businesses naturally reduce the volume of waste they generate, making it easier to comply with waste disposal and environmental regulations.

Want to know more about waste management legislation and practices? Why not have a quick read of our blog on that here.

Aside from these legal requirements, adopting a circular approach to business operations is also important for enabling long term business sustainability. This is particularly relevant in the face of climate change and its impact on the global business environment. Circularity allows businesses to future-proof their operations by addressing their whole supply chain to:

- Adopt a closed-loop approach establishing processes to recover, refurbish, and remanufacture products, extending their lifecycle.

- Optimise resource use through recycling and reusing materials, reducing dependency on scarce or volatile resources

- Collaborating with suppliers on circular initiatives to build resilient partnerships and shared a commitment to sustainability.

How can businesses adopt a circular approach to operations at different stages?

Adopting a circular approach will depend on the industry and stage of operations. For the construction industry, the design stage of projects is crucial for ensuring a durable design for a resilient and longer lasting asset, and ensuring materials are sourced responsibly. At this stage, design managers play a critical role in carefully selecting the materials for a project build and considering the full life cycle of that material. When the building does reach the end of its life cycle, these design managers must ensure that the specified materials are reusable or recyclable if the building needs to be demolished.

Furthermore, construction companies need to consider how they can regenerate the natural environment on which they are building. This is important at both the design and construction stages as they should consider the differert nature-based solutions to project builds in addition to the the technical impact of implementing these solutions effectively.

Want to know more about nature-based solutions? Why not have a quick read of our blog here

For manufacturing companies, end of life can be an important consideration therefore there is a need to develop strategies to reclaim, repurpose, recycle, or remanufacture products and components once they reach the end of their useful life. This includes designing products with disassembly and recycling in mind, implementing take-back programs to retrieve and reintegrate used products or materials into the production process, and collaborating with stakeholders across the value chain to ensure responsible disposal and minimize waste.

Conclusion

The rise of the Circular Economy marks a significant move from the traditional 'take-make-dispose' model, emphasising the sharing, reusing, repairing, and recycling of materials to extend product lifecycles. Beyond legal factors, a circular approach fosters long-term business sustainability, vital in the face of climate change.

Adopting circular principles should not be standalone and should be at the core of the business strategy and aligned with ESG and net zero emission plans.

Collaboration with stakeholders and access to accurate and reliable data is critical.

While adopting a circular approach may seem difficult or over whelming, at SustianIQ we help our customers by providing them with the data required to start having conversations with stakeholders, particularly their key suppliers.

Combining our Procurement pillar alongside our Environmental Management section, users can be empowered with information on procurement decisions while considering their waste management processes, allowing a full visualisation of their progress toward a more circular business model.

If you're looking to improve circularity and waste management processes at your organisation, get in contact with us to see how data can help you to do that.