Abstract
A broad range of organizations, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large multi-nationals, are interested in adopting circular economy practices. A circular economy can help companies make better use of materials by minimizing the input of natural resources, reducing waste, and optimizing the economic, social, technical and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products throughout their lifecycle. Despite the interest of companies in a circular economy, only 9% of material flows in the global economy are circular. There is formal guidance for those offering business support with the aim to expedite the transition to a circular economy. However, support measures narrowly confine the role of companies and the motivations of business managers to the economic realms, assuming that companies are solely driven by monetary factors. Conversely, pluralist economic views emphasize the broader role of companies in society: for example, in respect of the well-being of their staff and the communities in which they reside. Indeed, our practical experiences of business support have brought alternative motivations to explore a circular economy to the fore. We argue that business support should stem from a broader conception of the role of business in society. The diverse motivations and willingness of business managers to engage in a circular economy should be investigated further with results feeding into broader and more inclusive business support guidelines in the future to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.
Highlights
A broad range of organizations, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large multi-nationals, are interested in adopting circular economy practices
It has been shown that circular economy practices can help companies make better use of material resources by minimizing natural resource input and waste generation, and optimizing the economic, social, technical and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products throughout their lifecycle (Velenturf and Jopson 2019)
Practical experiences with business support reported in this article brought alternative motivations to explore a circular economy to the fore (Section 3)
Summary
Recovery from Waste program (Velenturf and Purnell 2018; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2018) Despite this global business interest and willingness to engage in a circular economy, the circularity of the economy is only believed to be up to 9%, which indicates that there is still a long way to go (Circle Economy 2019). Circular economy literature generally agrees that companies require support to develop the knowledge and skills to transform their activities and contribute to a sustainable, circular economy (Velenturf and Jopson 2019) This is true of smaller companies who regularly work at the margins and are not blessed with the time, people or financial resources required to explore the changes for the adoption of more circular operational practices. The results of such studies should be fed into more inclusive business support guidelines with the aim of fully capitalizing on the willingness within the business community to contribute to a circular economy (Section 4)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
