Abstract
Transitioning from the current linear economic development model to a circular economy (CE) is a hot topic in academic literature, public governance, and the corporate domain. Actors have implemented CE strategies to reduce their resource use and its associated impacts, while boosting economic competitiveness and generating positive social impact. Companies are identified as key actors in transitioning to a CE, and many academics have proposed tools to assess CE and guide them in this process. This paper critically reviews such academic ‘assessment approaches’ at the micro level in order to reflect on their key properties. Seventy-four approaches are inventoried through a systematic literature review of academic literature. A critical review framework is constructed and applied, containing four perspectives: A general perspective, a descriptive perspective (methodological aspects), a normative perspective (connections to Sustainable Development), and a prescriptive perspective (implementation-focused). Methodologically, the 74 approaches are highly diverse, having various connections to previously established methodologies. Eighteen of the reviewed assessment approaches include all three dimensions of Sustainable Development (SD), in addition to a ‘circular’ dimension. Roughly one quarter of the approaches apply a participatory design approach. Suggested key desired properties of CE assessment approaches include making use of existing assessment methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and a closer collaboration between science and practitioners to consider end-user needs in the design of CE assessment approaches.
Highlights
Our current global economic development model revolves mostly around linear flows of materials and energy [1]
The findings from the analysis of the inventoried 74 circular economy (CE) evaluation approaches at micro level are discussed according to the four dimensions of the proposed review framework
The general results can be retrieved in Appendix A, whereas more specific results for each perspective are presented below
Summary
Our current global economic development model revolves mostly around linear flows of materials and energy [1]. This model generates waste, depletes natural resources, leads to emissions, and transforms natural landscapes, resulting in a complex web of pressing interlinked environmental, social, and economic problems [2]. The interest in replacing our current linear economic model with a circular economy (CE) model to facilitate moving towards a more sustainable society, has grown rapidly in the past 5–10 years [3]. One of the primary goals of establishing a CE has been described as decoupling global economic development from finite resource consumption by introducing closed resource loops, leading to reduced environmental degradation and positive social impacts while stimulating economic growth [5,6]. While the various roles of actors in moving towards a CE have not been formalized in literature, companies are expected to drive this transition [7], since firms are the entities that transform resources such as raw materials (natural capital) into goods and services (man-made capital) [8,9]
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