Decision-Support Tools for Smart Transition to Circular Economy

Circular economy in the construction industry: A review of decision support tools based on Information & Communication Technologies

Circular approach in manufacturing supply chain (SC) operations yields multiple benefits through optimal utilisation and consumption of resources. This study maps the scope and structure of circularity in the manufacturing SC discipline and explores the evolution of the domain over time. We review 946 journal articles published between 2013 and September 2023. Our study identifies key drivers and barriers to circular economy (CE) deployment in manufacturing SC operations, bibliometric parameters, emerging research themes, decision support tools, theories and applications. Using the theory extension approach, we propose a strategic framework to fortify the deployment of circularity in SCs. This comprehensive study renders a methodological contribution through combined descriptive content analysis and bibliometric and network analyses to evaluate the circular manufacturing SC operations concepts, theories and applications. We posit that manufacturing firms require to deploy innovation‐led approaches to embed the CE strategies in their SC operations. We find that the studies investigating green skill development and circularity‐culture adoption can facilitate manufacturers to understand the efficacy of circularity in their SC operations. The findings of this study can facilitate the practitioners to identify the links between the CE approaches and their strategic implications and examine CE implementation at the strategic level.

Circular economy research on building construction and demolition waste: A review of current trends and future research directions

Climate change and global warming pose great sustainability challenges to the aviation industry. Alternatives to petroleum-based fuels (hydrogen, natural gas, etc.) have emerged as promising aviation fuels for future aircraft. The present study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the impact of material selection on aviation sustainability, accounting for the type of fuel implemented and circular economy aspects. In this context, a decision support tool was introduced to aid decision-makers and relevant stakeholders to identify and select the best-performing materials that meet their defined needs and preferences, expressed through a finite set of conflicting criteria associated with ecological, economic, and circularity aspects. The proposed tool integrates life-cycle-based metrics extending to both ecological and economical dimensions and a proposed circular economy indicator (CEI) focused on the material/component level and linked to its quality characteristics, which also accounts for the quality degradation of materials which have undergone one or more recycling loops. The tool is coupled with a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology in order to reduce subjectivity when determining the importance of each of the considered criteria.

PurposeThere is a limited understanding of effective strategies for tackling food loss and waste (FLW) following a circular supply chain management approach. The aim of this study is to analyze the role of the FLW Reporting and Accounting Standard for identifying FLW occurrences throughout the agri-food supply chain and facilitate their measurement. Our objective is to describe how this FLW is then reused within a circular economy (CE) perspective, thus enabling companies to implement a circular supply chain approach for effective decision-making based on the concept of waste hierarchies, the 3R and 4R rules.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth analysis of Barilla's soft bread supply chain is provided in this study. By gathering both qualitative and quantitative data, this study investigates the implementation of the FLW standard by (1) identifying the main enablers and obstacles in measuring FLW throughout the entire production system; (2) providing a useful standardized tool for sustainable FLW measurement, minimization and reuse in other agricultural supply chains to enable circular economy approaches and (3) developing a decision-support strategy to use within the company for effective measurement, analysis and reuse according to a CE perspective.FindingsThe analyses carried out throughout Barilla's soft wheat bread supply chain provide an interesting example of a circular management system since almost nothing is lost or wasted while the value of resources is recovered through reuse thanks to a systematic and integrated measurement, representing a basis for effectively minimizing waste. The importance of developing an interconnected supply chain management emerged in order to obtain a comprehensive accounting framework for accurately quantifying and reporting the overall amount of wastage generated in the various phases of food production, paying particular attention to ex ante prevention initiatives and ex-post assessment actions.Originality/valueAn interdisciplinary approach integrating circular economy and supply chain management research streams was adopted in order to develop a decision-support tool that also includes the identification of the main facilitators and obstacles to the implementation of a comprehensive standardized accounting process that would enable companies to reduce-reuse-recycle losses and waste throughout the entire production process. Besides the studies available in the literature, the original of this study is that it focuses on organizational implications related to FLW measurement.

Agricultural waste is a huge pool of untapped biomass resources that may even represent economic and environmental burdens. They can be converted into bioenergy and bio-based products by cascading conversion processes, within circular economy, and should be considered residual resources. Major challenges are discussed from a transdisciplinary perspective, focused on Europe situation. Environmental and economic consequences of agricultural residue management chains are difficult to assess due to their complexity, seasonality and regionality. Designing multi-criteria decision support tools, applicable at an early-stage of research, is discussed. Improvement of Anaerobic Digestion (AD), one of the most mature conversion technologies, is discussed from a technological point of view and waste feedstock geographical and seasonal variations. Using agricultural residual resources for producing high-value chemicals is a considerable challenge analysed here, taking into account innovative eco-efficient and cost-effective cascading conversion processes (bio-refinery concept). Moreover, the promotion of agricultural residues-based business is discussed through industrial ecology, to promote synergy, on a local basis, between different agricultural and industrial value chains. Finally, to facilitate a holistic approach and optimise materials and knowledge flows management, the connection of stakeholders is discussed to promote cross-sectorial collaboration and resource exchange at appropriate geographic scales.

In critical times when disasters and unpredicted events collapse human judgments, formation and structure of social infrastructure gets to be rather important. Acute risk of catastrophic events such as a rare disaster, a coronavirus pandemic, trigger a global scale setback which has a substantial impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Catastrophic events halt economic landscape, collapse commodity prices, and silence production engines which interact in complex ways. During this phase of volatility and opacity, roles of sustainable supply chain, productions and circular economy get more important than ever. Such disruptions are therefore to be addressed by identifying sustainable supply chain strategies. This paper intends to establish underlying patterns of disruptive factors in the supply chain to evaluate strategies in formation and structuring of sustainable supply chain by applying it to real world example in Turkish Kitchen Equipment Manufacturer (KEM). Selection of sustainable supply chain strategy is a complex Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) issue involving various parameters that may be contradictory at the same time. Analytical-Hierarchy-Process (AHP) and VlseKriterijumska-Optimizacija-I-Kompromisno-Resenje (VIKOR) methods can be used to solve such problems. In order to strengthen these methods in terms of their lacking capability of coping with uncertainty and incomplete information, they are extended with Interval-Valued Picture-Fuzzy Set (IVPFS) to better simulate human judgment. MCDM processes can be enhanced with Group-Decision-Making (GDM) to combine individual Decision Makers’ (DMs) opinions into group judgments. Found outcome reveal that supply chains to respond catastrophic disruptions, businesses should primarily diversify supply chain from a geographic perspective, and should diversify disruptive forces in motion from a physical perspective. Originality of article is based on integrated AHP and VIKOR approaches in IVPFS based GDM algorithm as a first in the literature and presentation of its application for supply chain sustainability in catastrophic disruptions as a decision support tool.

“Estimating the recoverable value of in-situ building materials”

Rising concerns about the impacts that the road engineering industry is imposing to the environment have redirected national road authorities to firmly re-consider the sustainability implications of their operations. Lately, though, sustainability has established a forceful correlation with the Circular Economy and its principles. The road engineering industry, therefore, is moving towards more circular approaches. However, this is occurring without the assessment of the potential impacts of such a transition. For this reason, in this study, a composite indicator, namely, Environmental Sustainability and Circularity indicator (ESCi), for investigating the potential effects that increased circularity could have at the environmental sustainability of asphalt mixtures is developed. It can be utilized as a decision-making support tool from stakeholders involved in both asphalt mixture production and road pavement management. In addition, in this study, four asphalt mixtures with different percentages of Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) were assessed in terms of their “cradle-to-gate” environmental impacts and circularity, by means of Life Cycle Assessment, and Material Circularity Index, respectively. Their fatigue and permanent deformation performances play a key role in the assessment and distinctive results obtained for the asphalt mixtures with increasing RA% and thus, significant environmental benefits and increased circularity are observed after specific RA% thresholds.

Resources and waste strategies have recently seen a shift in focus from weight-based recycling targets to impact-driven policies. To support this transition, numerous decision-support tools were developed to help identify waste streams with the highest impacts. However, the majority of these tools focus solely on greenhouse gas emissions and show a narrow picture of the overall environmental impacts. Furthermore, they cover burdens associated with direct waste management activities and hence fall short when it comes to highlighting the substantial benefits that can be achieved by preventing waste in the first place. This paper quantitatively demonstrates the necessity to adopt impact-based targets that go beyond estimating the greenhouse gas emissions of waste and highlights the substantial benefits of waste reduction and prevention. Using a state-of-the-art waste environmental footprint tool, the paper quantifies the overall environmental impacts of Scotland's household waste and shows how targeting ‘heavy’ materials does not necessarily have the highest overall environmental benefit. Results show that embodied environmental impacts of household waste dominate the total environmental burdens, contributing more than 90% to the whole life cycle impacts, and hence policymakers should prioritise interventions that aim at waste reduction and prevention. Moreover, our analysis shows that food and textile wastes are high-priority materials in Scotland, with the largest contribution to overall environmental burdens; up to 42% and 30%, respectively. Considering the overall environmental impacts of specific waste materials will enable policymakers to develop more granular and targeted interventions to accelerate our transition to a sustainable circular economy.

Implementation of resource recovery technologies is becoming increasingly important, as humans are exhausting the world's natural resources. Recovering nutrients and water from wastewater treatment systems will play an important role in changing the current trends towards a circular economy. However, guidance is still needed to determine the most appropriate way to do this. In this study two decision-support tools, sanitation planning software (Santiago) and life cycle assessment (LCA), were applied to identify appropriate technologies and their environmental impacts. As a case study, current and alternative scenarios for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Campo Grande, west-central Brazil, were used. Among 12 scenarios provided by Santiago for efficient nutrient recovery, eight were selected for further assessment. The current WWTP system (UASB reactors) resulted in the highest negative impacts in two of nine assessment categories (freshwater and marine eutrophication), due to nutrient discharge to water. A source separation scenario with urine stored in a urine bank and co-composting of feces showed best overall performance. Electricity consumption played a crucial role for impacts in several categories, while water consumption was not significantly affected by choice of toilet. One Santiago scenario matched the most appropriate scenario with the best environmental performance, but the other seven scenarios were not as beneficial, indicating a need for some adjustments in the software. These results highlight the importance of performing LCA to compare alternative scenarios, even when using a tool designed to identify locally appropriate technologies. The results also indicate that the current wastewater treatment system has reasonable environmental performance, but could be improved if measures were taken to recover energy and reuse water.

Mining operations are integral to industrial development and economic growth, but they generate substantial waste, posing severe environmental and health risks. The environmental footprint of mining operations is significantly influenced by the nature and management of mining waste, which includes overburden, tailings, smelting slag, chemical effluents, radioactive residues, and gaseous emissions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of these waste types, their associated ecological concerns, and prevailing mitigation strategies. Emphasis is placed on the adoption of science-based, economically viable, and scalable solutions that align with circular economy principles. A novel decision-support tool, the Composite Mining Waste Management Index (CMWMI) was developed to evaluate and rank various waste management strategies using weighted criteria: environmental effectiveness, economic feasibility, technological maturity, and scalability. The index reveals that backfilling and dry stacking score highest in sustainability and practicality. This integrative framework enables policymakers, engineers, and environmental managers to make informed decisions that enhance the sustainability of mining activities while mitigating long-term ecological and public health risks. Advanced technological solutions, including AI-driven waste monitoring, tailings reprocessing, bioremediation, and carbon capture, were examined for their role in minimizing the environmental footprint of mining activities. Regulatory frameworks and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives were also discussed as crucial elements in enforcing sustainable mining practices. The study offers a replicable framework that can be tailored to specific mining contexts to guide responsible waste management, promote circular economy integration and ecological sustainability.

Circular Economy indicators for supply chains: A systematic literature review

(Enhanced) landfill mining (ELFM) is a sustainable waste management strategy which supports the circular economy and reduces the environmental risks related to landfills. To facilitate and encourage stakeholders to launch (E)LFM-projects, RAWFILL has developed (1) an Enhanced Landfill Inventory Framework (ELIF), (2) an innovative landfill characterization methodology combining geophysical imaging and guided sampling (HADESS) and (3) a two-step Decision Support Tool (DST) to allow smart (E)LFM-project planning and prioritization. Based on the Interreg Europe COCOON experiences, the (E)LFM-concept was broadened to Dynamic Landfill Management (DLM), a sustainable and active long-term management of former landfills. DSTs improve decision-making by increasing the efficiency and lowering the uncertainty. The two-step approach offers an efficient and cost-effective solution. The DST 1 (Cedalion) requires limited data and provides guidance to the next step. The result is a ranking score on 4 scenario’s: waste to materials, waste to energy, waste to land interim use. The DST 2 (Orion) provides an overview of relevant tools that can assist the user in the further project development, like estimations about the feasibility of a business case, simulating scenario’s or finding sustainable interim solutions. The latter, interim use, is the novelty in this dual DST and should be seen as a loop in the roadmap. To summarize, the innovative approach of RAWFILL is the broadening of the resource scope at landfills and their comprehensive management, spanning the whole project cycle: from first screening to final redevelopment, including sustainable management and interim uses.

Climate change represents the most significant threat of the 21st century, exposing cities worldwide to a range of pressures which negatively affect citizens’ wellbeing and degradate ecosystem health. Circular economy principles emerge as a promising solution, offering innovative pathways to enhance city resilience, optimize resource use, and improve overall urban living conditions. This paper examines the integration of Circular Economy (CE) principles within the New European Bauhaus (NEB) framework, emphasizing their synergistic potential for promoting sustainable urban development. It provides foundational insights into the concepts of CE and NEB, establishing a comprehensive understanding of their interconnections. Using a mixed-method approach that combines inductive and deductive reasoning, the proposed study critically analyses various circular city programs to identify key investment sectors which align with CE and NEB objectives. Furthermore, this research sets the basis for a novel decision-support tool based on the identified investment sectors, aimed at facilitating the evaluation and implementation of urban transformation strategies that align with both CE and NEB paradigms. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to offer cities and communities a structured framework that supports their transition toward sustainable, circular development, contributing to the creation of more resilient and inclusive urban environments.