Resources & Publications

The circular economy is coming. Governments across the world, from the EU [1], to China, Japan [2] and Latin America [3] are adopting circular strategies as part of their environmental action plans. The list of pioneering businesses adopting the circular economy as a means to reduce linear risks, generate new revenues, and reduce costs continues to grow.[4][5][6] However, despite—or rather because of—circular innovations happening at every scale around the world, more specific definitions and categorisations of what does or does not belong under the umbrella term ‘circular economy’ remain ambiguous. 

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide [8][9]. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. The Framework consists of:

• Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
• Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.

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WHAT IS IT? 

The Key Elements framework is a conceptual framework of eight elements of circularity that can be applied at different intervention levels (for example, national, regional, sector, business, product, process, or material) towards a circular economy. 

The KE framework consists of three core elements and five enabling elements. Core elements deal with physical flows directly, whilst enabling elements deal with creating the conditions or removing barriers, for a circular transition. 

Core elements

The core elements align with other common frameworks related to the circular economy and, specifically, the handling of physical flows. Represented below are the core elements as corresponding to Bocken’s Flows [10]—widely applied to various systems, the 10R framework, the 5R Framework (a simplified 10R) most commonly applied to supply chains and manufacturing, and the Ellen Macarthur Foundations’s principles of the circular economy [11][12][13].

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Enabling elements

The KE are thus unique because they include enabling elements. Despite the increased interest in, and efforts towards, executing core elements of the circular economy, there are persistent obstacles to their implementation. Some of the main obstacles to achieving the transition are that dominant economic incentives largely rely on traditional, linear ways of creating value. A lack of systems that keep track of cycled resources; recover resources from existing products, and a general lack of awareness and knowledge about the circular economy all hinder the transition.

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Enabling elements can accelerate uptake of circularity by removing some of these obstacles. These are represented in the following table.

WHO IS IT FOR?

The KE Framework is suitable for a wide audience who require a comprehensive framework that is easy to remember and communicate to different audiences. It is fitting for speakers, policymakers, and journalists to guide conversations, as well as for educators to design workshops, exercises and learning resources for circularity. It can also be used by strategists, analysts and researchers who are looking to perform novel research about circularity in a given context. In this case, such a comprehensive framework helps to structure research and catalogue information.

HOW CAN THE FRAMEWORK BE USED IN PRACTICE?

Frameworks based on the circular economy can make the concept more accessible, easier to compare to other systems and, in this way, encourage its application across contexts. 

The KE framework can be used at a high level, but can also be applied at different levels to design strategies or structure research. The KE framework has been a prominent framework across a variety of Circle Economy’s projects in the past few years. 

The list below demonstrates the vast variety of its applications, both in terms of scale and intervention level.

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Regional application

1. Developing circular strategies that can be applied globally, such as in the Global Circularity Gap Reports;
2. Developing circular strategies at the country level, such as in the National Circularity Gap Reports;
3. Developing circular strategies for cities in the City Scan Process;

Businesses application strategy

1. To structure and develop KPIs such as in the Rockwool Business Scan
2. To educate and inspire businesses such as in this Miro Brainstorming Tool;
3. As a framework underpinning the Circular Design Workshops for cohorts of businesses
   

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Research application 

1. Classifying sectors to circularity for use in modelling such as in the Circularity Gap Reports;
2. Aggregating different types of circular jobs in the Circular Jobs Monitor; 

Digital application

1. The basis of aggregating an organisation’s or a community of organisations’ opportunities for circularity such as  in the Circle Assessment Tool or the Circle Fashion Tool which is specific to Textiles organisations;
2. Classifying companies and case studies in the Knowledge Hub, an online repository of over 3000 case studies.

HOW WAS IT DEVELOPED?

Initially, the KE was created by mapping the various terms and definitions used by over 20 organisations—NGOs, government agencies, academia, consultancies, and more—working on elements of the topic. After interpreting and grouping these various terms, seven key elements emerged that defined the majority of terms linked to the circular economy. 

Since then, the KE has been continuously researched in line with the ever-growing literature on defining circularity and its enabling conditions. A recent literature review of circular economy strategies in play today uncovered the gap of strategies related to knowledge. This literature review houses a detailed description of each element and will be released in the coming weeks and can be found in a summarised form in our upcoming updated Knowledge Hub. With its addition, our seven key elements will become the eight key elements. 

The ongoing practical work of our organisation also complements the development process of the KE Framework. This ranges from developing circular strategies, delivering training and workshops, and designing and developing methodologies and digital products across more than 125 nations, cities and business around the world with over 3000 stakeholders. [14]

DISCUSSION

The KE Framework is robust in its structure of core and enabling elements and has proven its success across a variety of contexts. We have developed, or are currently developing, related strategy frameworks for nations, cities and products. However, these need to be continuously reviewed with stakeholders and updated accordingly. Related strategy frameworks for other territorial units—such as regions, businesses, sector analysis, materials—should also be researched and created. 

The core elements are consistent across intervention levels, although the strategies differ according to the context. Enabling elements differ according to the context and scale of application of circularity and may not need to be applied in every context. These applications need to be researched continuously in line with the evolution and maturity of circular economies.

Elements, or applied strategy frameworks, need to be linked to appropriate success monitoring frameworks. This will allow us to track the successful implementation of circular strategies in different contexts. They need to also be linked to appropriate impact frameworks, first qualitatively (conceptually) and then enhanced through linking of quantitative indicators per scale. Coupled with the above success metrics for circular strategy implementation, this will allow us to track the impact of elements across different scales over time.

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References

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/

[2] https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/4/3/27

[3] https://www.ctc-n.org/technical-assistance/projects/assessment-current-status-circular-economy-developing-roadmap

[4] https://www.circle-economy.com/news/linear-risks-how-business-as-usual-is-a-threat-to-companies-and-investors

[5] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/companies-leading-way-to-circular-economy/

[6] https://mailchi.mp/circle-economy.com/knowledge-hub-3-0-access

[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344917302835

[8] https://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/decoupling-natural-resource-use-and-environmental-impacts-economic-growth

[9] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-economy

[10] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21681015.2016.1172124

[11] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-economy

[12] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335602859_Circular_Economy_30_-_Solving_confusion_around_new_conceptions_of_circularity_by_synthesising_and_re-organising_the_3R's_concept_into_a_10R_hierarchy

[13] https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/1-s2.0-s0921344917302756-main.pdf

[14] https://impact.circle-economy.com/

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Without a mandate, making a case for circularity in companies or governments can be difficult. The circular economy is still sometimes met with scepticism and there is an overwhelming amount of information to parse around circularity.

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To help circularity champions rally in support from others in their organisations, Circle Economy designed three toolkits that guide readers through the same process we follow when working with other companies, cities and countries on their journey toward circularity.

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The outcome: a credible brief you can share with your peers and seniors.

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Download the toolkits from the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative website below.

The Circularity Gap Report 2021 finds that circular economy strategies can cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 39% and help avoid climate breakdown. The 22.8 billion tonnes (Gt) of annual emissions associated with creating new products from virgin materials can be eliminated by applying circular strategies that drastically reduce the amount of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass consumed by the world’s economy.

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These circular strategies, 21 in total, can keep the planet on a well below 2°C trajectory by cutting emissions by 22.8 billion tonnes beyond what is achieved by current climate commitments, a 39% reduction from 2019 levels. They would also increase the proportion of materials that are reused from 8.6% to 17%, nearly doubling the circularity of the global economy.

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The report offers blueprints for action tailored to countries at different levels of development as they plan to stimulate economic recovery from the Covid pandemic and strengthen their climate commitments ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit in November 2021. Country leaders are presented with an opportunity: by integrating circular strategies with existing climate commitments, they can keep us on a path well below 2-degrees.

National governments hold a privileged position: the ability to lead the discussion on societal goals and facilitate collaboration between different actors within society, spurring welfare improvements for their citizens. In doing so, governments have at hand a set of instruments that span from setting national strategies and convening stakeholders, to informing citizens about national priorities, incentivising economic actors through specific instruments or issuing laws and regulations.

National governments play a key role in the transition to a circular economy because of their leadership position: they set the goals and enforce the rules of the game through fiscal and economic measures and regulations.

By building on previous research and analysing circular policies and policy tools in use around the world, we present a framework of policy instruments that can be used to support the transition to a circular economy at the national level.

Check out our Urban Policy Instruments Framework for a set of policies applicable at subnational level.

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This is a three tiered framework of policy instruments. Tier one indicates the key function that policy can have, Tier two presents key policy directions and Tier three presents the specific policy instruments that can be used by national policymakers to drive this change.

The key policy functions—Tier one—are:

• MOBILISE sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also dictating how this direction is determined and governed.
• EDUCATE increases the overall level of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.
• MANAGE influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the national environment. 
• INCENTIVISE sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.
• REGULATE changes the rules of the systems to achieve compliance through enforcement. 

Please refer to the PDF version of this content for the full framework, as well as illustrative examples.

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Who is it for?

This research and framework is aimed at professionals in the field of national policy, who are looking to structure and work with practical examples of how policy instruments are being applied across territories to advance the circular economy and other sustainability-related paradigms, such as green growth and eco-innovation. 

The tiered approach, global geographical coverage of the examples included and the number of case studies make this work suited for use by researchers, consultants and policy analysts, whose work spans from academic research to advisory roles in public institutions, think tanks and the like.

Researchers can use the framework to structure analysis or to guide learning and research, and highlight emerging patterns, differences or relationships among circular economy policies. 

Consultants may use the framework to establish a baseline for a nation, or to identify opportunities for policies that can support targets and goals. The framework is useful to structure analysis, and to extract a representative sample of cases for a given theme or region. 

Finally, policy analysts can also benefit from the framework as a means to structure analysis, put together a policy mix and navigate repositories of examples.

This framework helps policymakers from national governments distinguish between the diversity of available tools and instruments applied worldwide, which could be useful to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy within certain contexts. It also highlights a variety of priority areas, such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture, or waste management, among others. Also, in the case where the debate on circular economy is yet to start or in its initial stages, this framework could act as a guide for designing a robust set of policies for the country in question.

Tips for applying this framework

Evaluate what strategies and policies are in place already

Even if there is no explicit national circular economy strategy in place, there are likely several policies and strategies that already support the circular economy to some degree, and it is prudent not to 'throw the baby out with the bath water'. This assessment process could also help governments identify what institutional setting is necessary to move towards the achievement of circular economy goals. 

Establish the legislative mandate

Depending on legal structures, certain policies can be applied at different levels, from national to subnational. For example, the management of assets and land can take place at a national or subnational level, depending on the legislative mandate, as can the establishment of circular infrastructure or skills development, which can take place at the national level and then be applied to subnational. 

Firstly, evaluate the legislative mandate of your federal agency or the agency you are working with to shortlist policies that are relevant and able to be applied. Moreover, for the effective implementation of the policies nationwide, it is crucial to have clear and institutionalised communication between different levels of government.

For example, the Australian Government is working in coordination with state governments, funding waste management and recycling infrastructure projects through the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF). Through National Partnership Agreements, the states and territories will receive funding. The allocation of funding to specific projects is the responsibility of state and territory governments, which will assess their jurisdiction’s major gaps in local reprocessing capacity (case study).

Take a collaborative approach to selecting policies

As the circular economy is cross-cutting, the approach in selecting a policy mix should itself be cross-cutting—and involve multiple departments and federal agencies and illicit a participative approach with industry and citizens. Depending on the list of priorities the government set for its transition to circularity, the collaboration would imply teaming up with specific sectors and Ministries, or having stakeholders come together that represent different actors within the economy.

For example, in 2016 the national government in the Netherlands, issued the Circular Economy in the Netherlands by 2050: a country-wide programme to achieve full circularity by 2050. This national initiative is led by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, in coordination with the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Kingdom Relations, as well as the private sector, civil society organisations and research institutes. The broad collaboration for this programme is crucial as it has set five priority areas: the construction sector, biomass and food, consumer goods, plastics, and the manufacturing industry (Case study).

In some cases, the installation of specific institutions for the management of circular economy activities and monitoring of progress could be a good starting point. For example, in 2018 Chile opened a Circular Economy Office as part of the Ministry of Environment. This new office is tasked with the monitoring of regulatory activities regarding waste management, extended producer responsibility and the promotion of recycling (Case study).

Consider a policy mix

In order to support a circular intervention, a nation will likely design and employ a mix of policies, depending on context and which policies are already in place. The prioritisation of policies can and will differ across these contexts. Further to this, different policy instruments will vary for nations based on how far along they are in their circular transition and legislative mandates. 

For example, Italy wanted to introduce a technological standard for communicating the recycled content of products. To increase the visibility of such an initiative, Italian authorities partnered with an NGO formed by the National Association of Recyclers to develop a voluntary certification (label) based on the technological standard. To increase its adoption, the government introduced a regulation to integrate the certification as a requirement in its Green Public Procurement (GPP) process, and provided certified companies with the possibility of applying for subsidies and tax breaks (Case study).

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How was it developed? 

The framework has been developed based on a combination of academic literature and case studies. In its first iteration, the Toolkit for Policy Makers from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) served as the basis. Using this foundation, the Circle Economy team collected over 400 case studies of governments across the globe supporting the circular economy and attributed these to the policy instruments put forward in the toolkit.

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Check out 300+ examples of policies at national and subnational levels on Circle Economy’s Knowledge Hub.

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1. The framework was then enriched with policy instruments from academic and other literature through an extensive literature review. Next to the circular economy, this research also took into consideration research and practise in the related fields of eco-innovation, green growth and sustainable development policy. Subsequently, the framework was reviewed by experts and practitioners.
2. In the second iteration, we gathered examples of national policies in place across the globe—126 examples in total across six regions, as shown in Table One: Geographic Summary of References. This includes policies that are related to circular economy but not necessarily termed as such in policy documentation—for example, integrated waste management strategies, regenerative economies, or similar as defined in our Elements of the Circular Economy framework. A full list of policies can be seen in the references.

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What’s next for this framework? 

Circular economy goals and interventions often spin off of national waste management policies that came about as early as the 1950s and 1960s, and have been extended and refined to include more circular concepts around design, industrial symbiosis and regeneration. The circular economy can be linked to the broader sustainability and environmental management movement beyond waste management. For instance, environmental education covers ‘nature’ at all levels of education, and has evolved in line with developments in the field. This movement can be naturally extended to include circular economy in schools and workplace training. Further research on how best to tie circular economy policies into existing environmental, sustainability and waste management profiles, will improve the application of this framework in the development of a suitable policy or mix of policies. 

This framework includes policies as well as broader policy tools, so as to provide a larger set of ‘actions’ a national government can take to support a circular economy. This framework can be extended and improved by qualifying this more robustly, with differences across regions when required. Similarly, the framework can be extended to support profiling legislative mandates for different nations and regions.

Lastly, a final extension to the research will be to map the nation’s role in aligning with international standards and employing international cooperation, and how and where this should feature in the development of a circular economy national strategy.

We are striving to continually update our frameworks to ensure they remain relevant and are best suited to facilitate action. To this end, we welcome suggestions and comments on this framework from our Knowledge Community.

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Repository of CE National Strategies, Policies, sources and references 

Please see this public google sheet for a list of the documents used in the analysis.

Other sources

Bouwm, I.M., Gerritsen, A.L., Kamphorst, D.A., & Kistenkas, F.H. (2015). Policy instruments and modes of governance in environmental policies of the European Union: Past, present and future (WOt-technical report 60, pp. 1-46, Rep.). The Netherlands: Wageningen University. 

European Commission & International Institute for Labour Studies. (2011). Policy options and instruments for a green economy (Ser. 12, Joint Discussion Paper).  

Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade. (2012). Policy Instruments for sustainability. Retrieved from EJOLT Website  

Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2015). Delivering the circular economy: a toolkit for policymakers (pp. 1-177, Rep.). Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved from EMF Website 

Innovation Policy Platform. (n.d.) Universities and public research institutions. The Innovation Policy Platform, OECD & World Bank.  Retrieved from https://www.innovationpolicyplatform.org/content/universities-and-public-research-institutes 

Jordan, A,, Wurzel, R.K.W., & Zito, A. (2005). The rise of ‘new’ policy instruments in comparative perspective: Has governance eclipsed government? Political Studies,53, 477-496. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00540.x

Martínez, L., Aravena, A.H., Castello, N.F., & Urrutia, R.R. (2019). Economía circular y políticas públicas: Estado del arte y desafíos para la construcción de un marco político de promoción de economía circular en América Latina (pp. 1-76, Rep.). Lima: Centro de Innovación y Economía Circular. Retrieved from Konrad Adenauer Website  Matisoff, D. C., Noonan, D. S., & Flowers, M. E. (2016). Policy monitor—green buildings: Economics and policies. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 10(2), 329-346. doi:10.1093/reep/rew009

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2010). Regulatory policy and the road to sustainable growth (pp. 1-107, Rep.). Paris: OECD.  Retrieved from OECD Website  

OECD. (2011). Environmental taxation: A guide for policy makers. Paris: OECD.  Retrieved from OECD Website 

OECD. (2013). A toolkit of policy options to support inclusive green growth. Paris: OECD. Retrieved from OECD Website  

OECD. (2016). OECD policy instrument for the environment: Database documentation. Paris: OECD. Retrieved from  OECD Website 

Sánchez, Á.P. & Deza, X.V. (2015). Environmental policy and eco-innovation: An overview of recent studies. Innovar, 25(58), 65-80. doi:10.15446/innovar.v25n58.52426  

Silva, E. & Acheampong, R. (2015). Developing an inventory and typology of land-use planning systems and policy instruments in OECD Countries (pp. 1-52, Working paper No. 94). Paris: OECD.  Retrieved from OECD Website 

Tojo, N., Neubauer, A., & Bräuer, I. (2006). Waste management policies and policy instruments in Europe (pp. 1-108, Rep.). Lund: International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economies. Retrieved from Ecologic Website    

United Nations Environment Programme. (n.d.) Switch Africa green. Retrieved from UNEP Website 

White, R. & Heckenberg, D. (2012). Legislation, regulatory models and approaches to compliance and enforcement (pp. 1-27, Briefing paper No. 6). Tasmania: University of Tasmania. Retrieved from University of Tasmania Website  

Contributors & Editors

Luis Sosa - Research Analyst Circular Jobs Initiative

Alex Colloricchio - Sustainability Data Analyst

Marijana Novak - Data Strategist

Nicolas Raspail - Design Lead

Esther Goodwin Brown - Lead Circular Jobs Initiative

Natalia Papu - Researcher and Analyst – Circle Textiles Programme

Max Russell - Project Manager Cities

Matthew Fraser - Lead Circularity Gap Report Initiative

Laxmi Haigh - In House Journalist

Ana Birliga Sutherland - Editor & Research Intern

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As the Netherlands races to meet its climate and circular economy goals, it must make significant strides in a heavily polluting industry—construction—by meeting future demand for housing primarily through timber, according to a new report from the Community of Practice (CoP) Building with Wood (Houtbouw). The report details a value chain roadmap of how timber construction may develop in the Netherlands, illustrating enablers for a ‘Timber Revolution’ and barriers to realising this ideal.

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Download the full report in Dutch or explore the English Digest.

Cities and regions represent a key enabling environment for the circular economy. This Circle Region Scan is designed to reveal where opportunities lie for the circular economy in the Kongsvinger region (Norway), especially within the scope of the built environment value chain, a key area for regional development.

The Scan encompasses four sequential phases which form a guided process to develop and select the best circular economy strategies for the Kongsvinger region built environment value chain. 

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Report phase 1 & 2 - Published June 2020

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This first report presents the methodology, results and conclusions of Phase 1 (socio-economic analysis) and Phase 2 (material flow and build stock analysis) of the Circle Region Scan of the Kongsvinger region. This analysis  was the basis on which in the next  phases practical and  scalable pilot projects at a regional scale were developed.

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Report phase 3 & 4 - Published December 2020

This second report sets the ground for the region's built environment transition towards a circular economy. The document outlines the action plans that can support local and national stakeholders to implement the circular pilot projects defined through phases 3 (circular strategies) and 4 (action plans).

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You can access both through the Download link below.

This report by the Circular Jobs Initiative finds that combining the social and the circular economy agendas can facilitate an inclusive, just and safe labour market. Based on case studies of social enterprises and cooperatives engaged in circular activities, the report explores how the circular economy can benefit from integrating and collaborating with social economy organisations. While the social aspects of the circular economy remain underexplored, the social economy holds vital expertise that is needed to create the conditions, frameworks, and protections to ensure a just transition to circularity. The report provides recommendations for entrepreneurs, local and national policymakers to help them understand how they can be part of an ethical and inclusive circular economy.

This report by the Coalition Circular Accounting (CCA) finds that residual resources, which are now often categorised as 'waste', can be reused at their highest potential value if fair pricing is ensured. Using the example of IntelligentFood, a cooperative that turns residual biscuit dough into new products, the report shows how value chain partners can collaborate to add value and mitigate food waste, working together towards common circular goals. The report further provides insights into the financial, accounting and legal aspects of valorising food waste and the organisational challenges of being circular in a linear world.

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About the Coalition Circular Accounting

The Coalition Circular Accounting has been founded by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants (NBA) and Circle Economy to identify accounting related challenges in the circular economy. The coalition includes experts and scientists in the field of finance, accounting and law, who together create solutions to overcome barriers to circularity. 

Learn more about the coalition in this launch article.

Previous publications of the CCA

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The Circular Phone | Facades-as-a-service | The Circular Road

We, as individuals, buy products to fulfil our needs, from houses to food to electronics and other consumables. In powering our lifestyles with products, we use resources and produce emissions, thereby interacting indirectly with the environment and forming our environmental footprints. [1]

In this way, products are a tangible and accessible starting point to initiate circular change. Through products, we can consider the system in which those products operate, how they relate to academia, the public sector and the rest of the private sector, and how those actors and systems have to change to accommodate circular products. [2]

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Consider the design and production of a fully recyclable jacket, an impressive feat that can be owned and operationalised by the jacket company. In a circular economy, that jacket would be utilised at its maximum capacity and then cycled into another product. Considering that the company already produced the jacket, what are the role of the citizen, the retailer, and the municipality in ensuring the jacket and its constituents are actually cycled?

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WHAT IS IT? 

The DISRUPT framework is a comprehensive list of circular strategies for products. It includes 80 tangible strategies that provide guidance and inspiration for you to render your product circular. These are wide-ranging: design guidance, decisions concerning inputs, use, and end-of-life, business models and collaboration in the supply chain and in the use of digital technologies to support circularity.

The strategies are clustered to each of the relevant elements in the Key Elements Framework for ease of understanding and search, and therefore by construction, are grouped into core and enabling strategies as defined and used in the Elements.

For reference, core circular strategies concern activities that directly influence material flows: for instance, by selecting alternative inputs, or cycling materials back into the system. Core strategies should be directly linked to performance indicators that reflect the physical volumes of materials, water or emissions. 

When applied to products, core strategies would, for example, drive the selection of alternative biobased inputs to replace rarer or more emissions-intensive, yet traditional, materials, such as in the construction sector or for fuels. [3] A further example would be valorising product waste streams to ensure that the material, water and energy flows used to create and consume and dispose of the product are circular such as with organic streams, or plastics. [4], [5]

On the other hand, enabling strategies remove the barriers necessary for core circular strategies to prevail. These strategies encourage the conditions for circularity, but do not bring about a direct alteration to the material flows. 

In the context of products, an enabling strategy would establish rental of essentially second hand products which would, potentially but not necessarily extend their life and usage intensity as in some cases such markets lead to an increase in consumption [6]. Another example would be conducting big data analytics on product or material flows which might enable but not necessarily bring about decisions that reduce material usage strategically. This could be for financial, or political, or other practical reasons. [7]

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WHO IS IT FOR?

The DISRUPT Framework is for all product stakeholders who are looking to understand what strategies are possible to render products circular. This includes product developers, merchandising specialists, innovation managers, sourcing specialists, designers, product (line) managers and sustainability managers.

The strategies across the DISRUPT Framework can vary in prominence according to each product stakeholder and their own departmental priorities. Through this variance, the Framework can serve as a means to connect stakeholders and departments around circular strategies. 

The DISRUPT Framework, thanks to its comprehensiveness, is also useful for researchers to structure information. This could aid, for example, comparative analysis across typologies of organisations. 

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HOW CAN THE FRAMEWORK BE USED IN PRACTICE

The DISRUPT Framework is applied at the product level within an organisation. It, therefore, must be reapplied for every product line—although some strategies may have similar considerations in the context of the organisation. For example, procurement policies or available digital infrastructure may be consistent across product lines, but product design specifications or customer interactions will be unique and could even be considered independently.

The framework can also be used to conceptualise an idea in workshops which bring stakeholders together to brainstorm and select strategies that are relevant to investigate in the context of their product and organisation. Within Circle Economy, we use it most prominently in our On Course workshops for Fashion Brands.

The strategies should not be considered a checklist. This means that not every strategy is required to be implemented for a product to be circular. Strategies should be selected to support circularity goals in the context of the product and the organisation. The strategies can be combined in any number of ways to form a roadmap for product strategy development, and the strategies can be used as a means to rally and organise internal and external stakeholders.

We also use the DISRUPT framework across many of Circle Economy’s offerings.In the Circle Assessment Tool, it serves as the basis for self -assessment of circularity, as well as in the Circle Fashion Tool which has a specific application to fashion brands. The framework is in use in the Knowledge Hub—a digital repository of case studies about the circular economy—as a means to categorise case studies concerning circular products.

Lastly, the framework will be implemented in an upcoming Solution Provider Hub as a means to categorise organisations who support the implementation of circular product strategies across different domains. 

HOW WAS IT DEVELOPED

The DISRUPT Framework was developed alongside the expansion of the Key Elements. Through extensive secondary research and literature review, we gathered case studies, articles and examples—as well as from our own projects and reports—and categorised these to form the strategies, which we then clustered to form the elements.

The elements were then used as a starting point to rederive the detailed strategies. Drawing from the wealth of knowledge across the organisation, gaps were filled via extensive consultations with circular economy experts and the portfolios at Circle Economy. These include expert insights from Textiles, Cities, Built Environment and the Circularity Gap Report, as well as the 2,000+ case studies we uncovered whilst building the Knowledge Hub.

DISCUSSION 

The DISRUPT Framework strives to be a comprehensive set of product strategies, and consequently, it is in continuous development. As it continues to be applied in different contexts, we upgrade and edit strategies with practitioners to ensure a complete and useful set of strategies. 

The DISRUPT Framework can currently be applied predominantly to product-based organisations and needs to be revised to better accommodate service organisations. Furthermore, the DISRUPT Framework could be linked to interventions at different system levels, such as how the organisation has to change to accommodate a certain product strategy or examples of policies concerning certain product strategies in different regions or contexts. This would be useful in facilitating a multidimensional understanding of the implications of a certain product. 

To support operationalising circular strategies and building the surrounding ‘business case’: the DISRUPT Framework could be extended to house related performance indicators of strategies that can be applied at the organisational level, or more broadly in a city, a region or a nation. The uptake of a core strategy should directly influence metrics concerning material use of the product.  In measuring the success of enabling strategies, two tiered performance indicators are required. First to measure the success of the strategy itself, and then to measure its intended effect on physical volumes of materials, water or emissions—and the related core strategy.

And following this, extended again to include impact indicators for each strategy as well, for instance how a strategy contributes towards emissions reduction or even employment opportunities. 

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ENDNOTES

[1] Adopting a Circular Business Model: Opportunities and Challenges for the Supply Chain Management

[2] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fiona_Charnley/publication/303749092_The_circular_economy_-_a_reappraisal_of_the_'stuff'_we_love/links/57503c2508ae4eed2740bd8b.pdf

[3] https://www.energyagency.at/fileadmin/dam/pdf/projekte/klimapolitik/Carbon_accounting_of_material_substitution_with_biomass__Case_studies_for_Austira_investigated_with_IPCC_default_and_alternative_approaches.pdf

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873020/

[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618336722

[6] http://web.mit.edu/2.813/www/readings/Thomas2003.pdf

[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X17304951