Operational principles of circular economy for sustainable development: Linking theory and practice

By Brais Suárez-Eiroa, E. Fernández, G. Méndez-Martínez, David Soto-Oñate. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019

534 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The scientific literature about circular economy (CE) is scarce yet, and both conceptual discussions and the development of practical strategies for its implementation are still emerging. Although CE systems are currently being implemented, CE goals and principles need to be better considered and translated into actions, and more coordinated actions among different levels of implementation are necessary. In this research we conduct a review of the scientific literature relative to CE and propose operational principles which join the theoretical goals of CE within the sustainable development framework to practical strategies of implementation. This research resulted in seven operational principles: i) adjusting inputs to the system to regeneration rates, ii) adjusting outputs from the system to absorption rates, iii) closing the system, iv) maintaining the value of resources within the system, v) reducing the system's size, vi) designing for CE, and vii) educating for CE. It is important to emphasize the role of design and education as transversal elements. A new definition and a new conceptual model of CE are also proposed.

Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Marketing, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ab61b78b0d6f5b03c30ba449027b23cd32d3d2f7

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Citations in the corpus

Identifying the Equilibrium Point between Sustainability Goals and Circular Economy Practices in an Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Context Using Eco-Design (2019, background): “It promotes key strategic objectives, such as generating economic growth (Busu 2019), creating jobs, and reducing environmental impacts, including carbon emissions (Suárez-Eiroa et al. 2019).”
Assessing relations between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0: a systematic literature review (2019, background): “0) represent the two most important industrial paradigms driving academia and industry in recent years (Suárez-Eiroa et al. 2019; Rüßmann et al. 2015).”
Circular Economy Contributions to the Tourism Sector: A Critical Literature Review (2020, background): “[39] argue that a circular economy is a regenerative production–consumption system that aims to maintain extraction rates of resources and generation rates of wastes and emissions under suitable values for planetary boundaries, through closing the system, reducing its size and maintaining the resour”
Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy in European SMEs: Investigating the Role of Green Jobs and Skills (2021, background): “Since then, scholars and practitioners dedicated their attention to it, in order to identify principles and practices for its concrete implementation into the economic system (Lieder and Rashid, 2016; Suarez-Eiroa et al., 2019).”
Circular economy performance assessment methods: A systematic literature review (2019, background): “, 2017), involving also companies and policy-makers (Suárez-Eiroa et al., 2019) and impelling the redaction of legislative directions mainly in Europe (EC, 2008) and China (CCICED, 2008).”