Moving the Circular Economy from Concept to Business Strategy and Operations – The Conference Board

Government policy, non-governmental organization (NGO) evaluations and advocacy, and university research each perform important roles in this transition. However, the primary focus and responsibility for circular economy implementation lies in the management and strategic alignment of value chains across individual business sectors as this will be the area of greater impact and market scale.

There are major structural challenges to advancing circular economy thinking and applications. While there remain many knowledge gaps in operationalizing circular economy opportunities, they alone are not a principal obstacle to success. Among the more important are:

• Underpriced commodities that generate overconsumption of materials and natural resources
• Absence of circular economy planning in product design and development.
• Complicated logistics management that stems from insufficient collaboration among suppliers, product producers, and customers.
• Lack of robust markets for commercializing used products and reducing their costs through scale.
• Insufficient engagement from consumers in connecting their purchasing behavior to more sustainable beliefs and lifestyles. 

Two major keys for operationalizing circular economy’s potential for value creation lie in the examination of business models for specific enterprises and the development of collaboration strategies necessary for scaling business solutions.

Read the full article here.