Circular Economy and Sustainable Practices: Pathways to Green Growth and Resilience

Dear Colleagues,

The issues surrounding the environment have significantly shifted from a single focus on mitigating environmental harm (from a natural science perspective) to a multidimensional system of sustainable environmental impacts that encompass natural, social, and economic aspects. New concepts and subdivisions—such as the circular economy, life-cycle assessment, and the circular bioeconomy—have emerged, each relating directly or indirectly to the environmental concept and reflecting these three dimensions of sustainability. In a circular economy, we operate within a closed natural system made up of several steps that collectively emphasize reducing waste and increasing material recycling throughout production, distribution, and consumption, to maximize resource use while minimizing environmental impact. This understanding of the circular economy focuses on three pillars: minimizing waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in circulation, and revitalizing natural systems. Taking these core principles into account can yield economic value by using fewer factors of production, lowering emissions, and preserving the ecosystems that support the economy. This Special Issue of Resources invites submissions of recent theoretical, empirical, and practical research that focus on the circular economy concept and elucidate how it advances this framework while addressing the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability. Manuscripts submitted for this issue should seek to bridge the gap between the theoretical foundations of sustainability and the practical stages of the circular economy, including—but not limited to—reuse, repair, remanufacturing, sharing, and industrial symbiosis, all of which contribute to resource efficiency, climate change mitigation, and a just transition. Special attention should be placed on case studies that link production processes at the micro level (e.g., producers, firms) to broader scales of organization (e.g., urban, regional, or national levels). Note that all papers should consider a resource perspective to fit the scope of the journal.

(i) Focus

In this Special Issue, we place particular emphasis on examining the interconnections among the circular economy, sustainability, and resilience. Scholars and practitioners from both academia and industry are invited to explore how these relationships can enhance economic prosperity while fostering positive environmental outcomes.

(ii) Scope

This Special Issue seeks original and recent research contributions on the following topics within the broader scope of Resources, which can be accessed at the link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/resources/about

We are particularly interested in research outputs addressing one of the following topics:

• Circular transitions at different levels
• Circular business models, industrial symbiosis, and product–service systems
• Circular economy and waste management
• Circular economy and strategies for value retention
• Circular economy and material-based component applications in different industries (e.g., construction/manufacturing, agriculture)
• Circular economy and public governance, policy regulations, and legislative standards
• Circular economy and life cycle assessment, input–output analysis
• Circular economy in connection with the fundamental sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental, economic, and social)

(iii) Purpose

The purpose of this Special Issue is outlined as follows:

→ To fill the gap between academic research findings and the industries’demand on the concept of circular economy, green growth and resilience

→ To promote cross and transdisciplinary research with an emphasis on circular economy

→ To identify and discuss significant barriers to circular economy

→ To render a scientific atmosphere by advocating a system of thinking that aims to build sound promising economies by reducing environmental degradation

Relationship with Existing Literature

The literature shows that the earliest article to raise the issue of the circular economy dates back to 2012. It is entitled “Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and Business Rationale for an Accelerated Transition,” published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The article discusses the principles of the circular economy, in which production processes are viewed as circular systems where no material is wasted but instead reproduced, refurbished, recycled, or composted. Subsequent studies have examined the relationship between the circular economy and issues such as climate change, waste management, biodiversity loss, and pollution (e.g., Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2019; Elkington, 1997; Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Ghisellini et al., 2016; Kirchherr et al., 2017; Korhonen et al., 2018). Despite these efforts, the literature still lacks an in-depth discussion of the frameworks and interconnections linking the circular economy with green growth and resilience theory across environmental, ecological, and socio-economic dimensions (e.g., Kennedy and Linnenluecke, 2022; Yaroson et al., 2024). This Special Issue aims to build a bridge between these theoretical issues and real-world challenges, ultimately integrating the concepts of sustainability and resilience theory.

Keywords:  (5–10)

life cycle assessment; systems thinking; industrial symbiosis; green growth; resilience theory; regenerative systems; waste prevention and valorization; sustainable supply chains

References:

Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st-century business. Capstone, Oxford

Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2019). Circularity indicators: an approach to measuring circularity – methodology. Ellen MacArthur Foundation and ANSYS Granta.

Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The circular economy – A new sustainability paradigm? Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 757–768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048.

Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C., & Ulgiati, S. (2016). A review on circular economy: The expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 114, 11–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007.

Kennedy, S. and M.K. Linnenluecke (2022), "Circular economy and resilience: A research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol.31, No.6, pp.2754–1765, https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3004

Kirchherr, J., Reike, D., & Hekkert, M. (2017). Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 127, 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005

Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A., & Seppälä, J. (2018). Circular economy: The concept and its limitations. Ecological Economics, 143, 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.06.041.

Yaroson, E.V., Chowdhury, S., Mangla, S.K., Dey, P., Chan, F.T.S. and M. Roux (2024), “A systematic literature review exploring and linking circular economy and sustainable development goals in the past three decades (1991–2022),” International Journal of Production Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2023.2270586

Dr. Morteza Haghiri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Resources is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• life cycle assessment
• systems thinking
• industrial symbiosis
• green growth
• resilience theory
• regenerative systems
• waste prevention and valorization
• sustainable supply chains