Special Issue "Circular Economy for Sustainable Development"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marina De Pádua Pieroni
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Independent Researcher, Copenhagen, Denmark
Interests: circular economy; sustainability; product–service systems; business models; service innovation
Dr. Mariia Kravchenko
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Independent Researcher, Copenhagen, Denmark
Interests: circular economy; sustainability assessment; performance indicators; sustainability strategy; environmental management system
Prof. Daniela C. A. Pigosso
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Interests: circular economy; sustainable design; eco-design; eco-innovation; innovation processes; product–service systems (PSS); change management and business process management; rebound effects
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Tim C. McAloone
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Interests: product–service systems (PSS); eco-design; sustainable development; eco-innovation; circular economy; product development; design and innovation
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The circular economy is considered a promising approach toward sustainable development and is increasingly attracting a significant amount of attention from governments and companies. In the European Union, for example, The Circular Economy Action Plan is one of the main pillars of the European Green Deal. In companies, diverse circular economy programs have emerged to drive sustainability visions, for example, Novo Nordisk’s Circular for Zero strategy.

The enhanced commitment to circular economy within sustainability agendas is definitely a positive sign. However, if not properly planned and executed, a circular economy might not lead to more sustainable solutions.  Many variables and trade-offs need to be analyzed to achieve a suitable balance among economic, environmental and social aspects. Moreover, it is important to manage rebound effects that might appear as unintended consequences of proposed actions. On top of this, better alignment of approaches and tools is required to help industry and regions to understand how to influence and drive the development and implementation of circular economy solutions that contribute positively to sustainable development.

This Special Issue calls for a more critical discussion about how circular economy can contribute to sustainable development. The aim is to create a collection of rigorous research articles that explore, examine, and make proposals of which conditions and mechanisms can push the circular economy to play in favor of sustainable development. We invite articles integrating a system perspective (i.e., economic, environmental, and social interconnectedness) and addressing topics from the conceptualization to execution of a sustainable circular economy in industrial systems and regions. Both reviews and prescriptive and experimental research demonstrating sustainable circular economy in industry and regions are welcome.

Authors are welcome to contribute on the following topics:

  • Conceptualizing a sustainable circular economy;
  • Circular economy and sustainability frameworks, including links and comparison;
  • Circular economy contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
  • Metrics, indicators, and assessment approaches for sustainable circular economy;
  • Trade-offs between sustainability and circular economy;
  • Rebound effects of circular economy and mitigation strategies;
  • Social sustainability of circular economy;
  • Scenarios and pathways for sustainable circular economy across industrial sectors and regions;
  • Methods and tools for sustainable circular economy transition (e.g., business modeling, product design, circular supply chains, closing the loop);
  • Policies and incentives for sustainable circular economy.

Dr. Marina De Pádua Pieroni
Dr. Mariia Kravchenko
Prof. Daniela C. A. Pigosso
Prof. Dr. Tim C. McAloone
Guest Editors

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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • sustainable circular economy
  • sustainability frameworks
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • metrics, indicators, and assessment approaches
  • social sustainability
  • scenarios and pathways
  • methods and tools for sustainable circular economy
  • policies and incentives for sustainable circular economy

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Circular Economy at the Firm Level: A New Tool for Assessing Maturity and Circularity
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5288; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095288 - 09 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 762
Abstract
Although the circular economy (CE) concept is gaining traction and methods to assess companies’ CE-related aspects exist, there is no established CE assessment tool. In many cases, it is not clear how metrics or indicators included in extant CE assessment methods have been [...] Read more.
Although the circular economy (CE) concept is gaining traction and methods to assess companies’ CE-related aspects exist, there is no established CE assessment tool. In many cases, it is not clear how metrics or indicators included in extant CE assessment methods have been selected. To fill this gap, this paper presents a new instrument named Circularity and Maturity Firm-Level Assessment tool (CM-FLAT). The CM-FLAT has been developed starting from a transparent scientific basis, i.e., a recent systematic literature review and comprehensive collection of CE metrics. In addition, it targets the separate assessment of CE maturity, i.e., the presence of documented activities and practices laying the foundations for CE introduction, and circularity, i.e., attained CE-related performances. The development of the CM-FLAT has foreseen its formal evaluation by experts in the field of CE and sustainability, and its testing by a pilot group of companies from South Tyrol, Italy. The multiple verification activities have confirmed its usefulness and usability. Therefore, companies can now benefit from a tool capable of providing a comprehensive framework of factors and organizational areas affecting the introduction of the CE. This will be fostered by a computer-supported tool implementing the CM-FLAT, which represents the authors’ future work. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy for Sustainable Development)
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