Special Issue "Circular Economy and Corporate Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Eléonore Maitre-Ekern
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Private Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Interests: circular economy; sustainability; sustainable business models; product policy; EU environmental law; ecological law; Nordic governance
Prof. Beate Sjåfjell
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Interests: corporate law; corporate governance; sustainability; duties of the board; planetary boundaries; social foundation; EU law; law and economics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Jukka Mähönen
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Private Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Interests: corporate law; cooperative law; corporate governance; sustainability; accounting; reporting; auditing; EU law; Nordic governance; sustainable business models; law and economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The time has come for fundamental change. To ensure prosperity for humanity in the long term and recovery from the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, transformation to sustainability is necessary. Achieving sustainability—i.e., a safe and just operating space for humanity—requires changing the way the business operates.

In this Special Issue, we seek to combine the two parallel debates on how to achieve a circular economy and how to achieve business that contributes to sustainability (corporate sustainability). While there is some overlap between these two debates, our aim is to integrate them, joined together through the recognition that neither a circular economy nor incremental corporate sustainability initiatives are sufficient if they do not contribute to achieving sustainability.

A circular economy cannot be one that is only more resource-efficient. It must be one that is resource sufficient, one that uses enough resources to facilitate the securing of the social foundation for humanity and does it in a way that ensures that we stay within the limits of our planet. Corporate sustainability initiatives must ensure that patterns of production and selling techniques that foster linear, narrowly focused business models are replaced with circular ones that broadly engage with and promote global sustainability goals. Positioning the corporate sustainability discussion within the discourse of how to achieve a sustainable circular economy highlights that we need to see transformational change in business as a part of a broader transitioning of our economy.

In this Special Issue, we aim to feature a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research contributions that propose solutions, whether for new policies and legislative reforms, for changes within the business, or for channeling other societal, economic, or financial incentives towards achieving sustainable business as an element of the transition towards a sustainable circular economy.

We invite contributions across a range of themes including the following topics:

  • Analysis of circular economy regimes in light of broader sustainability goals.
  • Integrating social justice in a circular economy.
  • Promoting the transition to sustainable business models.
  • Sustainable value creation as an element of a sustainable circular economy.
  • The content and implications of mandatory sustainability due diligence.
  • Sustainability reporting in a sustainable circular economy.
  • Bringing global value chains into a sustainable circular business model.
  • The role of employees and workers in a sustainable circular economy.
  • From consumers to sustainability-oriented citizens.
  • Banking and finance in a sustainable circular economy.
  • Intellectual property rights as a driver of and an obstacle to a sustainable circular economy.
  • Competition in a sustainable circular economy.

Dr. Eléonore Maitre-Ekern
Prof. Beate Sjåfjell
Prof. Jukka Mähönen
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

  • circular economy
  • sustainability
  • planetary boundaries
  • social foundation
  • business
  • corporate purpose
  • business strategies
  • sustainability strategies
  • sustainable finance
  • sustainable production and consumption
  • sustainable business models
  • sustainable value creation
  • due diligence
  • financial risks of unsustainability
  • EU Green Deal
  • citizens
  • stakeholders

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Sustainability Concepts in Nordic Business Research: A Critical Perspective
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5160; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095160 - 05 May 2021
Viewed by 486
Abstract
Current sustainability challenges force companies to radically rethink their operations to account for their business models’ long-term ecological and social impact. Scholarly works on the topic reveal no solid consensus in defining sustainability for businesses, echoing the sustainability discourse in general. Such lack [...] Read more.
Current sustainability challenges force companies to radically rethink their operations to account for their business models’ long-term ecological and social impact. Scholarly works on the topic reveal no solid consensus in defining sustainability for businesses, echoing the sustainability discourse in general. Such lack of clarity might in turn detrimentally impact the business logic that can arrive from such sustainability concepts. The few existing typological reviews of sustainable business literature are lacking in their investigation of underlying theoretical frameworks of sustainability and, more importantly, the implications of their application are largely missing. This study describes and analyses the main sustainability concepts identified in a body of 69 scientific articles from the field of sustainable business literature. Secondly, it proposes a basic sustainability taxonomy to support a critical discussion, and implications of the sustainability concepts, in both discourse and practical application. The findings suggest a predominance of concepts that only partly encompass the key aspects of sustainability, such as social and ecological issues, and long-term perspectives, and they lack the systemic understanding present in fields such as the Earth Sciences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Circular Economy and Corporate Sustainability)
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