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The Circular Economy: An interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alan Murray, Professor Kathryn Haynes

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Abstract

There have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development. The Circular Economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. This set of ideas has been adopted by China as the basis of their economic development (included in both the 11^th and the 12^th ‘Five Year Plan’), escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and NGOs.This paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the Circular Economy, tracing its meanings and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology, and discusses how the Circular Economy has been operationalized in business and policy. The paper finds that while the Circular Economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials, which may contribute to more sustainable business models, it also encapsulates tensions and limitations. These include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions, and some unintended consequences. This leads us to propose a revised definition of the Circular Economy as “an economic model wherein planning, resourcing, procurement, production and reprocessing are designed and managed, as both process and output, to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well-being”

Publication metadata

Author(s): Murray A, Skene K, Haynes K

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Business Ethics

Year: 2017

Volume: 140

Issue: 3

Pages: 369-380

Print publication date: 01/02/2017

Online publication date: 22/05/2015

Acceptance date: 12/05/2015

Date deposited: 28/05/2015

ISSN (print): 0167-4544

ISSN (electronic): 1573-0697

Publisher: Springer Netherlands

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2

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