Circular Benchmark

The circular economy is a concept that has gained strong momentum lately, as researchers insist on the urgency to move away from a linear economy as a system that generates extreme amount of waste and exacerbates the climate crisis. However, the global economy is still less than 8.6% circular and it is only getting worse, according to Circle Economy’s  latest Circularity Gap Report report. Several companies have already committed to implementing circular principles, but much more needs to be done. This is why Circular is one of the seven system transformations the World Benchmarking Alliance has identified as crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Aim

We believe that a wide application of circularity becomes increasingly necessary and should not be limited to a niche set of companies as a wide transformation of the economy is necessary. This is why we have identified  750 companies, spanning a dozen of industries, that will be benchmarked on their circular efforts. The first stage of this process involved a scoping study focused on the fashion industry, and we aim to expand our methodology report in 2021 to reflect a wider picture of circular business models elsewhere.

Scope

To dig deeper into the circular economy’s current practices, we conducted a scoping study with the support of  Laudes Foundation  (formerly C&A Foundation) to understand what the best circular metrics and indicators are already available to companies, particularly in the fashion industry, and assess whether the environmental and social impact of circularity is properly considered by these metrics, seeking to anticipate negative  unintended consequences  for instance. More importantly, the scoping study investigates to what extent transparency, and more specifically, public disclosure mechanisms, can be used to overcome the lack of incentives to create data, standards and science-based targets around circular business models. The outcome of this study includes a set of recommendations on how to use public disclosure to accelerate the shift to a regenerative and restorative system.