The emergence of circular economy: a new framing around prolonging resource productivity

In this article we use Hirsch and Levin’s (1999) notion of ‘umbrella concepts’ as an analytical lens, in order to articulate the valuable catalytic function the circular economy concept could perform in the waste and resource management debate. We realize this goal by anchoring the circular economy concept in this broader debate through a narrative approach. This leads to the insight that while the various resource strategies grouped under circular economy’s banner are not new individually, the concept offers a new framing of these strategies by drawing attention to their capacity of prolonging resource use as well as to the relationship between these strategies. As such, circular economy offers a new perspective on waste and resource management and provides a new cognitive unit and discursive space for debate. We conclude by discussing research opportunities for the IE community relating to the concept’s theoretical development and its implementation. Specifically, we pose that reinvigorating and growing the social science aspects of IE is required for both. After all, it is the wide adoption and collective implementation of an idea that shapes our material future

Business and production solutions: closing loops and the circular economy

Traditional production frameworks and business models are now being challenged by alternatives that are informed by biology. The alternative paradigm, based on ecosystem models, argues that shifting from linear modes of production to a circular system can address material and energy efficiency by reducing the total volume of raw materials needed when manufacturing consumer products. This chapter introduces frameworks that apply closed-loop models at the product level namely; the Performance Economy, Cradle-to-CradleTM design, The Blue Economy and the Circular Economy. We discuss the historic development of these ideas and their main contributions. Through the use of examples we explore both practical challenges associated with realising circular strategies as well as their business model implications. We conclude by highlighting some of the theoretical challenges associated with adopting closed-loop models advocating for a critical approach to sustainable resource management which includes circular strategies as part of a toolbox of options

n-Heptane hydroconversion over nickel-loaded aluminum- and/or boron-containing BEA zeolites prepared by recrystallization of magadiite varieties

Phase-pure [Al]BEA and [Al,B]BEA zeolites, prepared by solid-state recrystallization of synthetic aluminum-containing magadiites and conventionally synthesized [B]BEA, were tested, after ion exchange with nickel, as bifunctional catalysts for hydroconversion of n-heptane. The reducibility of nickel ions incorporated into BEA zeolites by ion exchange was investigated by temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The acidity of the samples was characterized with strong (pyridine (Py), ammonia (NH3)) and weak (nitrogen) bases. The adsorbed bases were studied by transmission FT-IR (Py), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy (N2), and temperature-programmed ammonia evolution (TPAE, NH3). Over Ni/H-[B]BEA the reactants were completely converted via fast hydrogenolysis, whereas this reaction pathway plays only a negligible role in the hydroconversion over Ni/H-[Al]BEA and Ni/H-[Al,B]BEA zeolites. Boron-containing BEA zeolites were less active catalysts than the boron-free catalyst in the principal unimolecular hydroconversion reactions. However, incorporation of boron into the framework of BEA zeolite results in a considerable selectivity shift towards isomerization. Results suggest that the acid strength of bridged hydroxyls, probed with weak (N2) and strong basis (pyridine), was found to be similar in the boron-free and boron-containing BEA samples. The decrease in the isomerization rate and the increase of the apparent activation energy upon incorporation of boron may be attributed to the decrease in the heat of n-heptane adsorption

Operationalising Positive Tipping Points towards Global Sustainability

This is the final version. Available from the Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter via the link in this recordGSI scientific working paper series number 2021/01Data Availability: The article contains no new data.Non-Technical Summary: Transforming towards global sustainability requires a dramatic acceleration of current progress. Hence there is growing interest in finding ‘positive tipping points’ at which small interventions can trigger self-reinforcing feedbacks that accelerate systemic change. Examples have recently been seen in power generation, personal transport, and lighting. But how to identify positive tipping points that have yet to occur? We synthesise theory and examples to provide initial guidelines for creating enabling conditions, sensing when a system can be positively tipped, who can trigger it, and how they can trigger it. All of us can play a part in triggering positive tipping points. Technical Summary: Recent work on positive tipping points towards sustainability has focused on social-technological systems and the agency of policymakers to tip change, whilst earlier work identified socialecological positive feedbacks triggered by diverse actors. We bring these together to consider positive tipping points across social-ecological-technological systems and the potential for multiple actors and interventions to trigger them. Established theory and examples provide several generic mechanisms for triggering tipping points. From these we identify specific enabling conditions, reinforcing feedbacks, actors, and interventions that can contribute to triggering positive tipping points in the adoption of sustainable behaviours and technologies. Actions that can create enabling conditions for positive tipping include targeting smaller populations, reducing price, improving performance, desirability and accessibility, coordinating complementary technologies, providing relevant information, and altering social network structure. Actions that can trigger positive tipping include social, ecological, and technological innovations, policy interventions, public investment, private investment, broadcasting public information, and behavioural nudges. Positive tipping points can help counter widespread feelings of disempowerment in the face of global challenges and help unlock ‘paralysis by complexity’. A key research agenda is to consider how different agents and interventions can most effectively work together to create system-wide positive tipping points whilst ensuring a just transformation.Leverhulme TrustAlan Turing Institut

Relating industrial symbiosis and circular economy to the sustainable development debate

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a business-focused collaborative approach oriented towards resource efficiency that has been theorised and studied mainly over the last twenty-five years. Recently, IS seems to have found a renewed impetus in the framework of the Circular Economy (CE), a novel approach to sustainability and Sustainable Development (SD) that has been rapidly gaining momentum world-wide. This opening chapter of the book provides an introduction to the concepts of IS, CE and SD, and summarizes their complex evolutionary paths, recalling the rel-evant developments and implementation challenges. In addition, the authors point out the divergences and interrelations of these concepts, both among themselves and with other related concepts and research fields, such as industrial ecology, eco-logical modernization and the green economy. Furthermore, the potential contribu-tion of IS and the CE to SD is briefly discussed, also highlighting critical issues and trade-offs, as well as gaps in research and application, especially relating to the so-cial component of sustainability. Particular attention is given to the potential role of IS in the achievement of targets connected to the Sustainable Development Goals set in the UN Agenda 2030. The recent advances in the IS and CE discussion in the context of the SD research community are further explored, with particular empha-sis on the contribution of the International Sustainable Development Research So-ciety (ISDRS) and its 24th annual conference organised in Messina, Italy, in 2018. The programme of that conference, indeed, included specific tracks on the above-mentioned themes, the contents of which are briefly commented on here, after an overview on the whole conference and the main cross-cutting concepts emerged. In the last part of the chapter, a brief description of the chapters collected in the book is presented. These contributions describe and discuss theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches and/or experiences and case studies where IS and the principles of CE are applied in different geographical context and at different scales to ultimately improve the sustainability of the current production patterns

Circularity thinking: systems thinking for circular product and business model (re)design: identifying waste flows and redirecting them for value creation and capture

How does one determine which of the many strategies associated with circular economy are appropriate to pursue? In this chapter we apply systems thinking to outline four steps that aid in identifying 1) where and why waste is being generated in the current system, 2) what the available circular strategies are, 3) the implications of different relationships between parts of the system in terms of cost, risk, dependency as well as infrastructure and knowledge requirements, in order to review 4) the implications for product and business model (re)design from an organisational perspective

Circular economy: Preserving materials or products? Introducing the Resource States framework

This paper draws on material entropy and life cycle thinking to develop the Resource States framework. This framework clarifies and systematises the language around resources within the circular economy (CE) discourse, such that insights from different tools and approaches that investigate different aspects of CE can be aggregated and a more comprehensive picture of complex circular systems can be compiled. Currently, progress of the CE discourse is hampered by a lack of a clear and systematic approach to what we refer to as the particle state and the product state. That is: whether to approach resource circulation from the perspective of elements, molecules or materials; or whether to adopt the perspective of products or finished goods. As these two perspectives are often implicit in current contributions to CE, we first articulate both approaches, before assessing their respective contributions and limitations. Next, we draw on material entropy and life cycle thinking to integrate both perspectives and develop a more comprehensive way of conceptualising resource states, in the form of the Resource States framework. We furthermore present how this framework can be used A) to clearly distinguish between circular strategies, as well as between different implementation scenarios of the same circular strategy; B) to systematically explore and map synergies and trade-offs between combinations of circular strategies; and C) to link circular strategies with structural waste present in a given context. Lastly, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the framework and reflect on how it advances the CE field