Circularity indicators in practice: Exploring companies’ application and linkages to sustainability

Sammanfattning: The Circular Economy (CE) has gained global recognition as a way to enable sustainability improvements in production and consumption systems. Numerous circularity indicators (c-indicators) have been developed by academia and practitioners to be used at the company level as analytical tools to measure progress towards a more circular economy. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical evidence on their practical adoption. At the same time, it is unclear how c-indicators interrelate to sustainability assessment and sustainability goals. Through inquiry of practitioners’ experiences, this study explores companies’ perspectives regarding the use of c-indicators. In particular, the study identifies purposes that c-indicators can help fulfil, factors that have influenced the application of c-indicators, and linkages between c-indicators and sustainability assessments. The study gathered data from practitioners within company settings and external expert organisations through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The main findings of the study are threefold. First, they indicate that c-indicators have offered valuable support mainly to monitor and improve circularity performance and facilitate learning processes within companies. Second, the factors that most influence companies’ application of c-indicators relate to data availability and management; new knowledge, skills, and resources; and the ability to generate internal and external alignment around the concept of CE and the relevance of assessing circularity. Lastly, given the novelty of c-indicators, circularity assessment, and the integration of circular strategies, various perspectives coexist regarding how the concepts of circularity and sustainability interrelate and how these linkages are reflected in assessment practices. Based on these findings, practitioners and academia are recommended to: i) When making decisions based on c-indicators’ results, it should be clear to companies what falls within the scope of applied c-indicators, and what circular strategies or circular criteria are beyond their scope and should also be considered to ensure selected actions best contribute to improved performance; ii) work towards overcoming data challenges and lack of coordination within companies and across value chain actors; iii) further advance the streamlining of data collection and calculation processes that feed into both circularity and sustainability assessment; and iv) clarify the linkages and differences between circularity goals and sustainability goals, to facilitate the interpretation of assessments and the operationalisation of circularity and sustainability.