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J Bus Ethics (2017) 140:369380 DOI 10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2&domain=pdf
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Web End = The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context
Alan Murray1 Keith Skene2 Kathryn Haynes3
Received: 20 May 2013 / Accepted: 12 May 2015 / Published online: 22 May 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
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 11th and the 12th 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 nds 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 denition 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.
Keywords Circular Economy Closed-loop economy Sustainability Sustainable development
Introduction
In 1983, Gro Harlem Brundtland was asked to head a Commission, independent of the UN, to explore a global agenda for change with the intention of formulating long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond (WCED 1987, p. ix). In hindsight, we can see that this was an overly ambitious target. By sad irony, the reports publication coincided with the period in history where we witnessed the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies by most western governments. In contrast to heeding the call for reduced consumption, the effect of deregulation in banking, globalisation of capital markets, improvements in IT, off-shoring production, etc., the...