The local dimension of the circular economy: progress toward an ecosystem approach

The transition to a circular economy is primarily business driven. However, circularity should be understood as a property of a system, rather than a property of a single product or service. To ensure circularity, increase in the efficiency of resources use and sustainable development of the economy and society, the flows of materials resources should be significantly transformed at the system level. Moreover the transition towards a circular economy requires a transformation of the existing business model to deal with the new request of the market. However, there are a range of conceptual shortcomings that challenge this approach. Finally, companies still experience many barriers (regulation for example), which slow down the speed of the transition. Therefore, the transition to a circular economy requires the direct involvement and close interaction of various enterprises and organisations, institutions, authorities, consumers, and individuals. It requires product, business model and ecosystem innovation. Ecosystem innovation changes the way in which a set of actors – manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, end users, regulators, civil society organizations – relate to each other to achieve a collective outcome. Circular ecosystems are therefore a more appropriate concept to describe the high level of coordination between different stakeholders required to implement circular systems. To test my hypothesis, I will administer a questionnaire to manufacturing companies in three sectors: textile, paper, rubber and plastic. The area I chose to carry out my research is the set of 19 municipalities that are part of the “Consorzio chierinese per i servizi”, in the Province of Turin. The questionnaire will focus on the difficulties that companies face in transforming their business model into a circular business model. In particular, I want to highlight the numerous interactions needed to implement circularity and the high level of interdependencies.