Integrated sustainability assessment of a circular economy

Governments and businesses are acknowledging that the prevailing ’linear systems of resource use’ expose our societies to serious risks. Resource constraints and increasing volumes of waste and pollution pose a threat to people’s well-being and businesses’ competitiveness and sustainability efforts. The ’circular economy’, conversely, is described as an industrial system that is circular in the cradle-to-cradle-recyclability sense by intention and design. This chapter focuses on some assessed integrated impacts - possible societal benefits - that a transformation from a linear to a circular economy might result in. This has been done by applying “what-if-scenarios†into a for this purpose constructed interactive input–output model with a number of changes linked to a circular economy implemented in the model. The model has then been applied to eight European economies showing close to 70% reductions in CO2-emissions while offering new and additional employment and improving the trade balance of fossil-fuels-importing countries.