The circular economy: could it present a new way of doing business?
Companies are turning to a new model of sustainable business in an effort to reduce their dependence on finite resources
The sense that our planet is running out of the minerals, metals and organic matter required to sustain its rising human population has helped to fashion a new concept for our times: the circular economy. At its core is the argument that the old, linear model of conducting business – extraction, consumption and waste – is past its sell-by date.
To its standard bearers, the circular economy promises a radical break with the past. Materials should not be cast away and expended, rather they should be re-used and replenished, so the argument goes. But how transformative is this new philosophy and to what extent does it present an opportunity for business? Is it a revolutionary reimagining of economic theory or merely a recycling of, well, recycling?
Continue reading at Guardian Sustainable Business.