Knowledge Agora



Scientific Article details

Title Circular economy metrics: Literature review and company-level classification framework
ID_Doc 2061
Authors Vinante, C; Sacco, P; Orzes, G; Borgianni, Y
Title Circular economy metrics: Literature review and company-level classification framework
Year 2021
Published
DOI 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125090
Abstract With reference to assessing Circular Economy (CE) at the firm level, available literature reviews do not clarify what and how has to be actually assessed, while many assessment methods do not take into account the latest developments in the field. Furthermore, CE indicators are not explicitly linked to the firm's organizational functions involved in CE assessment. In order to address these issues and to favor practice-oriented CE assessments at the firm level, the present paper collects and analyses CE assessment indicators at their finest level of granularity, i.e. the CE metrics. By means of a systematic literature review, the work gathers insights from 130 documents belonging to scientific and practitioners' literature, reviews existing CE metrics, and organizes them according to a new circular Value Chain framework. More in details, 365 different firm-level metrics have been identified and classified through said circular Value Chain framework, articulated into 23 categories. The vast majority of CE metrics are sufficiently general and applicable in assessment procedures irrespective of the firm size, the geographic location, the industrial domain and the selling strategy of the company. This aspect facilitates the fine-tuning of comprehensive CE assessment methods, which, as a result, can largely neglect contingency factors of the investigated firms. The framework and its categories help match CE metrics and organizational functions, thus facilitating the individuation of firms' players involved in CE assessment. As the review highlights a remarkable fragmentation of current CE assessment models and diverging interpretations of CE's scopes, further implications on research and practice are discussed. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Author Keywords Circular Economy; Assessment; Metrics; Value Chain; Ecodesign
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000631538800007
WoS Category Green & Sustainable Science & Technology; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences
Research Area Science & Technology - Other Topics; Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology
PDF
Similar atricles
Scroll