A Systemic Transition to Circular Economy: Business and Technology Perspectives

The book will explore, using multiple perspectives from multiple contributors, two main aspects for circular economy (CE) business and technology (B&T): systems and value perspectives. Going beyond a linear-economic perspective--the traditional perspective--CE needs to develop intentional and integrated paths to help restore physical resources and regenerate the functions of natural and anthropic systems, creating greater economic and social opportunities, with environmentally positive outcomes. Whether this is feasible and possible within the context of CE and B&T is something that will be central to the contributions made in this book.

A major objective of the book is to deliver practical and fundamental knowledge of B&T CE insights combining a systems perspective and value creation for socio-technical innovation leading to sustainable transitions and effective transformations.

Based on those key aspects, the book is structured in two parts, one from a more theoretical and conceptual basis in Part 1, and a more applied perspective in Part 2. The chapters in Part 1 are presented through the lens of business and systems transitions. In Part 2, the chapters present the opportunities and the journeys from real case studies of companies engaged in circular business strategies, processes, practices, and technologies.

Aldo Roberto Ometto has a degree in Production Engineering - Chemistry from the Federal University of São Carlos (1997), a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of São Paulo - USP (2000) and a PhD in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation from the University of São Paulo (2005) about Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), with a PhD period at Technical University of Denmark (DTU), in Denmark. Since 2006, he has been a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP). In 2011, he did a Postdoctoral at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. In 2023, he was a visiting professor at Griffith University, Cities Research Institutes & Griffith Centre of System Innovation, Griffith Business School, Brisbane, Australia, and he worked at the Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE) in the Australian Research Council (ARC). He leads the Research Centre for Circular Economy (RC4CE) within the Innovation Centre at USP - InovaUSP, developing innovative projects with multi-stakeholders, mainly in partnership with the industrial sector, focusing on system and impact innovation, sustainability transition, life cycle management/assessment, circular business models, and circular ecosystems. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers in journals and conference proceedings, 4 books, and 26 book chapters. In 2018, he was the finalist of the World Economic Forum Award ＂The Circulars＂, in the Global Leadership category. He is a member of the FutureEarth Research Coalition - Circular Economy Working Group and the lead from USP of the Profiled Universities Network Program in Circular Economy from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Joseph Sarkis is a Professor of Management in the Business School at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He earned his PhD in Management Sciences from the University of Buffalo. He previously served as a faculty member at the University of Texas at Arlington and at Clark University’s Graduate School of Management. His teaching interests include topics in Business and the Environment, Operations, Logistics, Quality, Technology, Information and Supply Chain Management, and Multicriteria Decision Making. He has also taught courses on topics in Business and the Natural Environment. He has published over 350 publications in peer-reviewed archival journals. Topics covered in his research are similar to those covered by his teaching interests. He has also published over 250 additional papers as chapters in books and in conference proceedings. His research interests range from practical application research to conceptual and theoretical research. Currently, he serves on a number of editorial boards for a broad variety of journals including operations and manufacturing, technology management, production, environmental and information systems journals. He has previously served as Editor in Chief of IEEE Engineering Management Review and Management Research Review. He has served as special issue editor for a number of journals in which he has covered topical areas including Green Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Manufacturing Technology Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, E-commerce and Manufacturing, Agile and Virtual Enterprises. His publications include thirteen books, and two of his books include topics on Circular Economy and Facilitating Collaboration for Sustainable Innovation and Greening the Supply Chain, both published by Springer. He has served as a visiting scholar at various international locations including Cardiff University’s BRASS Center, a visiting Scholar in the EU Erasmus Mondus MESPOM program and a Sea-Sky Scholar at Dalian University of Technology; and Visiting Professor and International Scholar at the Hanken School in Finland; and the Chair d’Excellence at Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France. He is a member of a number of professional organizations. He has been recognized as one of the world’s most productive and highly cited researchers on the topics of operations research, general business, sustainability, and supply chain management.

Steve Evans has 30 years of experience in improving industrial performance first at Cranfield University, where he gained his first chair as the Professor of Life Cycle Engineering in 1998 and at the University of Cambridge where he leads the internationally recognised Centre for Industrial Sustainability. Steve worked in the industry for 12 years starting at Marconi Radar Systems and ending as the Engineering Systems Manager at the world leading ejection seat company Martin-Baker Engineering, responsible for design and manufacturing improvement. Steve remains industrially active as a co-founder of multiple cleantech start-ups. At Cambridge, Steve has secured over ＄20M in funding, always in direct collaboration with the industry, where he has extensive experience in designing, building and delivering industry-academia research partnerships with organisations including Toyota Europe, Nissan Europe, Airbus, Marks & Spencer, Unilever, General Motors, Morgan Cars, plus many smaller manufacturers. Under his leadership, the Centre has worked with over 300 companies. Throughout his academic career, Steve has demonstrated the capacity to build research collaborations to deliver high-quality use-inspired research underpinned by innovative fundamental research (e.g., the COGENT project with Nissan and 120 suppliers; COGENT Construction with BRE and 20 suppliers; LIFEcar with Morgan Motor Co, Oxford, Qinetiq etc; THERM with Airbus, Toyota and IES ltd., and leading the UK National Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability with Toyota, M&S, Unilever, Adnams, Riversimple and others). This approach has been combined with thought leadership, holding the first UK grants in Eco-Design, WEEE take back and product service systems. Steve is also active with government organisations (UK and international), informing policy at all levels. He has been the Co-Chair of the parliamentary Manufacturing Commission with Lord Bilimoria, Special Adviser to the UK House of Lords, and a lead author of the Government Foresight Report into the Future of Manufacturing. Steve has advised the UN on setting up industrial policy for 6 countries. Steve’s thought leadership has recently been recognized by the invitation to become a Member of Academia Europaea, the leading academy of Europe.