The circular economy is a restorative and renewable industrial system. Compared with the concept of "end of life" of products in the linear economy, the circular economy emphasizes "regeneration and recovery", eliminating waste and enabling resources to be used more efficiently. The circular economy is one of the important policies promoted by the new government after taking office.
According to Vision 2050, published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), if humanity continues to consume in a linear economy, the resources it consumes will far exceed the Earth's regenerative capacity. By 2050, 2.3 Earths will be needed for human use. However, if other regenerative solutions are combined, 1.1 Earths will be used, extending the lifespan of Earth's resources.
Given the limited resources of the Earth, the concept of a circular economy has been gaining increasing attention in recent years, with an increasing number of businesses seeking alternatives to the current "economic model." The circular economy seeks a more circular approach to balancing economic growth and resource consumption. This approach can help overcome the resource pressures expected to arise from the growth of the global middle class. By improving resource use, it is hoped that new economic and job opportunities will be created, while also providing environmental benefits. In September 2015, McKinsey & Company's "Circular Economy Opportunities in Europe" report stated that by 2030, the net economic benefits of the circular economy in Europe alone could reach €1.8 trillion. This massive scale creates significant business opportunities for organizations, encouraging them to integrate the circular economy into their daily activities.
The British Standards Institution (BSI), a global standards pioneer, officially released the "Implementation Framework for Transforming Organizations into a Circular Economy," or BS8001, on May 31, 2017, as the world's first circular economy transformation framework, in anticipation of the booming circular economy. BS 8001:2017 provides organizational and individual guidance to help products, parts, and materials maintain their highest value. It also helps accelerate organizational transformation and develop action plans to reap the benefits of the circular economy. The framework encompasses six key principles:
BS8001 also provides an eight-stage resilience framework to help organizations develop plans for continuous improvement and transformation. The framework contains repetitive elements, and while the eight stages are presented sequentially, this is for illustrative purposes only. Organizations can move back and forth between stages as they progress through the cycle of maturity. The eight-stage resilience framework of BSI 8001 is as follows:
Phase 1: Framing
Phase 2: Scoping
Phase 3: Idea generation
Phase 4: Feasibility
Phase 5: Business case
Phase 6: Piloting and prototyping
Phase 7: Delivery and implementation
Phase 8: Monitor, review and report
BS 8001 Resilience Framework (Source: BSI training course handouts).
To help organizations understand their familiarity with the circular economy, BS 8001 provides a tool to help organizations review the maturity of their current decisions and activities in implementing the circular economy. The maturity level is divided into five levels, as follows:
Level 0: Unformed
Level 1: Basic
Level 2: Improving
Level 3: Engaged
Level 4: Optimizing
In an era of rapidly increasing populations and limited resources, the circular economy has become a crucial concept for achieving sustainable development on Earth. The concept of a "circular economy" requires organizations to rethink how they manage resources to create win-win outcomes for the economy, environment, and society. The BS 8001 standard provides organizations and individuals with guiding principles, thinking, and steps for implementing sustainable development, hoping to achieve the goal of mutual prosperity and benefit in a circular economy. If humans do not change their thinking and continue to consume based on past economic models, the Earth will face a resource devastation in the near future. Since there is only one Earth, organizations are encouraged to refer to the BS 8001:2017 standard, review factory operations, and use systematic logic to revise their production models to achieve sustainable factory operations.
