Circular transformation helps business models prosper

The World Economic Forum and its partners have published a white paper on the circular economy. It aims to show what is holding companies back in the transition and what supports them. Among other things, it recommends more adaptable operating and business models.?

A recent?survey from the global consulting firm?Bain & Company?found that around 60 per cent of active circularity initiatives have not reached scale. They are most frequently held back by a lack of technology capabilities, an approach that focuses only on environmental sustainability, and limited industry partnerships, according to the?white paper?“Circular Transformation of Industries: Unlocking New Value in a Resource-Constrained World”, produced by Bain?in collaboration with the?World Economic Forum (WEF),?University of Cambridge?and the business school?INSEAD.?

The report emphasises that organisations that embark on circular transformations will be better positioned to prosper, while contributing to sustainable growth. It is essential that they take a holistic approach, says Bain & Company, as well as reshaping operating and business models so that industry value chains can be reconfigured.?

Transformation to a circular economy will require cross-industry collaborations where systems thinking leverages advances in materials, production and digital technologies, according to Jagjit Singh Srai, Director of Research in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He said: “These collaborations and technologies will underpin resource-efficient operating and business models of the future.”

Bain & Company, along with its partners the University of CambrIdge and INSEAD, as well as the World Economic Forum, is calling on organizations to join “a growing cohort of circular industry transformation leaders” through the “Circular Transformation of Industries” – a new initiative with the objective of “hastening the shift to circular operating and business models, taking advantage of circularity to unlock productivity, resilience and sustainability”, according to an?article?from the World Economic Forum. em