Sustainable Performance Evaluation of Circular Economy

Dear Colleagues,

Circular economies play a significant role in addressing the current complex triple global crises of changing climate, biodiversity losses, and pollution (Hailemariam & Erdiaw‐Kwasie, 2022; Macarthur & Heading, 2019; Stefanakis et al., 2021). These are achieved by promoting the optimisation of resources (Bag et al., 2020; Velenturf & Purnell, 2021), reducing the consumption of raw materials (Baars et al., 2021; Erdiaw-Kwasie et al., 2023; Zhijun & Nailing, 2007), and supporting systems to reduce waste from the traditional linear economy (Morseletto, 2020; Tisserant et al., 2017). Until now, however, the effective implementation of circular economy models has largely resulted in a variety of standardised metrics (Corona et al., 2019; Linder et al., 2017). As the field of circular economy matures and grows, performance evaluation becomes more and more crucial. The circular economy research community has made a significant and sustained commitment for over a decade to the identification and evaluation of the effectiveness of circular economy systems (Elia et al., 2017; Moraga et al., 2019). To ensure their effectiveness, it is critical that measurement approaches, indicators, datasets, and software tools be assessed within the research community. Utilizing context-specific, objective, quantitative, and standardised performance evaluation techniques is crucial for comprehending how circular systems behave, forecasting their future performance, contrasting them with competing systems, determining the advantages and disadvantages of suggested measurement indicators, and monitoring our community's progress over time. Evaluation is challenging in part because of the multitude of criteria that have been ostensibly proposed to measure circularity. This Special Issue addresses the following research questions in a broader sense: (i) What approaches and tools can practitioners and scholars use to evaluate the functionality and performance of circular economy systems and overcome existing barriers? (ii) What risks, uncertainties, and potentials do performance evaluation techniques and instruments present in various circular economy contexts? (iii) Which novel fields might benefit from circular economy performance evaluation tools?

We are pleased to announce that the Sustainability journal will publish a Special Issue entitled "Sustainable Performance Evaluation of Circular Economy". This Special Issue aims to provide valuable insights into the most effective methods for evaluating existing metrics and functionality indicators of circular economy. Therefore, we seek high-quality papers that enjoy a combination of originality, high technical merit, and clear relevance to the topic.

This Special Issue may focus on, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Evaluation metrics for circular economy performance.
• Circular economy measurement indicators and benchmarks evaluation.
• Tools and methods for effectively evaluating circular economy metrics and datasets.
• Novel modelling and analytical techniques to evaluate the performance of circular economy systems at individual, organisational, national, or global levels.
• New application areas for performance evaluation methods and tools.

Baars, J., Domenech, T., Bleischwitz, R., Melin, H. E., & Heidrich, O. (2021). Circular economy strategies for electric vehicle batteries reduce reliance on raw materials. Nature sustainability, 4(1), 71-79.

Bag, S., Wood, L. C., Mangla, S. K., & Luthra, S. (2020). Procurement 4.0 and its implications on business process performance in a circular economy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 152, 104502.

Corona, B., Shen, L., Reike, D., Carreón, J. R., & Worrell, E. (2019). Towards sustainable development through the circular economy—A review and critical assessment on current circularity metrics. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 151, 104498.

Elia, V., Gnoni, M. G., & Tornese, F. (2017). Measuring circular economy strategies through index methods: A critical analysis. Journal of Cleaner production, 142, 2741-2751.

Erdiaw-Kwasie, M. O., Abunyewah, M., Yusif, S., & Erdiaw-Kwasie, A. (2023). Does circular economy knowledge matter in sustainable service provision? A moderation analysis. Journal of Cleaner production, 383, 135429.

Hailemariam, A., & Erdiaw‐Kwasie, M. O. (2022). Towards a circular economy: Implications for emission reduction and environmental sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment.

Linder, M., Sarasini, S., & van Loon, P. (2017). A metric for quantifying product‐level circularity. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3), 545-558.

Macarthur, E., & Heading, H. (2019). How the circular economy tackles climate change. Ellen MacArthur Found, 1, 1-71.

Moraga, G., Huysveld, S., Mathieux, F., Blengini, G. A., Alaerts, L., Van Acker, K., De Meester, S., & Dewulf, J. (2019). Circular economy indicators: What do they measure? Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 146, 452-461.

Morseletto, P. (2020). Targets for a circular economy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 153, 104553.

Stefanakis, A. I., Calheiros, C. S., & Nikolaou, I. (2021). Nature-based solutions as a tool in the new circular economic model for climate change adaptation. Circular Economy and Sustainability, 1, 303-318.

Tisserant, A., Pauliuk, S., Merciai, S., Schmidt, J., Fry, J., Wood, R., & Tukker, A. (2017). Solid waste and the circular economy: a global analysis of waste treatment and waste footprints. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3), 628-640.

Velenturf, A. P., & Purnell, P. (2021). Principles for a sustainable circular economy. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 27, 1437-1457.

Zhijun, F., & Nailing, Y. (2007). Putting a circular economy into practice in China. Sustainability Science, 2(1), 95-101. 

Dr. Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie
Prof. Dr. Khorshed Alam
Dr. Matthew Abunyewah
Guest Editors

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• circular economy (CE)
• measurement indicators
• performance evaluation
• CE evaluation indicators
• CE evaluation tools
• CE evaluation metrics