Each year, 92 billion tons of resources follow a linear economy path and are discarded at the end of the value chain.
To ensure long-term economic prosperity, promote social stability, and prevent environmental collapse, companies need to embrace circular economy practices and fully close their resource loops by moving from value chains to value cycles. CIRCelligence by BCG provides a framework and tools to help organizations become circular companies, thus boosting top-line growth, improving efficiency, and unleashing innovation.
Humanity is consuming Earth’s natural resources faster than the planet can regenerate them. We already see the impact of our actions through climate change, damaged ecosystems, and declining biodiversity.
Our planet’s resources sustain our current wealth and underpin each company’s ability to generate value for its shareholders. If we continue to drain these resources at an unsustainable pace, we will undermine the foundation of our global economy.
Developed by our Sustainability experts and BCG Omnia, CIRCelligence by BCG delivers the data and insights that top managers need to move beyond symbolic lighthouse projects and lead their companies toward a prosperous, sustainable, and resilient future as part of the circular economy.
Each year, 92 billion tons of resources follow a linear economy path and are discarded at the end of the value chain.
Modern economies largely follow a “take-make-waste” approach in which resources are extracted, used in production, and then discarded. By contrast, circular economies are regenerative by design since they are based on the continuous cycling of resources within a closed loop.
The circular economy offers a sustainable way forward by decoupling economic growth from resource extraction. In circular economies, entire product life cycles are designed around the circular flow of resources—from the raw materials that make up the product, to the resources used in the production process, to an end-of-life strategy for recovering, and ultimately reusing, spent resources.
To develop a circular economy, companies must go further than redesigning individual products. They also need to revamp their entire business models and start changing existing economic systems.
The underlying innovations needed to enable the collection, recovery, sales, and use of secondary materials to power the circular economy—plus the value of the materials themselves—could stimulate massive economic growth.
In 2020, Circle Economy estimated global circularity at 8.6%, which represents a decline from 9.1% in 2018.
BCG analysis suggests that global circularity levels will need to reach at least 50% to 70% to achieve long-term sustainability.
Despite the economic and environmental promise of the circular economy, many companies are still struggling to move beyond isolated activities with low financial impact and implement more comprehensive and integrated changes that improve shareholder value.
The CIRCelligence by BCG framework shows organizations how to make circular economy concepts an integral part of overall corporate strategy.
CIRCelligence offers a three-pronged approach:
We transform value chains into value cycles by helping clients develop holistic solutions that embed circular strategy into core business strategies. Our circular economy experts include:
Achieving a 50% recycling rate in the US by the end of the decade is ambitious but possible. Here's how we can accomplish it.
Plastics regeneration technologies such as pyrolysis offer economically viable ways to combat this pressing environmental challenge.
This piece highlights circular business cases across industries and case studies of companies that have a head start.
Sustainable, low-carbon, circular, and nature-based solutions to our greatest environmental challenges could generate $7.7 trillion in business opportunities by 2030.
