Terry F. Yosie
The package is at a crucial turning point as businesses, government bodies and private sector organisations seek to transition to using more sustainable processes.
A new article on GreenBiz by the CEO and President of the World Environment Centre, Terry F. Yosie, explores the current state of the circular economy, the obstacles it faces, and the manner in which certain businesses and organisations are already implementing its practices.
Yosie writes that the current intense level of interest in the idea of the circular economy “stems from international concerns over current and future resource availability and price volatility, accelerating quantities of emissions and wastes, elevated risks to public health and the environment, and the future resilience of business and civil society”.
He writes that the circular economy has reached a crucial inflection point as it is now no longer “a diverse set of individual methodologies” but is becoming melded by its proponents into “a more integrated and systematic set of ideas” which will “transform business strategies and operations.”
He explains that, while university research, NGO evaluations and advocacy and government policy all play a part in making the transition to the circular economy’s more sustainable way of operating, “the primary focus and responsibility for circular economy implementation lies in the management and strategic alignment of value chains across individual business sectors”.
He goes on to lay out the most pressing obstacles that stand in the way of smoothly transitioning to the circular economy, among them “underpriced commodities”, “complicated logistics management”, “absence of circular economy planning in product design and development” and “lack of robust markets”, but believes that despite this, a close analysis of specific business models and developing collaborative strategies can help to pave the way to a successful implementation.
Yosie cites Japanese-based office, industrial and consumer products company Ricoh as an example of one company that has already recognised the importance of circular economy methods. Ricoh “is revising its business model using life cycle analysis as the basis for decision-making and establishing a series of “Resource Smart Solutions” for product design and manufacturing, re-use, collection, maintenance and materials recovery.”
As a result of this review process, Ricoh has begun making crucial changes and “has developed a series of interim targets to reduce the use of virgin resources”. Yosie writes that “In adopting circular economy thinking, Ricoh is increasingly able to transition beyond more incremental efficiences and footprint reductions to more ambitious net zero impact business operations.”
Yosie also advocates the importance of market scale collaboration, and urges that the “advancement of circular economy thinking will require a redefinition of business purpose, deeper and more creative levels of innovation and more fundamental business transformations”. He states that companies already implementing circular economy practices “have begun to re-define business leadership” but warns that “Corporate boards will need to perform an especially meaningful role in charting the future course of strategy and governance as part of their on-going mission of enhancing the long-term interest of the company.”