With an ever-changing landscape in the global economy, industrial companies are forced to rethink their use of resources and their contribution to economic growth. Circular transformation can help achieve robust and sustainable expansion in a resource-constrained world. However, over the past 20 years, companies have often failed to scale their circular initiatives due to a narrowly defined scope and focus on incremental changes to the operational status quo. The circular transformation of industries at large can help companies unlock productivity, innovation and sustainability, but will require systemic change within and beyond the four walls of organizations, and the involvement of all stakeholders, including government, academia and civil society.
The Circular Transformation of Industries initiative takes a broad approach to shaping the dialogue between leaders, setting out to consolidate information from previous resource circularity initiatives and other sector-specific efforts to bridge the gap and maximise circularity efforts in industries and economies today. The purpose of this paper is to engage leaders across all industry sectors, government, academia and civil society to share insights, best practices and lessons learned, and forge new partnerships to accelerate the circular transformation of industries.