Circularity challenges the current economic model towards a sustainable future

Circular processes contributing to circularity can be grouped into 4 categories, from the most impactful to the least:
1. Reduce by design: reducing the amount of material used, particularly raw material, should be applied as an overall guiding principle from the earliest stages of design of products and services
2. From a user-to-user perspective: Refuse, Reduce and Re-use
3. From a user-to-business intermediary perspective: Repair, Refurbish and Remanufacture
4. From business-to-business: Repurpose and Recycle.

Read more about circularity at UNEP's Building Circularity platform.

Circularity diagram

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Chemicals in products

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RJR
Robert J. Reinhardt
I am a sustainable business consultant, researcher & cross-disciplinary strategist focusing on establishing the business case for sustainability by driving sustainable innovations in businesses and international organisations through a science based approach. With a PhD in Environmental Engineering on sustainable business model innovation perspectives (going beyond the circular economy) for the emerging electric vehicle battery second use industries, I was able to highlight shared sustainable value creations for multiple-stakeholders and thus I was able to prove the economically viable business case for sustainability in the electric vehicle industry. I apply my academic and industry background in business, environmental science, and
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Valerie Daniela Murcia Rojas

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has great potential for use and generation, taking into account the technological progress of recent decades, but also the implementation of concepts such as obsolescence.

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Dhrumil Soni

As we strive towards a better world, we work to ensure chemistry’s contributions are realized. Chemistry can help us to understand, monitor, protect and improve the environment around us.

Llorenc Mila I Canals
I am a generalist environmental scientist passionately driven to reduce the environmental impacts of consumption and production systems. This includes driving the development of tools enabling the comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts of chemicals as they are used in products, over their entire life cycle (i.e. from the extraction of their raw materials, processing and manufacturing into products, their use, maintenance and operation phase, and finally at the end of use their repurposing into new products, or disposal).This kind of assessment helps us guide the selection of suitable alternatives to chemicals of concern while avoiding regrettable substitutions. With a PhD
Feng Wang
I work as a Programme Officer in UNEP in its Paris office. I manage projects in the areas of Life Cycle Thinking, Sustainable Consumption and Production and Circular Economy, to promote resource efficiency and pollution reduction in many sectors such as plastics, electronics, food and chemicals. In my current work, we develop methodologies and tools to quantify the environmental impacts of chemicals, to enable comparison and identification of alternatives.Feng holds a Doctorate Degree from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, on topics of eco-design and waste management of electronics products. Before joining UNEP, I worked as a researcher in
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Manuals and toolkits

Eco-innovation (Eco-i) manual – Building Materials Supplement

by
UNEP
|
May 2023
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UNEP's new Eco-innovation Building Materials Supplement was created to respond to the building material sector's need for more guidance in building resilient, competitive, and sustainable business models for SMEs. Designed together with Bioregional, pilot implementation support of the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) Sri Lanka and to be read alongside UNEP's Eco-innovation Manual, the supplement provides specific examples, learning case studies, and advice on applying the eco-innovation methodology within the building materials value chain.

Emerging Policy Issues: Chemicals in products
Topics: Chemicals in building products Circularity Eco-innovation Life Cycle Sustainable Development Goals
eco-i_electronics
Manuals and toolkits

Eco-innovation (Eco-i) manual – Electronics Supplement

by
SAICM
|
December 2022
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UNEP's new Eco-innovation Electronics Supplement was created to respond to the electronics sector's need for more guidance in building resilient, competitive, and sustainable business models for SMEs. Designed together with the World Resources Forum and to be read alongside UNEP's Eco-innovation (Eco-i) Manual, the supplement provides electronics specific examples, learning case studies, and advice on applying the eco-innovation methodology and its opportunities in the electronic sector.

This publication was prepared under the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) full-sized project 9771: Global best practices on emerging chemical policy issues of concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). This project is funded by the GEF, implemented by UNEP and executed by the SAICM Secretariat.

Emerging Policy Issues: Chemicals in products Hazardous chemicals in electronics
Topics: Circularity Eco-innovation E-waste Life Cycle Sustainable Development Goals
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Building Circularity Platform

January 2020
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The Building Circularity Platform provides an understanding of the circularity concept, its scope and how it contributes to promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. It also offers a wide range of resources and features stories illustrating how various stakeholders have successfully adopted circular approaches.
Emerging Policy Issues: Chemicals in products
Topics: Circularity Knowledge Management
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