Since 2014, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s national policy aims at transitioning the national economy from a linear to a circular model. However, we do not know so far how the different socio-economic actors in the country... [ view full abstract ]
Since 2014, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s national policy aims at transitioning the national economy from a linear to a circular model. However, we do not know so far how the different socio-economic actors in the country deal with this new political vision. Thus, the overall aim of the CIRCULUX research project is to analyse the effectiveness of the circular economy policy in Luxembourg by studying institutions and practices in businesses. In this way, we follow authors who claim for the systematic inclusion of institutions into the analysis of policy effectiveness (Glückler and Lenz, 2016). We assume that institutions explain sectoral differences in the efficacy of circular economy policies, in analogy to Bathelt and Glückler (2014) who state that in a comparative study, institutions enable to clarify regional differences. Focusing on two different industries, the building sector and the automotive supply industry, we hope to explore the variety of circular economy practices, and therefore as well theoretical and pragmatic implications between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). The research follows a qualitative research approach, including documentary analysis, up to 20 exploratory and around 50 semi-structured expert interviews. We intend to capture different dimensions of the motivations and barriers of companies for shifting towards circularity, by triangulation of these three datasets. In the analysis of data, we consider different levels and emphasise on three points highlighted by various authors for a need for further consideration. The first aspect focus on the socio-cultural specificities of Luxembourg and related challenges for the implementation of a circular economy (e.g., the mix of technical standards, multilingualism, corporate cultures). The second aspect covers the internal dynamics of actor networks and hybrid organisations that aim to bring circular economy theory into practice (Schulz and Preller, 2016). Moreover, the third aspect deals with the articulation between sustainability effectiveness and the cost from the perspectives of various stakeholders (Ruparathna and Hewage, 2015). The preliminary results put forward the interdependence of the actors’ perception of what would mean a circular economy model for Luxembourg. They also reveal the firm’s specific role in this system. The decision of a business actor to implement a circular economy practice depends primarily on its return on investment, the general regulatory pressure and the maturity of the industry and the company. In general, the hindrance for circularity is not the absence of a technological or technical solution. Interviews with experts from the business sector reveal that notably economic factors are hindering circularity in companies. Besides, the maturity of the firm given its awareness for concepts like the circular economy, sustainable development, or sustainability shapes its vision for the future in this field actively. As a push for action, interviewees suggested a regulatory framework for circularity.
Keywords: circular economy, policy implementation, practices, institutions
5c. Circular economy, zero waste & innovation
