Circular economy (CE) is a new concept currently gaining traction in both policy and business. According to the Ellen MacArthur foundation, a circular economy aims at closing technical and biotic loops through a reconfiguration of economic and industrial relations, resulting in a restorative system that enables human beings to exist in adequacy with Earth’s limited non renewable resources. Conceptually, CE stems from various scientific fields such as industrial ecology, functional economy, cradle to cradle, and more. It is also a concept that has commonalities with concepts, disciplines, approaches or practices such as sustainable development, green economy, life cycle thinking, ecological transition, extended producer responsibility, shared value and ecodesign.
It is in order to better understand CE, its various underpinnings and how it can relate to impact approaches such as LCA that CIRAIG, in association with several industrial partners of its International Life Cycle Chair (Polytechnique Montreal/ESG UQAM), published a white book on the subject in Fall of 2015. Through a critical literature review of concepts, CE is explored in order to understand its basic underlying assumptions. The scientific and grey literature of the aforementioned disciplines, approaches and practices are explored at a conceptual level, in order to paint an up-to-date portrait of CE as well as evoke its far-reaching history. Conceptual mappings are presented in order to better understand CE and its associated concepts’ configuration and links.
Linking back to social impact, it is quite apparent that the social dimension of sustainability is practically absent within CE literature, except within a few organizations’ definition (e.g.: ADEME’s definition, which includes job creation and human well-being). There exist, however, some scientific subjects (namely: functional economy, cradle to cradle and the sharing economy), which could enable positive social impacts in a revisited CE. Based on this investigation, possible research agendas are proposed that could link back to Social LCA, social impact assessment, social foot or hand printing and social value literatures.
