A Just Circular Transition for Businesses

The global and local challenges we face cannot be addressed by the energy transition alone; we also need to rethink how we produce, consume, invest and structure economies so that our local and regional economies become more just and circular. In what follows we explore this twin-lens from the perspective of any business.

We promote the concept of a circular economy because it offers a simple yet all-encompassing framework for achieving environmental sustainability. A circular economy, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's well established conceptualisation, has three tenets:

1. Eliminate waste and pollution

2. Keep products and materials in circulation at their highest possible value

3. Regenerate natural systems

Taken seriously, these principles change the sustainability question from “How do we reduce carbon emissions?” to:

"How do we redesign economic activity to become more just and circular?" (including harmful emissions such as carbon).

A circular lens provides a broader frame than decarbonisation alone, which is good news for business. We'll get to that soon, but first consider the real world impact of everyday decisions and practices in businesses.

Through a circular lens we can design out waste and pollution across value chains through better product design; we can keep products and materials in circulation, generating value in local economies and perhaps even reducing demand for virgin resources; we can regenerate natural systems through the way we buy/procure, produce and consume; and we must keep technical materials in high-value loops for as long as possible, while biological materials can safely return to nature. No business can do that alone, it is work being done across places and value chains.

Discover that world and inform your decisions with a twin lens of justice and circularity, for future-proofing your business and making the world a better place.

A circular economy framework alone however does not guarantee social justice, it will not automatically increase opportunities for all and may even reflect the inequalities and injustices we see in the world.

For example sourcing ecologically in a circular economy does not necessarily support local farmers if the social benefits of buying local are not realised. Environmental improvements in one place, such as recycling, can shift environmental or social burdens elsewhere. Decisions can be technically sound from one perspective, and unjust from another. This is why we adopt a dual lens in supporting our clients.

What makes it a just transition?

Injustice is brutal and all too often 'unseen' when vulnerable people and groups have no voice to express their grievances or to engage meaningfully in designs and decisions that affect them and their communities. Or when people in wheelchairs cannot access a recently built shopping centre.

Look to be sure, some negative outcomes of doing business are beyond the control of households and businesses. This is where the government needs to step in, when people ask for change.

The beauty about the justice lens is that it can be rewarding for people in businesses to engage with, time-permitting. But not every business has the time or expertise to investigate every purchasing decision. Hospitality is a good example. This is where better tools, trusted standards and social enterprises like our social enterprise, Circular Kitchens, can help close the gap.

There is a role for governments, businesses, social enterprises, civil society and citizens in the circular transition. The earlier we engage with it, the better placed we are to adapt to change and shape the opportunities it creates.

The justice lens can reveal some uncomfortable truths about social impacts hidden within a value chain. For many businesses, changing supplier may involve additional cost or disruption. But greater transparency also shifts the cost of injustice towards those businesses that depend on exploitative practices continuing unnoticed.

There has been real progress over the past few decades thanks to certifications and standards that help businesses avoid the worst social and environmental harms in their supply chains. They are imperfect, but they are improving we hope, and they provide an important first layer of assurance.

But certification alone is not enough. We also need new transparency strategies: better traceability, stronger disclosure, and smarter use of digital technologies to make supply chains more transparent. Businesses today have far better tools to reduce the risk of ‘awful truths’ being hidden behind their purchasing decisions.

But the justice lens is not only about uncovering harm or avoiding bad practice. It can also reveal simple opportunities to create social value that might otherwise be missed. Sometimes the intervention is small, inexpensive and obvious only once we stop to ask who is affected and what would make a difference.

A beautiful example comes from South Africa's Isabelo Smart Bench, first piloted in Johannesburg and combined public seating with solar power, free Wi-Fi and USB charging. It was a relatively simple piece of infrastructure, but one designed around a wider question: what else could this investment do for people using the space? In Cape Town, more than 800 people used one of the benches in its first month. Your customers, employees and funders would appreciate it, but only if the justice lense is used onsistently across the business, together with a circular lens.

So justice begins with awareness and consideration.

For businesses, this is not simply about avoiding harm. Looking at decisions through a justice lens can reveal risks, strengthen relationships and uncover opportunities to create value that would otherwise remain invisible.

Why Buy Local?

This brings us to something that is sometimes missing from circular-economy discussions: circularity is not only about the physical movement of materials, it is also about the movement and retention of economic value: Money.

When an item is repaired locally rather than discarded and replaced, value can be retained locally; when organic waste becomes an input into regenerative agriculture, value that would have been lost can recirculated; when businesses source from local and regional producers, value can be retained and circulated locally; and when SMEs can participate in emerging circular supply chains, the transition can create new sources of enterprise, employment and innovation.

A just and circular transition invites us to look differently at the everyday decisions that shape our businesses and economies: what we procure, how we design products and services, how we invest, and the kind of organisational culture we build around those choices.