About Circular
The circular economy can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, lowering energy and raw material use by increasing product durability and multiple use cycles.
Similar to nature, the circular economy framework has 3 very simple principles:
Closed Loop - design out waste and pollution
Retain Value - keep products and materials in use as long as possible
Regenerative by Design – move towards renewable materials and energy, to restore ecological systems that fundamentally support our economy.
Circular Economy Framework
The circular economy framework, developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, helps visualize an economy that moves away from the current take-make-use-waste linear model that extracts, manufactures, and then discards hundreds of billions of dollars in economic value every year.
Shifting to circular will require a significant economic transition, which has been estimated to generate trillions of dollars of economic opportunity, requiring new business models and a wide range of innovations to achieve the potential of circular.
Circular Economy System Diagram, Ellen MacArthur Foundation