Towards sustainable business: Leading change from the bottom-up

[EN] The principles of sustainability and circularity are gaining ground in business, driven by market uncertainty and instability. Although many policies and strategies promote the circular economy from the top-down, there are few tools to help businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterpri...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Esteban-Amaro, Rosa Inés|||0000-0001-7895-403X, Estelles-Miguel, Sofia|||0000-0001-6119-373X, Lengua, Ismael
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/213139
Acesso em linha:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/213139
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Sustainability
Circularity
Bottom-up
Framework
Small and medium-sized enterprises
Descrição
Resumo:[EN] The principles of sustainability and circularity are gaining ground in business, driven by market uncertainty and instability. Although many policies and strategies promote the circular economy from the top-down, there are few tools to help businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, overcome the challenges that hinder its implementation from the bottom-up. This article provides a structured bottom-up framework to accelerate the adoption of initiatives to achieve sustainable goals while transitioning to circularity. It adopts a conceptual framework development using a representation of the circular economy - the funnel metaphor - as a 'method' for exploring sustainability and circularity initiatives. The article categorises specific patterns in which initiatives can support the transition from traditional linear approaches to production and consumption to a more circular approach. By adopting a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach, this framework introduces a novel way of characterising sustainable and circular initiatives that allows for minimising rebound effects and balancing trade-offs. As a result, companies can better articulate their actions to future-proof their operations and mitigate unsustainable impacts in a context of resource constraints.